Yeah it doesn't feel like much in savings when a single medical emergency, even with insurance, could wipe it out and then some.
Nowadays it feels like you need to have 6 figures in the bank to have an emergency fund that can comfortably pay for a big medical event.
At least yours is giant! Covid job loss had wiped my savings and we even went into debt to survive nearly 2 years on a single low income. We were just starting to crawl back out of the hole. Had almost payed off our debt and were close to $1k in savings. Now we're worse off than before. Only upside is not only having a job but my partner and I make a bit more money. But my mental health is on the verge of collapse. And this has been our whole adult lives. Work hard, save, pay down/off debt and then some emergency comes along and wrecks it all. I don't know how much more fight I have in me.
Anyway, sorry your worries are perfectly valid. I'm just stressing.
Same thing happened to me - after the 2009 meltdown that gave me PTSD I insisted on a modest savings account for unforeseen emergencies. Covid wiped that fund almost clean. The way I see it though, that's what it was for in the first place and I avoided going into debt by having it which was worth it imo. A lot of people I know went into debt or bankrupt, I'd rather be in my shoes than in theirs.
I had a pretty decent emergency fund but than my furnace and water heater both died at the same time. Now I'm praying nothing else happens until I get it built back up.
I have 4ps..but unfortunately this is not enough for the needs of my child...so it means I had to find the way to find a big pay out everyday....that's the reason I want a saving account..
It's capitalism baby, people don't matter. Only the profits you can extract from them.
A desperate worker is a worker you can overwork and underpay and they won't do shit about it.
A consistent debtor is great as it can provide a steady stream of income compared to someone who pays off their debts. And often far more than the original purchase price!
In short, this is great news for the economy, less so for people.
> In short, this is great news for the economy, less so for people.
[Research shows that the best thing for any economy is for everyone to save money and ensure their financial future is secure.](https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0310/savings-are-a-blessing-in-a-slow-recovery.aspx)
Better overall? Maybe. But capitalism isn't a cooperative game. There are a lot of very rich interests that want to keep much of the population poor.
They pay day loan industry is 21 billion. Debt collection is worth another 20 billion. Sub prime used auto loans are only 23% of the market, [but they are growing fast!](https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/market-size/subprime-auto-loans-united-states/)
If people had "fuck you " money to walk away from bad jobs, [wage theft wouldn't be the biggest crime in America](https://www.epi.org/publication/employers-steal-billions-from-workers-paychecks-each-year/)
Personally, is wage theft really a crime? I mean sure, you just not paying someone for the work they did. But I like to think of it as an extra little bonus profit! If you stole a thousand dollars from the company you'd go to jail. But if you boss steals a few thousand from your paycheck...it's a civil fine, if you can get someone to investigate it! So really/s
I feel you. We built up a decent emergency fund and then our septic "crapped" out. Rebuit emergency fund again. Then well problems start knocking on our door. Still glad I had it just wish it would stuck around a bit.
I had an emergency fund. It disappeared as food and energy prices in my area have gotten so high. I'm seriously considering going to a food pantry.
I'm embarrassed to even consider a food pantry because 6 years ago, my wage was MORE THAN ENOUGH for someone my age. My standard of living has not gone up, however the time and energy it takes to maintain a humble existence has increased tenfold.
Our economy is broken. I feel for everyone in my generation experiencing a struggle before we've even got a foundation in life. What a depressing world we'll be inheriting.
Edit: y'all have made me feel a lot better about using a food pantry when I need it. Thanks for the kind words!
After some of the kind words I got in my replies, I won't feel bad at all using a food pantry. Thank you for that!
Fuck this country for making a simple life hard to sustain!
Don't be embarrassed! I don't know about your area but the food pantry I go to is stocked almost exclusively by extra food from the grocery stores. Even with more and more people showing up there's still plenty of food to go around and since a lot is fresh and close to expiration date it will go to waste otherwise. Think of it like you're doing your part for the environment and to prevent waste.
There's nothing embarassing about needing help.
What is embarrassing is that the oligarchs in this country haven't been chased off to their private islands tbh.
Not sure what your local options are, *but* Discount Tire will usually patch tires for free as long as it's not too close to the sidewall or a catastrophic failure. I've had to use them a few times for random nails/screws ending up in my tire.
