Survey: 40 Percent Of Americans Have $500 Or Less In Savings

CBS Local ^ | October 19, 2012 | John Ostapkovich

[rightwingintelligentsia]

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A survey of about 1,100 Americans finds that more than 4-in-10 respondents admit they don’t have more than $500 in readily accessible savings.

The survey is a kind of departure for CreditDonkey.com, a website that compares credit card deals. Not respondents all were poor. Some had big houses, big mortgages or 401(k)s, but still no more than five Benjamins to rub together right now.

Jill Michal, president and CEO of the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, reacts to the lack of liquid assets.

“It doesn’t shock me, but it does scare me. You know, we often say that the reason so many people fall off the edge in a tough economy is that they’re standing way too close to it, and I think this is a perfect demonstration of that.”

Michal says there’s a lack of training in personal finances.

[TheWriterTX]

Not that broke, but very close.

A series of devastating medical bills for my daughter's premature birth wiped out our savings years ago and left us with a mountain of debt.

Toss in another miscarriage, another high-risk pregnancy, a battle with cancer, two knee surgeries for my husband, and then a year of having to replace every appliance in the house (at least they had the courtesy to fail in order, one a month - including a $10K HVAC in the dead of winter), yeah...the SHTF over here.

What we didn't do: shirk our duty, not pay our bills 100%, look for handouts, go on government plans, or make excuses.

What we did do: give to our church, donate to charity, buy consignment, shop at Good Will, not take vacations, build our own furniture/deck/patio, stretch every dollar, live with what we had, cut our own hair, fix our own roof/cars/you name it.

Still have a fantastic credit rating, $180K in retirement accounts, a roof over our head, 3 healthy kids, and two gainfully employed individuals.

So no, not everyone hanging on is an Obama voter. Sometimes when it rains, it POURS. For my family, it's been pouring for a DECADE.

[RexBeach]

In the erarly 1900’s there wasn’t any financial training either for most folk. I think people in those days were pretty good at saving money.

[AppyPappy]

Being related to the freeloader set, I can tell you that one reason they don’t keep money around is because it attracts other freeloaders. If you have money, you need to help people who don’t have money because people helped you when you didn’t have money.

They also have no interest in reigning in their passions.

[old and tired]

My checking account alone has a $1,000 buffer in it. I have another $10,000 in a savings account for emergencies, like failing appliances.

My family has weathered this recession/depression pretty well, but we were very hard up in the late seventies. I can remember one week after buying groceries and paying the bills where we had 18 cents to spare. We pretty much ate peanut butter, hot dogs, and eggs for months after reaching that 18 cent balance just to try to give ourselves some cushion. But it was tough. I feel for a lot of these folks - of course some of them are young and have parents who might bail them out if they got in a jam. But my guess is most of them are just regular folks living paycheck to paycheck and they'll have to use a credit card if the hot water heater blows or the car breaks down.

The good thing is once they've lived through sparse living and their income starts growing, they'll save some money before they inflate their lifestyle. I know we did and what a blessing it's been.

[Roccus]

It`s in that big jar by the fireplace.

The einher jar?

[con-surf-ative]

Doesn’t a retirement account count as savings? It does in my house (although we have non-retirement savings as well).

[rfp1234]

It would be zero if they had to pay for their Obamaphones.

[research99]

Why keep savings in an account or CD which earns 1% or less interest and can be tied up by external developments like a bank failure, government seizure natural disaster or hyperinflation, at a time when food and fuel are rising at over a 10% retail rate?

[dmz]

40% have less than $500 in savings? I find that very hard to believe, just like the 1 in 5 people going hungry statistic.

<><><><

Um, do we all think that the 47% of whom Romney spoke have 500 bucks in savings?

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I was doing pretty good until my daughter and son in law were both out of work for almost a year. Every time I start to gain some ground something else breaks.

Last month was $100.00 for a hard drive and $300.00 for a septic tank effluent pump.

I'm grateful that we can do most maintenance ourselves, just buying parts is bad enough.

I used to sell the same basic pump for $79.95.

[luckystarmom]

Aren’t retirement accounts considered savings?

[SampleMan]

OK, I know we have a lot of good folks that are looking for work, and I’m not talking about them, but this number is meaningly without subtracting out people on EBT/welfare etc.

What need does a person on welfare have for savings? Their rainy day is already covered.

[RegulatorCountry]

If that’s all I had for an emergency fund I’d freak out. You’d be one car repair away from having to tap credit, a job loss away from bankruptcy.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

Look on the bright side, now that we’ll be rich, maybe we can date supermodels :)

If $500 in savings can be defined as "rich," just think of what could be defined as "supermodels" :)

::shudders::

[Ken H]

Why keep savings in an account or CD which earns 1% or less interest and can be tied up by external developments like a bank failure, government seizure natural disaster or hyperinflation, at a time when food and fuel are rising at over a 10% retail rate?

