Meet a Saver

Tennessee Saver: Sharing the Savings Message

     Roy Crawford was browsing the Internet for saving information last February when he stumbled across the America Saves website. He was so impressed by the campaign’s savings message that he signed up on the spot, becoming roughly the 100,000^th person to do so since the campaign started in 2001.

Although Mr. Crawford was already actively saving when he signed up with the campaign, the 57-year-old Blount County, Tennessee County Clerk said he and his wife came to savings relatively late, having grown tired of living paycheck-to-paycheck. They became followers of radio host Dave Ramsey, who preaches the benefits of savings and the evils of debt on his syndicated call-in show. 

Mr. Crawford’s main goal in signing up with America Saves, he said, was “to find out more about the program so that I can help other people to become savers.” He already helps facilitate a savings program at his church based on the Dave Ramsey method, and he is planning to offer some type of savings program to his employees.

     As County Clerk, Mr. Crawford said he sees people every day who “are over their heads with credit card debt.” “I think it’s important that we encourage people to build up savings, build up an emergency fund, so that they’ll have cash to pay for emergencies instead of using credit cards,” he said. He and his wife have gotten rid of their credit cards.

     He said his current goal is to build up his own emergency fund from the four and a half months worth of living expenses he has already saved toward emergencies to between six and 12 months worth of expenses. His strategy is to have a percentage of his income automatically deposited in the account each month. “I have it taken out of my paycheck so I don’t even see it,” he said. “If I don’t see it, I don’t spend it.” 

Once he reaches his emergency fund goal, he said he plans to direct his automatic deposits into a retirement fund. 

He’s also a big believer in having a budget, “to know where your money is going.” When he and his wife developed their budget, he said, “the biggest shock to me was to see all the little things we were wasting money on.” Now, they use an envelope system. At the beginning of each month, they put the budgeted amount for various expenses – food, for example – into separate envelopes, and they don’t spend more than is in the envelope.

Having gotten a late start himself, Mr. Crawford’s message to others is to start young in order to be able to retire with dignity one day. “The earlier you start this, the better off you are going to be,” he said.

“The earlier you start this, the better off you are going to be.”