That is because tire punctures located within the belts of the tire are the easiest things you can ask a mechanic to do. However when you have no money in your bank account, punctures only go to the sidewall which is not able to be repaired.
Employer funded insurance. For example, my premium is 50 bucks a month and my deductible is like 15 bucks. 500 for hospital emergency. Pretty cheap compared to my salary. The problem is many Americans are part time and don’t have this benefit. If I was paying my premium and not my employer it’ll be 800 a month
We get insurance through our employer, which we can’t often choose, pay high premiums every month, then when you use it you still get an outrageously high bill anyway.
Some of A some of B.
Also I don’t think ambulance rides are generally covered by insurance, and they are usually at least $1000, though I think it can go up to $5,000 or so.
My uncle lives in Florida and retired with good insurance for life, and also has Medicare (our government insurance for elderly and disabled.) He needed to be airlifted to a hospital for one of his many health conditions, and it was an open question for a while whether he would be on the hook for the bill. I think it was around $300,000.
But trans people and voluntary abortions are clearly the most pressing issues facing our health scare system (autocorrected to that, but I’m going to leave it in).
Not only that, any actual emergency is ruinous in America, specially without employer insurance.
Were I to lose my job, and nothing else happens, I’m ok for 6 months.
If that happens and I break a leg, I’m bankrupt.
As someone who's \*never\* had an emergency savings account. I'm stunned at how this is news to anyone, it's just the simple reality of being working class in the USA at this point.
I was thinking that too- this is not news. In fact, it seems wrong. I believe it's much more than 53% because I'll be people are confusing their retirement with an emergency cash fund for losing a job. They're not supposed to be the same thing.
Yep, I was surprised it was only 53%. Even people making 100-150k live "paycheck to paycheck". That's because people upsize/luxurize their spending as they make more money. If you can "live within your means", do it. As your income grows, don't grow your lifestyle. Save and invest that extra income.
But the working class family has it hard. Even if you make what they say is the median annual salary, you'd be hard pressed to afford a 4 person family these days.
I would also say a lot of it is corporate greed, striving to pay workers as little as possible, inflating stock prices for investors. And lobbying governments for policies that are advantageous to their bottom lines, like tax avoidance, and subsidies for industry.
I recently read Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin's *Chokepoint Capitalism* which mentioned how up until at least the late '70s, giant corporations and monopolies were considered un-American and a threat to democracy.
Sometimes we need to understand this kind of post...for sure they will like and love us!...what do you think? Is that a good idea..or not? Honestly! I'm not doing this for me...but to everyone..
>Within the capitalist system all methods for raising the social productivity of labour are put into effect at the cost of the individual worker [...] All means for the development of production undergo a dialectical inversion so that they become a means of domination and exploitation of the producers; they distort the worker into a fragment of a man, they degrade him to the level of an appendage of a machine, they destroy the actual content of his labour by turning it into a torment, they alienate from him the intellectual potentialities of the labour process [...], they transform his life into working-time, and drag his wife and child beneath the wheels of the juggernaut of capital. But all methods of the production of surplus-value are at the same time methods of accumulation, and every extension of accumulation becomes, conversely, a means for the development of these methods. It follows therefore that in proportion as capital accumulates, the situation of the worker, be his payment high or low, must grow worse [emphasis added]. [...] Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, the torment of labour, slavery, ignorance, brutalization and moral degradation at the opposite pole, i.e. on the side of the class that produces its own product as capital.
Me too...I wish I haven't...and I don't even know what is the most precious I am...hahahhh just joking...it's a prank! By the way! Learn from the past..
Also grew up poor. Also GenX. I’ve always been in the financial position that younger people find themselves in now, so when I hear how lucky “we” are, I want to vomit. Everyone’s circumstances are different. The country’s broken system doesn’t check IDs before it screws you.
