They owned utility stocks and savings bonds, kept their money in a community-owned bank, and bought cash value life insurance as a reliable savings vehicle.

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Savings are better measured by the Fed's quarterly survey of bank accounts, stocks, life insurance, pensions and debt, which shows, as one would expect, robust financial accumulations from America's hard work and freedom.

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Next to bank deposits, the largest category of household financial assets, at some 28 percent, remains basically savings-type life insurance and pension products.

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