When Clayton Pope entered the full-time workforce as an enforcement officer for the Delaware State Park system three years ago, he had some decisions to make about investments in the state retirement plan. For someone who had never invested before, it was a “pretty overwhelming task,” he said. “So I approached it just like I would a college paper” and headed to the library to do some research.

After reading several books and consulting with friends and family members, he put together what many financial experts would consider a textbook approach. He has a set amount taken from each paycheck and put in the retirement account. That money is invested in low-cost index funds, carefully allocated between U.S. and international stocks and bonds. He also has a Roth IRA with Vanguard, which he chose because of its low fees.

Clayton had all this in place before he ever heard of Delaware Saves. But when he got an insert in his pay envelope describing the campaign, he decided to sign up in the hopes that he could learn something new, and chose saving six months worth of salary in an emergency fund as his goal.

The money he saves today was money that until recently went toward paying off his college loans and the $2,000-to-$3,000 in credit card debt he amassed while in college. He finds the money to save through a disciplined approach to spending.

“Unlike most Americans, I don’t think cable TV is a necessity,” he said. For entertainment, he gets DVDs for free from the library, goes fishing, and occasionally takes advantage of the free AAA baseball tickets he gets as a volunteer with the Big Brother Big Sister program.

He also drives a 1997 Saturn that has 189,000 miles on it but runs great and gets about 40 mpg on the highway. “Am I the coolest guy around? No. But I’m not paying $200 or $300 a month for a losing proposition,” he said, referring to the fact that new cars lose about 20 percent of their value as soon as you drive them off the lot.

“If I lived the way the typical American lives, I would be in debt up to my eyeballs,” he said. Americans seem to think that “we’ve got to have the latest and greatest. We’ve got to have the biggest and the best. That’s not an intelligent way to live your life. Unless you generate all your happiness in life from material things, you’re not going to be happy.”

Clayton credits his disciplined approach to his father, who he said has provided a model of fiscal responsibility. And, although he is frugal in his daily life, he also believes “you need to go out and enjoy life.” In his case, that means saving for a trip to New Zealand or Australia, as soon as he gets enough miles through his credit card (which he pays off in full each month) to pay for the airfare.

“If I lived the way the typical American lives, I’d be in debt up to my eyeballs.”

--Clayton Pope, Delaware Saver