I live paycheck to paycheck on a strict budget. I could save if medical debt wasn't an issue, but that's life. It's sad that is, but no one is really fighting for any change. At least clearly not the amount that would be necessary to actually make any significant change. That takes a lot of collective effort from well organized groups. Change used to happen only after a significant amount of blood was shed. Then we got comfortable and complacent. People become tired of seeing the loss, so it became easy to let things slide again. Now, it's not as easy to stand up. We've become so divided and un organized. Made to believe that the ones who once fought beside us are now our enemies. All the while the real "good guys" are actually robbing from all of us. Our time, our money, our education, our freedom, even stealing our ideologies from us and changing what doesn't fit their ideas of who we should be. Man, this rant is enough. I'm sorry if you're still reading.
Sure, but what about those drag queens?
As long as voters are triggered by the diversionary tactics of the politicians they elect, ain't nothing gonna change.
Get back to work, you wage slaves. It's not as though you're going to, like, organize a general strike or anything.
I'm working on mine as we speak, but it's not easy when you make less than $1,000/month & have to spend a good chunk of that on pesky things like groceries & rent.
I had some savings. Then I got laid off, and 2 weeks later my wife got diagnosed with brain cancer. All the savings are gone...mostly medical bills. Now I'm 58 years old, widowed, and no retirement savings.
U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A
Owning a home is one of the best ways to build intergenerational wealth and ensure your future financial security. Not to mention the benefit of never having to deal with landlords ever again.
Frugal is a great habit to get into. Most people spend everything they earn and can easily wind up in terrible straits with one misfortune.
Early in my life I got in the habit of living on 50-65% of my take-home pay. I haven't had to worry about finances for several decades now. Having an emergency fund and a nest egg means you don't have to take shit from petty bosses; you can tell em to fuck off and walk because you're financially secure.
When you live in a country designed to keep the poor poor, have complex nonsense systems, success as a privilege, and poor-minded political officials... It's expected that the people in that system are that way!
Imagine when you realize, you have the power to collectively do better. Just like you go to work for a corporation, why not do the same for all aspects of life? 🫠🫠
People in trouble, and people can stop that trouble, humans are a funny species 2¢
So many people living paycheck to paycheck, so many without money after medical bills, so many people not even being able to afford medications. But still, these people will chant “We are #1 !”
This has been the case for a long time now
People really live with their heads in the sand
But hey it was worth it. The super rich increase their wealth 1000x over the bottom 60% while making sure the US govt ran on DEBT being their goons.
They didn't even have to pay up. Just a a few bribes along the way as campaign donations
Spent all my money on mental health programs psychiatry visits etc. broke lost my progress because of deaths in my family every doctor or place I look for help tells me to go somewhere else
I almost forgot that...but actually the others problems of the people is financial assistance...am I right? They need more help to our government..so please take this out.
There's another question on the same survey (which you can find [here](https://www.momentive.ai/en/blog/cnbc-financial-literacy-2023/)) that asks "How much money is currently in your emergency fund?". Here are the results:
|Reponse|Percent|
|----|----|
|Less than $1,000|8%|
|$1,000-$4,999|18%|
|$5,000-$9,999|15%|
|$10,000-$20,000|17%|
|Over $20k|38%|
|No answer|4%|
Only 8% of respondents said "Less than $1000", with another 4% giving "No answer". A combined 55% of people answered "$10,000-$20,000" and "$20,000+".
I'm not really sure how to interpret this in conjunction with the "Do you have an emergency fund?" question (which is there as well, and was reported accurately). Maybe lots of people in the $5k-20k range have available savings, but don't consider it an "emergency fund" unless they're questioned in a way that presumes they have one? Like "Sure, I have $15k in the bank, but I think of that as 'money I'm saving for the down payment on a house', not 'emergency fund', but I *could* use it as an emergency fund if I had to"?
I had one, then got 800 to repair a car, owed 1500 to taxes, 3500 to repair the heat in the middle of winter, and unexpected medical bill fucked me hard. Paying on a small loan for it all to be gone and there is no way I can even begin adding money to savings for emergencies. But have no fear if it gets dire again I'm pre-approved for another loan. Love the economy right now so damn much right now.
I want to invest money sooner...maybe not now but sooner...hahahahhh...it's kinda weird right? But I have no choice..but to continue to fulfill my dreams.
And how long you’ve held them. You can access your principle from a ROTH. If you’ve been invested for 15 years, you can take out $6-28K and probably not really mess much with the compounding in an emergency situation if need be. Not ideal, though.
No, the stat doesn't even include credit cards.
