Posted on 04/01/2014 9:01:03 PM PDT by blam
Nearly Half Of Us Couldn't Live A Month On Our Savings
Trae Bodge , RetailMeNot's The Real Deal
Apr. 1, 2014, 5:56 PM
April is Financial Literacy Month (and dreaded tax time), so let’s talk about your financial know-how. Are you financially prepared if you need to stop working for a few months due to a layoff or illness? Do you know how much money you have lying around? What about your kids? Are you setting them on a path to financial health?
RetailMeNot recently polled more than 1,000 Americans and found that overall consumers are doing pretty well on the personal finance front. As it turns out, Americans are savers: A whopping 80% have money set aside, and on average, the savings would last over eight months with no other income.
Pretty impressive! But our survey did reveal a few areas of concern:
•While a vast majority of consumers we polled have a financial safely net, nearly half don’t have enough money saved to live on for more than a month without an ongoing source of income.
•About 25% with a savings account don’t know how much is in it!
•Only 51% are confident in the knowledge or understanding of their personal finances.
•Only 22% are confident that they will be able to retire at the time and in the style they were hoping for.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I lost my job about two years ago. I am not on unemployment, as I am not really looking for another job. At my present burn rate I can last about thirty years on my savings.
As an aside...
We had a customer who owed a bunch of money to the IRS. A third party stepped up to solve the problem, and we offered to give 90% to the IRS, which would have satisfied their shortfall. It took the IRS 6 weeks to even call us back, at which point the 3rd party had moved on to greener pastures.
The IRS said they’d accept our solution, but when we told them that ship had sailed, they responded by saying that the offer would move to the back of the line, as they only serve requests on a first-come, first-serve basis.
I was referring to the general population, not the few who are making more now than they were 10 years ago...
Hopefully, you won’t find yourself out of work before you can buy that Porsche...BTW, you’ll need a second job for the insurance.
Cheers..
Don't ever live on borrowed money.
I grew up in the depression and I was taught to never borrow money except for a 1st home.
I've lived by that for 77 years including running a business without ever borrowing a cent for anything,
If you haven't got the money you don't need it.
In over 40 years in a construction business averaging 25 employees over the years I can't think of more than 4 that had a pot to piss in because they borrowed money to buy things.
Yeah, Americans should purchase their homes and cars with cold cash...lol...
I imagine a lot of first time buyers will be in their 60s or 70s, if their health holds up...
Read what I wrote dipshit!
‘Savings’ ?
Good for you. The brains of our outfit. We're you the one who told Joseph not to put grain aside? Or where you the one who used CAPS to emphasized their stoopidies?
Borrow money for a new ride, and you're paying the bank, carrying full coverage, and paying out the wazoo for the privilege.
Your first home doesn't have to be a McMansion, either, but it's the one time I'd borrow money, to buy a home. Just look for a neighborhood likely to go up rather than down (to make money on the resale--sweat equity doesn't hurt), and keep your eyes on the prize.
The bottom line is to live within a fraction of your total means so you can save money. Leaner now means better later.
All current expenses about 8 months before going to the 401k’s.
Cutting expenses would push that out to around 12 months, changing our insurances would give us a little more time, as well. I’ve always been paranoid about debt, so that would be the first thing paid off if things got real tough.
Then selling the bird would buy us another 4-6 months. Yeah, we’ve actually thought this out, now that we’re 50. Our health could change in an instant, like it has with some of our friends.
We had planned on being out at 52, with the daughter’s college paid for, but the current Democrat-induced economic conditions have pushed that back to about 55.
As it turns out, Americans are savers: A whopping 80% have money set aside, and on average, the savings would last over eight months with no other income.Pretty impressive! But our survey did reveal a few areas of concern:
While a vast majority of consumers we polled have a financial safely net, nearly half don’t have enough money saved to live on for more than a month without an ongoing source of income.
Huh? Which is it? The vast majority or the almost majority?
My local Trader Joe had nearly empty shelves ONE DAY after a storm closed mountain passes between here and Seattle, which their trucks had to travel. Really drove home the point that grocery stores will have empty shelves very quickly after any kind of ongoing emergency.
Figure of speech? Or you really have a high priced parrot?
I lost my job last year and am going back for my MBA. Have been laid off twice in the past 5 years. Meat grinder economy is a good description of Obama’s disastrous economy.
You are better off to buy junk silver and invest in canned goods and other basic necessity items right now AND if you have any debt at all pay it off as fast as you can rather than let your money fritter away at the bank.
Unfortunately, the average working American now has over 50% of their income seized by the government for taxes. In large part, this tax money is used to provide freebies for tens of millions of illegal immigrants and also tens of millions of citizens who have become dependent upon government assistance of one form or another.
Entire generations of families have been raised on welfare along with the resultant fatherless families and illegitimate children that only beget more welfare payouts.
Picture this, it is not only socially acceptable but now expected that girls raised on welfare will drop out of school and have illegitimate children of their own - and enjoy a lifetime of subsidized housing, food stamps and an idle life courtesy of the declining base of U.S. taxpayers. Meanwhile, the boys will grow up to be "gang-bangers" and they will be in and out of jails their entire adult lives.
Now it's not a life of luxury to be sure but you can learn to adapt to it just fine. Whether you sit in a jail or in subsidized government housing, your basic needs are taken care of the government (taxpayers) and you do not have to worry about ever getting a job. You can just relax and watch television all day long with ZERO pressure to get off the couch and make something of your life.
All of this is supported by working people who now have 50% of their wages confiscated in one way or another to pay for it all. And on top of that, they are criticized for not having the extra money to put aside for their own retirement. Sadly, for most working people, the welfare bums will enjoy a better "retirement" than they will.
If you had been saving lead you can pretty well take what you want when you need it!
“Had I decided to not spend 4 years in college, I would have been making at least 19% more.”
Are you behind because you did not work for the 4 years you were in college? Are you burdened by college loans thus significantly impacting your take home pay?
I have heard of earning degrees with no impact on advancing one’s income potential. But I have not heard of earning a degree that resulted in making less money than not having a degree - unless you are talking about the money that was not earned while one was in college. Maybe there is something new for me to learn today?
Based on what I see around me, the only people that could go more than a month on their savings are childless. I guess we aren’t hunkering down for the next generation...
“In fact, many of them might be wealthy if they invested those savings wisely. “
Another thing that needs to be learned - financial literacy. Should be a required course in college; potential upside would be more fiscal conservative voters.
Of course 50% depends on where one ends up in the taxpaying population. Even if it were 20%, that would be too large an amount. Time is one’s most valuable asset - everyone alive is given the same amount every day. To me it is more impactful to estimate how many days / months of the year one works just to pay taxes. Then when I think about where that money goes to pay for waste, fraud, graft, propping up the political class, and laziness. . . the term involuntary servitude comes to mind.
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