In recent years, the high savings rate in the household sector in China mainly stems from the continuous increase in the savings rate of urban residents, while the level of urbanization in China continues to rise, with the urban population maintaining a steady growth trend. Against this background, this paper attempts to explore whether individuals’ early rural growth experiences affect the savings rate of later households from the perspective of whether the head of household in urban families has a rural upbringing experience. It aims to explain the reasons for the high savings rate of urban households from the perspective of “the rural growth experience”, and then put forward countermeasures to reduce the savings rate of Chinese urban households, release the consumption vitality of residents, and promote the high-quality development of the economy. Based on the data of the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2019, this paper studies the impact of whether household heads in urban areas have rural growth experience on their family savings rates. The results show that urban households where the head of household has a rural growth experience have higher savings rates. Further regressions, including excluding “village-to-urban migration” data, replacing it with data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2018, and using different empirical methods (propensity score matching and two-stage least squares), yield robust results. Mechanism analysis indicates that the risk aversion of the head of household and financial literacy are two channels through which the head of household’s rural growth experience influences their savings rate. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of the head of household’s rural growth experience on family savings rates is more pronounced in urban households with lower asset levels and higher levels of education and in the central and western regions. The possible marginal contributions of this paper compared with the existing literature are twofold. Firstly, while existing studies mainly focus more on the impact of rural growth experience on risk in financial markets, this paper focuses its research perspective on household saving behavior, analyzes the impact of the head of household’s rural growth experience on family savings rates, and provides a new perspective for explaining the high saving rate of China’s residential sector. This paper restricts the sample to households living in urban areas, which improves the scientific validity of the comparison. Secondly, based on existing empirical evidence, this paper conducts logical analysis and empirically finds that the head of household’s rural growth experience affects family savings rates by influencing the head of household’s risk aversion and financial literacy. This finding further enriches the impact pathways of rural growth experience on family savings rates and provides useful references for the formulation of relevant policies. The results of this study suggest that relevant policy departments should pay attention to the group of people with “rural growth experience”, and mitigate the positive impact of rural growth experience on the urban household savings rate through mitigating risk aversion, enhancing financial education, and narrowing the urban-rural development gap, so as to reduce the savings rate of urban households and unleash the vitality of consumption.