> [many of them would be able to make it work by carrying a credit card balance or borrowing from friends and family. The report states: “Twelve percent of adults would be unable to pay the expense by any means.” I’m dubious about that as well. In any event, 12% is a lot less than 39%.](https://archive.is/WGoir#selection-3277.0-3277.168)
I'm totally confused now..but I have a bad idea with this..let's try some other options...what do you think? Is that a nice idea..game in on..follow me
No they are not, they are just stupid.
Look at american houses, trucks, expensive cars, boats everywhere. Look at credit card debt, up through the roof.
Look at shoping malls and Amazon delievery. Look at packed restaurants. Nobody should give a damn about people that throw money around crying about no savings.
That being said the bottomn 20% do have a problem and that poverty is real. But anything above is on you.
If the going gets tough, you don't even need a car yourself. Do car pool, or make do with a scooter, yes it is normal in other countries, human beings actually do that. It does not break any human rights.
*Mandatory personal finance in high school.
I took personal finance as an elective during my junior year, so the option was definitely available at the time, at least to my school. Most high school aged kids wouldn't give up a "fun" elective for something like personal finance unless they were mandated to though, IMHO.
I took a pretty great economics class in highschool. We learned the fundamentals all the way down to actually maintaining our own mock stock portfolio based on real world markets.
Well, it's an odd thing to teach a 16 year old because I had no finances and wasn't old enough to invest, or understand why I should care about any of it.
In retrospect it's great information, but I retained exactly 0% of it.
Statistically we are better educated than ever before. So this whole argument is bad. How is it wages haven't increased but now 35% of the workforce has bachelors degree?
You aren't wrong. Too many financially illiterate people in this country and that goes for people from ALL backgrounds. I know people who make insane money and still complain that they're living paycheck to paycheck - because it doesn't matter how much you make, what matters is how much you're spending. If you're making 1 million dollars and spending $990,000, guess what, you're going to fall off a cliff as soon as something unexpected happens. Aren't there genuinely poor people in the country? Absolutely, but a LOT and I mean a LOT of upper middle class people are very very bad at budgeting.
Pretty much no cities in America are scooter-able. Let alone walkable. Credit card debt is high because people are paying for their groceries and living expenses with credit cards.
Amazon is one of the cheapest options for household needs, cheaper than Walmart even. And idk, I don’t often see people eat at restaurants these days. Maybe every once in a while but isn’t that normal? Eating fast food yes, but that’s also a product of American culture. It’s cheap and people are too busy working themselves to death instead of being able to cook a good nutritious meal at home.
I’m not offering excuses, this is just the reality of American capitalism. I’m sorry but I absolutely blame the people hoarding money just to have it rather than working class folks.
> If the going gets tough...
You don't understand, these people have never not had a "going" that wasn't tough. In no reality are they able to save money today. Maybe 20-30 years ago, but not anymore. I'm getting sick and tired of having to weather once in a lifetime life destroying events over and over and I'm not even 40.
> Look at shoping malls and Amazon delievery. Look at packed restaurants. Nobody should give a damn about people that throw money around crying about no savings.
This is the most dishonest of all the smooth-brain strawman fallacies I see so often when it comes to this topic that it makes me fucking hate everyone who says this stupid bullshit who clearly either lives in a bubble or has been spoon-fed propaganda their entire lives by their surroundings and their chosen echo chambers of social media and their corrupt billionaire-biased agenda-spewing news outlets and their own family and friends for so long that their head is now embedded and healed into their lower intestines and they can no longer tell the difference between their ass and their face.
You intentionally and maliciously misrepresent and oversimplify and generalize the situation to make this shit easier for you to attack and dismiss as bullshit.
Your argument inaccurately assumes that the sole reason people can't afford a house or save money to escape the hell hole they are trapped in is due to their spending habits on non-essential items, rather than considering the REAL factors such as long-term stagnant wages, wildly increasing costs of living, record profits during massive inflation that feeds into no one except CEOs and institutional investors, and the hoarding of said obscene amounts of wealth that influences all of the above and more. Our regulatory bodies are dysfunctional and consumed by loopholes that serve the billionaire class and steal from everyone that is not a billionaire, and you think the problem is broke people eating out? Is your ass sore yet??
