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Title: Most Americans have less than $1,000 in savings
Source:
Marketwatch
URL Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mo ... ngs-2015-10-06?link=MW_popular
Published: Oct 7, 2015
Author: Quentin Fottrell
Post Date: 2015-10-07 16:47:24 by Willie Green
Keywords: None
Views: 2154
Comments: 20
Americans are living right on the edge — at least when it comes to financial planning. Approximately 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts and 21% don’t even have a savings account, according to a new survey of more than 5,000 adults conducted this month by Google Consumer Survey for personal finance website GOBankingRates.com. “It’s worrisome that such a large percentage of Americans have so little set aside in a savings account,” says Cameron Huddleston, a personal finance analyst for the site. “They likely don’t have cash reserves to cover an emergency and will have to rely on credit, friends and family, or even their retirement accounts to cover unexpected expenses.” This is supported by a similar survey of 1,000 adults carried out earlier this year by personal finance site Bankrate.com, which also found that 62% of Americans have no emergency savings for things such as a $1,000 emergency room visit or a $500 car repair. Faced with an emergency, they say they would raise the money by reducing spending elsewhere (26%), borrowing from family and/or friends (16%) or using credit cards (12%). And among those who had savings prior to 2008, 57% said they’d used some or all of their savings in the Great Recession, according to a U.S. Federal Reserve survey of over 4,000 adults released last year. Of course, paltry savings-account rates don’t encourage people to save either. Read: Most Americans say their children will be worse off In the latest survey, 29% said they have savings above $1,000 and, of those who do have money in their savings account, the most common balance is $10,000 or more (14%), followed by 5% of adults surveyed who have saved between $5,000 and just shy of $10,000; 10% say they have saved $1,000 to just shy of $5,000. Just 9% of people say they keep only enough money in their savings accounts to meet the minimum balance requirements and avoid fees. But minimum balance requirements can vary widely and be hard to meet for some consumers. They can vary anywhere between $300 a month and $1,500 a month at some major banks. Some age groups are less likely to have savings than others. Some 31% of Generation X — who are roughly aged 35 to 54 for the purpose of this survey — while being older and presumably more experienced with money than their younger cohorts, actually report a savings account balance of zero, which is the highest percentage of all age groups. Around 29% of millennials — aged 18 to 34 — and 28% of baby boomers — aged 55 to 64 — said they have no money in their savings account. Baby boomers (17%) and seniors aged 65 and up (20%) have the most money saved of any age group while less than 10% of millennials and approximately 16% of Generation X have $10,000 or more saved. Poster Comment: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.And over 20% don’t even have a savings account
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#11. To: Willie Green (#0)
People are poor because they cannot run the treadmill forever. When you begin walking the "treadmill" you start out slow, increasing speed, eventually falling into a rhythm in line with their capabilities. They spend nearly all that they earn, as it is a hand to mouth existence. When they begin to slow down with age, and fatigue, they are shoved aside. What they have saved even if it matches their previous years income, buys 75% of what it did. In a few years, it purchases about 1/2. By the time they are in their 70's most are just lucky enough to eat, pay their bills and stay warm. The really lucky ones, or as Rush Republicans would say, the smart diligent ones, went to work for government on some level, or didn't have children and/or had two incomes for 40 years.
You mean the ones that have been stupid enough to have 20-40% of the money from their hard work taken away from them by Gobbermint and given to the 1/2 of the U.S. population who are "less lucky" or "less diligent"? You mean the ones that finance Gobbermint's spending largess by their toil while still providing for themself. Those morons....er....I mean lucky ones....er....I mean diligent ones? BTW, I am still paying federal and state incomes taxes and providing for myself and family at 70 years old and haven't taken a cent of Medicare and likely never will. BTW, barring health diasters and/or financial/economic collapse we should maintain our status for the balance of our life and still have something left in our estate for my daughter and her family (oh, BTW, we had children). So what am I? Lucky? Diligent? Smart? Stupid? Privileged? Or just a hard working, responsible person that has a great wife and who, like her, worked to get graduate degrees? If you measure your success in terms of dollars in for work out a number of years ago I would have called us hard working, responsible people - today I might call people like us stupid. If you measure success by the distance between your financial/economic position from where you started to where you are then we are definitely hard working, responsible, smart and somewhat lucky people that started with very lttle in life and no "connections" whatsoever. Yet I know I will get response from leftists loons that somehow my wife and I didn't build that for ourself. That we were handed something in life. That we had some kind of privilege. That we could not have advanced our lot in life without the aid of Big Brother. That our successes in life came at the expense of others who did not achieve what we did. That somehow we are responsible for others inability improve themself because if we had less they would have more. That's what progressivism is all about - BS.
NO, you weren't handed something. YES, you did well. There is not room enough in your work world for everyone, no matter how well educated, no matter the energy they bring to a job. The truth is, the vast majority are living hand to mouth. It is a reality, and usually through no fault of their own.
#14. To: jeremiad (#13)
Yes. No.
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#12. To: jeremiad, Willie Green (#11)
The really lucky ones, or as Rush Republicans would say, the smart diligent ones, went to work for government on some level, or didn't have children and/or had two incomes for 40 years.
#13. To: SOSO (#12)
Replies to Comment # 13. The truth is, the vast majority are living hand to mouth. It is a reality, and usually through no fault of their own.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 13.
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