The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is calling on Americans to start saving once again.

SIFMA issued a statement in response to a U.S. Commerce Department report that the personal savings rate for all of 2006 was a negative 1%. It notes that this means people spent all that they earned, as well some of their savings or financed purchases through loans.

The 2006 figure was lower than a negative 0.4% in 2005 and was the poorest showing since a negative 1.5% savings rate in 1933 during the Great Depression.

“Today’s report is a wake-up call to start changing personal savings behavior,” said SIFMA co-CEO, Marc Lackritz. “We all have to do a better job — at work, at home and at school — of planning for the future and how to finance it – especially when it comes to saving for retirement, which increasingly will depend on personal savings.”

According to a SIFMA retirement study conducted last year, the personal savings rate was over 10% in the early 1980’s. The same SIFMA study showed that Americans are now dissaving – spending exponentially more than they have. The study also revealed that fully half of the 77 million Baby Boomers will not have the means to sustain their current standard of living once they reach retirement, due to lack of savings.