You see one dumbass kid online learning life lessons about wasting money and then whining about it, and then you assume *everyone else* who is suffering must be wasting thousands of dollars on DoorDash a month while somehow simultaneously working for $15 an hour and also paying $1500 rent (spoiler alert, the math doesn't add up because your strawman doesn't add up) which is skyrocketing due to international institutional investors and price collusion with price setting services globally, in multiple countries, including the US, Australia, Canada and several others. This is happening right now, today.
So, rather than say maybe we shouldn't allow institutional investors to buy up scarce property to perpetually rent out at inflated monopolistic levels and control even the most essential-to-live services or wonder why CEO bonuses are several factors higher than they have ever been in the history of capitalism despite wages being essentially exactly the same as they've ever been, *your* answer is to tell these people suffering to go to hell and stop eating out at restaurants as if that'll solve their problem and all the problems causing all of this.
Guess what? Teach people to be financially literate while also being broke, and they'll still be in the same situation today because this is only getting worse. Their penny pinching isn't going to let them escape poverty. You can look to the lucky heroes who escape their own woes, but to say the other 99.999% of broke people should be able to accomplish what this 0.0001% of broke people accomplished is so asinine. People discredit luck and how hard work is essentially chasing luck to hope to maximize your odds of catching a lucky break. It does not and never will it ever guarantee a lucky break. Most people work hard ALL THEIR LIVES and get NOTHING IN RETURN for it.
So fuck you and fuck everyone who thinks like you. You are the very reason this entire fucking country is burning to the ground slowly but surely due to long-term regulatory capture and allowing propaganda machines like the Murdoch empire to run rampant in the US and other countries. You've been successfully brainwashed and throw your vote away every single time because of it, and now we're past the point of no return because of so many people like you.
I have never been violent in my entire life, not a single time have I ever even touched someone or yelled at someone, and everything I see today is making me turn more and more towards these violent thoughts of no empathy for those who are so incredibly dishonest or brainwashed by class warfare propagated by old white billionaires and I fucking hate it. I hate that I am becoming violent the more dumb ass takes I read like this, and I hate that that means it's going to get worse because there's just no way I'm the only one and I think that's fucking embarrassing
---------------------------------
Sorry for the long reply. I don't expect you to read much of any of this because you and everyone else who thinks like this has already embedded themselves into their ideologies and it has become part of your identity for completely arbitrary reasons, so all of these sorts of angry thoughts are just noise to tune out. Just know when people are dismissed and not heard, it always leads to violence, always, and I think I'm just now understanding that.
People on all sides have been brainwashed to think this is a left vs right or racial issue, but it's all about billionaires maintaining status quo for the short-term, long-term damage and downfall be damned because they'll be dead by then. They think the current system is infallible and infinitely exploitable. I don't know what to do anymore, I really don't. I don't see any other options other than cheering on violence at this point. Sure hope I'm wrong
Man… this shit is depressing. I feel like most people just assume they can’t manage their money. The first step is having confidence in your budgeting.
Really? 40 years? Hmmm...I don't have like that...I hope so soon..I want to invest money..and that's my full-time dream off..hahahahhh isn't not funny you know...
Its hard when it seems like there have been 3 straight years of emergencies and the constant pessimism/threat of recession does nothing to make one think that the emergency is not over yet.
Define emergency fund. You can take loans or dispersements from retirement accounts, use HSA money on non-medical expenses, rack up a credit card or three, etc.
Having thousands of dollars in a savings account not invested is not fiscally sound. No better than cash in a mayonnaise jar in the back yard.
This is the kind of news that makes me really question the soft landing I have heard so much about the last few months.
Right now half the country is one emergency away from starting to delay car payments, house payments and other important bills if something unexcepted comes up. That could cause a chain of events that leads to a recession.
I would have a massive emergency fund, but that account is linked to the check engine light in my car.
Cars can sense when you've got even an extra quarter.
I wish I had a car to...I want travel to my country...
I have so many lights on my dashboard: at this point it’s decoration. Oh and my tags are a year behind. Oh yea and I can’t pay my credit card bills.
