Are Jamaicans SAVING ENOUGH?
“NO MATTER how it small, you must always put aside a little savings,” are words Corinne Peck* heard quite frequently while growing up in rural Jamaica.
“That was the philosophy of my grandmother, a principled woman who believed in saving,” she said. “Grandma raised goats, burned coal for a living, and then she would ‘throw her partner’. It was from those meagre earnings that she was able to send her two sons to school.” However, despite those early lessons, Corinne says that she now finds it hard to save.
“It’s not that I don’t want to save. The truth is that with all my responsibilities and the salary I am paid at the end of the month, I hardly have much left over to put anything away,” she lamented.
Corinne, a single mother of two, who is employed as a project officer, says that she makes a gross monthly salary of almost $150,000.
“After tax and my rent and car payments, which amount to almost half of my salary, I have school expenses, utilities, gas, and supermarket bills. The balance leaves me with very little to take me through the month, much less to even think about any serious savings or investments,” she shared.
Corrine’s story is similar to that of many Jamaicans who say they know they should be saving, but find it difficult.
*Name changed on request.