Many people already know this, but it always bears repeating: It makes no sense whatsoever to squirrel away money in a savings account while paying interest on outstanding credit card debts or personal loans.
If you have a thousand dollar credit card balance, at 18 percent, you're paying $15 per month. If at the same time, you've got a thousand dollars in a savings account at, say, 6 percent, you're getting $5 per month income. If you continue to take in $5 and pay out $15, pretty soon you're going to end up living under an overpass.
Note that this does not necessarily apply to mortgages, wherein the interest may be tax deductable. Check with your accountant or financial advisor.
Basically, it's hard to have too much. (And if you do, I'll be happy to take any surplus off your hands, nice guy that I am.)
But taxes are a necessary evil. Actually, taxes aren't even evil at all. Imagine, for a moment, that there were no taxes. How would the government pay it's bills? (If you said print more money, you are a hopeless dolt. Go read about sports.)
There are those who think it would be great if the goverment just went away. This would certainly get rid of taxes, but who then would maintain the roads (even to the minimal level they are maintained?) Who would manage the electrical utilities and oversee the removal of sewage and waste products?
This is just a small sampling of the necessities of life that are paid for by your taxes. So in this respect, the government acts as a giant handyman, taking care of lots of little things that we as individuals don't really want to have to worry about.
I have to say that, like the rest of our government, the treasury department needs to keep its fingers out of our belief systems. (Note that it was very difficult to decide whether this belonged here, or under politics or religion.)
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