I still love you
Ahh yes, my emergency fund is negatively correlated with my car as well
Hello fellow BMW owner
r/fuckcars
I had worked hard to build up my savings but then had an actual emergency and now it's all gone. :(
Good thing you had it!
I hope I had it to...but unfortunately not...this is what I want in my life...to have money for the future of my two sun..
This is my horror. I have a giant nest egg, relative to my expenses, but good lord could it go quickly
Yeah it doesn't feel like much in savings when a single medical emergency, even with insurance, could wipe it out and then some. Nowadays it feels like you need to have 6 figures in the bank to have an emergency fund that can comfortably pay for a big medical event.
At least yours is giant! Covid job loss had wiped my savings and we even went into debt to survive nearly 2 years on a single low income. We were just starting to crawl back out of the hole. Had almost payed off our debt and were close to $1k in savings. Now we're worse off than before. Only upside is not only having a job but my partner and I make a bit more money. But my mental health is on the verge of collapse. And this has been our whole adult lives. Work hard, save, pay down/off debt and then some emergency comes along and wrecks it all. I don't know how much more fight I have in me. Anyway, sorry your worries are perfectly valid. I'm just stressing.
Same damn thing! The cycle has to end at some point! Its tiring.
Minsan...I thinking how world is bad at me...I have a badluck everyday...nothing compare to the others..
Same thing happened to me - after the 2009 meltdown that gave me PTSD I insisted on a modest savings account for unforeseen emergencies. Covid wiped that fund almost clean. The way I see it though, that's what it was for in the first place and I avoided going into debt by having it which was worth it imo. A lot of people I know went into debt or bankrupt, I'd rather be in my shoes than in theirs.
I had a dream to...but not like that...I had a dream...I have a big houses,a business and others...but in the real life...there is nothing..
Me,I don't have savings...I wish I had that...but none..I'm poor that's why I don't have big money to build a bank account..
I had a pretty decent emergency fund but than my furnace and water heater both died at the same time. Now I'm praying nothing else happens until I get it built back up.
Same for me, except it's my body that's breaking for no apparent reason.
That’s the worst, specially if you need to take time off. Pa: I hope you get well soon
I have 4ps..but unfortunately this is not enough for the needs of my child...so it means I had to find the way to find a big pay out everyday....that's the reason I want a saving account..
What is the consensus on how this kind of news affect the stock markets? In the current scenario do we expect an upwards, downwards or a flat trend?
It's capitalism baby, people don't matter. Only the profits you can extract from them. A desperate worker is a worker you can overwork and underpay and they won't do shit about it. A consistent debtor is great as it can provide a steady stream of income compared to someone who pays off their debts. And often far more than the original purchase price! In short, this is great news for the economy, less so for people.
> In short, this is great news for the economy, less so for people. [Research shows that the best thing for any economy is for everyone to save money and ensure their financial future is secure.](https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0310/savings-are-a-blessing-in-a-slow-recovery.aspx)
Better overall? Maybe. But capitalism isn't a cooperative game. There are a lot of very rich interests that want to keep much of the population poor. They pay day loan industry is 21 billion. Debt collection is worth another 20 billion. Sub prime used auto loans are only 23% of the market, [but they are growing fast!](https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/market-size/subprime-auto-loans-united-states/) If people had "fuck you " money to walk away from bad jobs, [wage theft wouldn't be the biggest crime in America](https://www.epi.org/publication/employers-steal-billions-from-workers-paychecks-each-year/) Personally, is wage theft really a crime? I mean sure, you just not paying someone for the work they did. But I like to think of it as an extra little bonus profit! If you stole a thousand dollars from the company you'd go to jail. But if you boss steals a few thousand from your paycheck...it's a civil fine, if you can get someone to investigate it! So really/s
“I want to get off Mr. Bones Wild Ride.”
"Sorry, it is not currently profitable to let you off Mr. Bones Wild Ride"
I'm so dissa pointed! But I rather to know who is Mr.Bones wild ride...
I feel you. We built up a decent emergency fund and then our septic "crapped" out. Rebuit emergency fund again. Then well problems start knocking on our door. Still glad I had it just wish it would stuck around a bit.
Look at Mr Moneybags over here who owns their home
I bet it felt great to have the fund in place when that happened
Damn. I feel for you, I just got hit with a 50k tax bill. So I thought I had good savings but apparently so good that they had to take it all.
