As our economy takes a plunge into perhaps another depression, Americans are conflicted between saving their money and spending it to keep the economy afloat.

The answer is to spend on good investments but not go on crazy shopping sprees like a shopaholic.

As Bill Virgin at the Seattle Post-Intelligence wrote, “Commerce is, after all, the lifeblood of … commerce, so it is essential that you continue to buy stuff.” In order for the economy to survive, it needs the consumers to keep purchasing items; from a Prius to a small house, investing on goods with longevity is the key to save the economy.

However, it is a fact that Americans have been saving less since the ’70s and, according to National Public Radio (NPR), the U.S. household saving’s rate has been less than 1 percent since 2005, and by the third quarter of the same year, it went down to negative, as of October 2008.

Compared to other influential countries such as Japan and Germany, America’s savings rate is morbidly low or rather, nonexistent. But this is due to Americans spending fast cash on unnecessary items such as a Gucci purse. In addition, Americans have credit card debt, where they must spend some portions of their paycheck on the monthly payment.

Spending will indeed help the weak economy. However, spending mindlessly is only going to create more people in debt and hurt the economy in the long run. It is obviously difficult for someone to purchase a house when his job may be cut tomorrow, or for someone to buy a new car when she has six children to feed. The point is to spend where you can and save when possible.

Investing in a stock might be the last thing anyone wants to do with the shaky market’s state, but, for example, if every consumer who buys a latte and a bagel at Starbucks every morning buys a share of its stock for about $10 instead of morning munchies for a month, it can do wonders for the company and the consumers are helping the economy.

Investing on the small things like cheap stocks can help, and once the economy pulls itself back from this crisis, he or she can invest even more in these stocks.

America needs its people to spend, but spend wisely. And small gestures of help can make a huge difference when a large number of people do it.

It is nearly impossible to just give one solution to save the economy. But it is also nearly impossible to reboot the economy without its consumers spending their dough.