Baby-Boom Bias
Additionally, while initial contributions to IRAs and 401(k)s are included in savings, the capital gains from those funds are not. That means the rate will probably be held down over the next decade as the Baby Boom generation retires and starts spending those proceeds.
Other economists, such as Ken Mayland, believe the current pace of household spending is unsustainable.
"Consumers have been working down their personal savings rate to sustain a spending style," Mayland, president of ClearView Economics LLC in Pepper Pike, Ohio, said in a telephone interview. "That can only go on so long."