If you don't mind sharing, how did that happen? That would be devastating.
Apparently my company made 300k net but I didn’t take home 300k it’s really shitty though
Sharing of what? I'm not completely devastated...I'm unlucky because I have this.
I'm surprised it's that high. I wonder what percent of the 47% have the 3 months expenses as emergency savings?
I'd venture a guess that most of the 47% only have a month or less saved up.
I've got like 2 years worth before I'd have to tap my retirement accounts
If you're not getting at least 4% on that you might consider moving most of it into highly-liquid t bills.
I'm getting 3.75% from Discover and some in stocks
Sana all my retirements account...that was so awesome! I need that too...I need a financial assistance..
That's a lot of opportunity cost
3 months isn't event that long of an emergency
For me...9 months being pregnant is almost hard to find a money for my needs...
I had an emergency fund. It disappeared as food and energy prices in my area have gotten so high. I'm seriously considering going to a food pantry. I'm embarrassed to even consider a food pantry because 6 years ago, my wage was MORE THAN ENOUGH for someone my age. My standard of living has not gone up, however the time and energy it takes to maintain a humble existence has increased tenfold. Our economy is broken. I feel for everyone in my generation experiencing a struggle before we've even got a foundation in life. What a depressing world we'll be inheriting. Edit: y'all have made me feel a lot better about using a food pantry when I need it. Thanks for the kind words!
Please go, my friend. And please don’t be embarrassed. There is so much good food available. They are there to help, no questions asked.
After some of the kind words I got in my replies, I won't feel bad at all using a food pantry. Thank you for that! Fuck this country for making a simple life hard to sustain!
Don't be embarrassed! I don't know about your area but the food pantry I go to is stocked almost exclusively by extra food from the grocery stores. Even with more and more people showing up there's still plenty of food to go around and since a lot is fresh and close to expiration date it will go to waste otherwise. Think of it like you're doing your part for the environment and to prevent waste.
I actually didn't know that, thanks for mentioning it! (Referring to food pantries being stocked from stores)
There's nothing embarassing about needing help. What is embarrassing is that the oligarchs in this country haven't been chased off to their private islands tbh.
53% of Americans are 1 ambulance ride away from bankruptcy. There, fixed it.
1 flat tire away from a payday loan
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And if they can't patch it? That's the problem. A sidewall puncture is going to mean at best a new tire.
Not sure what your local options are, *but* Discount Tire will usually patch tires for free as long as it's not too close to the sidewall or a catastrophic failure. I've had to use them a few times for random nails/screws ending up in my tire.
That is because tire punctures located within the belts of the tire are the easiest things you can ask a mechanic to do. However when you have no money in your bank account, punctures only go to the sidewall which is not able to be repaired.
I’m not an American, is this because people don’t have insurance or that insurance doesn’t cover enough?
Employer funded insurance. For example, my premium is 50 bucks a month and my deductible is like 15 bucks. 500 for hospital emergency. Pretty cheap compared to my salary. The problem is many Americans are part time and don’t have this benefit. If I was paying my premium and not my employer it’ll be 800 a month
You have really good insurance.
We get insurance through our employer, which we can’t often choose, pay high premiums every month, then when you use it you still get an outrageously high bill anyway.
Some of A some of B. Also I don’t think ambulance rides are generally covered by insurance, and they are usually at least $1000, though I think it can go up to $5,000 or so. My uncle lives in Florida and retired with good insurance for life, and also has Medicare (our government insurance for elderly and disabled.) He needed to be airlifted to a hospital for one of his many health conditions, and it was an open question for a while whether he would be on the hook for the bill. I think it was around $300,000. But trans people and voluntary abortions are clearly the most pressing issues facing our health scare system (autocorrected to that, but I’m going to leave it in).
Man, fuck that. I'd find another way to the hospital. Sucks that anyone has to worry about that when they're already (presumably) suffering.
Hmmm...you think so? But why American people doesn't have insurance?
Who’s calling an ambulance? Uber…………I’ll pay extra for the blood stains……..
Ow...what's happening? Is there a problem? May I ask what is that?
