You are mistaken.
No, you are mistaken. From Barron's:
Finally, several readers wondered whether 401(k) contributions are included in the savings rate tracked by the Commerce Department. They suspected it wasn't, which caused them to question whether the rate was really declining ("Why They Get Richer," March 30). But not only are these contributions included, whatever the employer throws in also is counted in personal savings. Confusion on this point arises from the fact that 401(k) money comes out of pre-tax income, while saving is defined as the difference between after-tax income and consumption. Barron's Online -- April 13, 1998http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/pen-l/1998m04.b/msg00253.htm
I challenge you to find one legitimate, reputable source stating that 401(k)
contributions (that's contributions, not capital gains) aren't counted in the BEA's savings rate.
The Wall Street Journal’s David Wessel wrote last week that “American people, businesses and government don’t save enough.” Citing the Commerce Department’s official U.S. personal savings rate, 0.2 percent, the Los Angeles Times’s Bill Sing wrote, “It doesn’t help that people in the U.S. are spending like there’s no tomorrow.” Sing’s and Wessel’s assumptions are as bogus as the government statistic on which they’re based.
To see why, one need only understand how the government calculates personal savings. Not surprisingly, the calculation is a simplistic one that involves a subtraction of cash outlays from disposable income. David Malpass, NRO Financial writer and chief economist at Bear Stearns, recently noted that savings statistics “understate actual additions to savings by excluding cash flow improvements from realized gains on equities, houses, and mortgage refinancings.” Importantly, the government savings rate either cannot factor in, or would calculate negatively, how Americans purchase the instruments of the wealth that Malpass mentions.
To begin with, 401(k) accounts have become highly popular investment vehicles for Americans over the last 20 years. Since 401(k) deposits come out of pre-tax income, the significant savings built up within those accounts would not factor into government calculations of money saved over outlays.
The Savings-Rate Myth