Overspending. Americans often light large piles of money on fire without a second thought, which has traditionally been enabled by having far more money left af

Overspending. Americans often light large piles of money on fire without a second thought, which has traditionally been enabled by having far more money left after paying all ordinary expenses from their income than people in other industrialized countries. Even though Americans notoriously spend a lot on unnecessary luxury in their day to day expenses, the median household in the US still has $1000 per month left over for buying the latest iPhone or boat or whatever. Americans have prodigious amounts of money to save or spend on frivolous things by any global standard. Americans strongly lean toward the "spend" side of that, having one of the lowest saving rates in the industrialized world.