Finance Guru Helps Americans Save $1 at a Time

When Eric Solis was 13 years old, he returned home from school to find his mother, a small business owner, curled up and sobbing on the floor. Her husband was gone, her business was failing – she couldn’t feed her children, much less pay off her debts.

That painful moment lead Solis to seek a career in finance. As a broker, he made the rich richer and earned more than enough money for himself. Until one day in 1998, when Solis, while flying over the Grand Canyon, suddenly remembered the promise he had made to his mother – “Everything will be okay.”

In 1998, Americans were already spending more money than they earned. That money was going overseas, padding the pockets of foreigners while preventing middle America from securing financial stability. Solis decided then to help the average person save money. He started a company, Save252.com, an online piggybank that helps users save as little as a dollar a day, 252 days a year.

Ten years later, as the House and Senate struggled to put together a financial rescue plan, money guru Solis came up with another solution. In September 2008, Solis sent a proposal to executive and Congressional leaders, asking them to give 3.5 trillion dollars – to the American people.

“If the government gave each household $15,000 to pay off consumer debt or to put into an IRA, they would reward good behavior and channel money into the banking system,” said Solis. “Giving money to Wall Street – the same institutions who have manipulated and abused middle America for decades now – won’t relieve pressure at the consumer level.”

Solis believes that economic stability starts with the middle class. If Americans have a financial cushion in their bank accounts, they won’t borrow money that they cannot pay back. Financial institutions won’t find themselves strapped for cash because of defaulted loans, so they won’t have to borrow money from abroad.

“As Americans save, they will become less dependent on borrowing from large institutions, and those large institutions and the government will become less dependent on foreign capital,” says Solis. “We can buy back America one dollar at a time.”

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