Boston Gal's Open Wallet

But with a host of financial shocks hitting Wall Street and Main Street – a recession, rising job losses, tumbling real estate and stock values – attitudes toward savings are changing. "We're going to start being moderate savers and not live beyond our means," says David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's Corp.

Moreover, he expects that behavior to last until the "economy has stayed good enough for long enough" for people to forget what has happened, especially to the value of their homes and equities. "Normally, it takes around 10 years of steady economic gains for them to forget" any economic woes that they've endured, Mr. Wyss says.

Already this year, the personal savings rate has shown some flickers of improvement. According to the BEA, the rate was a paltry 0.2 percent in the first quarter, jumped to 2.5 percent in the second quarter with the help of tax rebate payments, and fell to 1.1 percent in the third quarter. In October, however, the monthly personal savings rate was 2.4 percent. November's figure is to be released Dec. 24.

Mr. Wyss figures that if Washington includes another round of tax-rebate checks in its expected economic stimulus package, the savings rate could pop up to 6.5 percent after the checks are mailed. After that, he expects the rate to ease to about 4 percent by 2010 – "still low by worldwide standards," he says. "People will stop living beyond their means, but not by too much."

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While some economists see pressing needs for people to save, they hope consumers will not just shut off the spending spigot. "Although households [do] need to save more now, if they make that adjustment too rapidly, it could prolong or deepen the recession," Hampel points out.

When the recession does end, consumers are likely to resume buying, some economists say. Few are likely to splurge. That could mean the days of buying supersized houses and high-end cars will probably remain in the rearview mirror.