What do you recommend as an alternative?

[Sir Napsalot]

If some one ask me on the street, if I have any ready money savings, I’d answer no.

$200 tops, and it’s none of their business. Then tell the guy and camera crew to buzz off.

[Sir Napsalot]

You don’t know what kind of people you see on Philadelphia streets, that is.

[tnlibertarian]

Here’s what I don’t get. Through hard work, discipline and God’s grace, we have considerably more than that in savings, so we are in a better place than 40% of folks. Yet, at least 80% of the cars I pass every day are much newer than mine and my wife’s. Wait, maybe there’s a correlation.

[memyselfandi59]

My thoughts exactly...if they have retirement funds, then it’s just a cash flow problem. They could access those funds if need be. Same with house if they’re not underwater. If equity is available, then again, cash flow issue, not poverty.

[Responsibility2nd]

40% have less than $500 in savings? I find that very hard to believe, just like the 1 in 5 people going hungry statistic.

 

You found that hard to believe? I ran accross this article last year and DID NOT beleive it.

Basically, more than 1/4 of all Americans COULD NOT get their hands on $2,000 if you gave them a whole month to do it. However, as you can see from the comments... Many FReepers had no problem with that statement.

Nearly Half of Americans Are ‘Financially Fragile’
Wall Street Journal Blogs ^ | May 25, 2011 | Phil Izzo
 

Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 1:46:22 PM by rightwingintelligentsia

Nearly half of Americans say that they definitely or probably couldn’t come up with $2,000 in 30 days, according to new research, raising concerns about the financial fragility of many households.

In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Annamaria Lusardi of the George Washington School of Business, Daniel J. Schneider of Princeton University and Peter Tufano of Harvard Business School used data from the 2009 TNS Global Economic Crisis survey to document widespread financial weakness in the U.S. and other countries.

The survey asked a simple question, “If you were to face a $2,000 unexpected expense in the next month, how would you get the funds you need?” In the U.S., 24.9% of respondents reported being certainly able, 25.1% probably able, 22.2% probably unable and 27.9% certainly unable. The $2,000 figure “reflects the order of magnitude of the cost of an unanticipated major car repair, a large copayment on a medical expense, legal expenses, or a home repair,” the authors write. On a more concrete basis, the authors cite $2,000 as the cost of an auto transmission replacement and research that reported low-income families claim to need about $1500 in savings for emergencies.

Financial fragility isn’t limited to low-income groups. “Households with socioeconomic markers of vulnerability (income, wealth, wealth losses, education, women, families with children) are more likely to be financially fragile, and substantially more so,” the authors write. “The more surprising finding is that a material fraction of seemingly ‘middle class’ Americans also judge themselves to be financially fragile, reflecting either a substantially weaker financial position than one would expect, or a very high level of anxiety or pessimism. Both are important in terms of behavior and for public policy.”

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...

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40% have less than $500 in savings? I find that very hard to believe, just like the 1 in 5 people going hungry statistic.

 

You found that hard to believe? I ran accross this article last year and DID NOT beleive it.

Basically, more than 1/4 of all Americans COULD NOT get their hands on $2,000 if you gave them a whole month to do it. However, as you can see from the comments... Many FReepers had no problem with that statement.

Nearly Half of Americans Are ‘Financially Fragile’
Wall Street Journal Blogs ^ | May 25, 2011 | Phil Izzo
 

Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 1:46:22 PM by rightwingintelligentsia

Nearly half of Americans say that they definitely or probably couldn’t come up with $2,000 in 30 days, according to new research, raising concerns about the financial fragility of many households.

In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Annamaria Lusardi of the George Washington School of Business, Daniel J. Schneider of Princeton University and Peter Tufano of Harvard Business School used data from the 2009 TNS Global Economic Crisis survey to document widespread financial weakness in the U.S. and other countries.

The survey asked a simple question, “If you were to face a $2,000 unexpected expense in the next month, how would you get the funds you need?” In the U.S., 24.9% of respondents reported being certainly able, 25.1% probably able, 22.2% probably unable and 27.9% certainly unable. The $2,000 figure “reflects the order of magnitude of the cost of an unanticipated major car repair, a large copayment on a medical expense, legal expenses, or a home repair,” the authors write. On a more concrete basis, the authors cite $2,000 as the cost of an auto transmission replacement and research that reported low-income families claim to need about $1500 in savings for emergencies.

Financial fragility isn’t limited to low-income groups. “Households with socioeconomic markers of vulnerability (income, wealth, wealth losses, education, women, families with children) are more likely to be financially fragile, and substantially more so,” the authors write. “The more surprising finding is that a material fraction of seemingly ‘middle class’ Americans also judge themselves to be financially fragile, reflecting either a substantially weaker financial position than one would expect, or a very high level of anxiety or pessimism. Both are important in terms of behavior and for public policy.”

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...

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