saving is not a long term thing. not a wealth creation thing.
saving is a temporary play to only save a small amount to literally SAVE people from incidents of rainy day, emergencies where they need quick access to money.
Not all money one puts aside is earmarked for emergencies, just saying. A person might save for a car, a house, a new dildo, whatever.
to literally SAVE you from having to resort to selling investments at a loss or using debt in an emergency.
The word "saving" has at least two meanings, and why you're equating the meaning equivalent to "saving someone from drowning" is beyond me. If I put money aside to buy something I can't afford right away and don't want to finance, that isn't saving me from anything except acting with financial stupidity, e.g., paying for that something with a high-interest credit card.
By the way I just wanted to mention that now is a pretty good time to save money if you trust banks/brokerages, because you can find money market funds and CDs that are paying interest rates that beat inflation. I agree that that's not wealth creation, but at the moment the stock market is sky-high and there's no telling what other investments like bitcoin are going to do. It's kind of nice to have money on the sidelines earning 5%+, just waiting for good buying opportunities.
if you are using money market/stocks accounts and CD's you are not "saving" you are "investing"
savings are suppose to be the easy access funds where you cant lose money by withdrawing immediately..
investing however has the risk of panic selling at a loss..
so if you need to have money to rescue you from unexpected incidents. save it..
then with other income you get you can invest that knowing you dont need to quick dip into investments. because the savings will save you
if you are wanting to put money aside for later PLANNED events/items later on.. where you are not looking to spend it on emergencies but want to accumulate some increases whilst not spending it. then yes invest it on some short-mid term investment plans, where some accounts lock funds up for 3-6-12months offering X% fixed high yield interest. but these are treated as investments(wealth creation) not savings(rescue funds)