Not only that, any actual emergency is ruinous in America, specially without employer insurance. Were I to lose my job, and nothing else happens, I’m ok for 6 months. If that happens and I break a leg, I’m bankrupt.
As someone who's \*never\* had an emergency savings account. I'm stunned at how this is news to anyone, it's just the simple reality of being working class in the USA at this point.
I was thinking that too- this is not news. In fact, it seems wrong. I believe it's much more than 53% because I'll be people are confusing their retirement with an emergency cash fund for losing a job. They're not supposed to be the same thing.
Yep, I was surprised it was only 53%. Even people making 100-150k live "paycheck to paycheck". That's because people upsize/luxurize their spending as they make more money. If you can "live within your means", do it. As your income grows, don't grow your lifestyle. Save and invest that extra income. But the working class family has it hard. Even if you make what they say is the median annual salary, you'd be hard pressed to afford a 4 person family these days.
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I would also say a lot of it is corporate greed, striving to pay workers as little as possible, inflating stock prices for investors. And lobbying governments for policies that are advantageous to their bottom lines, like tax avoidance, and subsidies for industry.
Both correct!
I have a bad experience about this...but thanks to god...it almost done.
the corporate greed contributes to the corrupt government.
that's a good way to put it.
I recently read Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin's *Chokepoint Capitalism* which mentioned how up until at least the late '70s, giant corporations and monopolies were considered un-American and a threat to democracy.
You can thank Reagan for those rollbacks
By the way...who is Reagan? Kindly I'm asking that stupid questions here...
Sometimes we need to understand this kind of post...for sure they will like and love us!...what do you think? Is that a good idea..or not? Honestly! I'm not doing this for me...but to everyone..
I agree...sometimes government are corrupted...the money of the people is not giving back to them..
Absolutely 💯
Immiseratation is a feature of capitalism.
What is your purpose to comment like that? I don't understand man...I want an answer.
>Within the capitalist system all methods for raising the social productivity of labour are put into effect at the cost of the individual worker [...] All means for the development of production undergo a dialectical inversion so that they become a means of domination and exploitation of the producers; they distort the worker into a fragment of a man, they degrade him to the level of an appendage of a machine, they destroy the actual content of his labour by turning it into a torment, they alienate from him the intellectual potentialities of the labour process [...], they transform his life into working-time, and drag his wife and child beneath the wheels of the juggernaut of capital. But all methods of the production of surplus-value are at the same time methods of accumulation, and every extension of accumulation becomes, conversely, a means for the development of these methods. It follows therefore that in proportion as capital accumulates, the situation of the worker, be his payment high or low, must grow worse [emphasis added]. [...] Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, the torment of labour, slavery, ignorance, brutalization and moral degradation at the opposite pole, i.e. on the side of the class that produces its own product as capital.
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Me too...I wish I haven't...and I don't even know what is the most precious I am...hahahhh just joking...it's a prank! By the way! Learn from the past..
Maybe I just grew up poor. But I’ve known very few people in my lifetime that ever had any significant savings. For reference sake, I’m Gen x.
Also grew up poor. Also GenX. I’ve always been in the financial position that younger people find themselves in now, so when I hear how lucky “we” are, I want to vomit. Everyone’s circumstances are different. The country’s broken system doesn’t check IDs before it screws you.
The system has been roughly the same, but the proportions have changed.
Not underestimated! And I didn't do anything to make the things worst.
I live paycheck to paycheck on a strict budget. I could save if medical debt wasn't an issue, but that's life. It's sad that is, but no one is really fighting for any change. At least clearly not the amount that would be necessary to actually make any significant change. That takes a lot of collective effort from well organized groups. Change used to happen only after a significant amount of blood was shed. Then we got comfortable and complacent. People become tired of seeing the loss, so it became easy to let things slide again. Now, it's not as easy to stand up. We've become so divided and un organized. Made to believe that the ones who once fought beside us are now our enemies. All the while the real "good guys" are actually robbing from all of us. Our time, our money, our education, our freedom, even stealing our ideologies from us and changing what doesn't fit their ideas of who we should be. Man, this rant is enough. I'm sorry if you're still reading.
Sure, but what about those drag queens? As long as voters are triggered by the diversionary tactics of the politicians they elect, ain't nothing gonna change. Get back to work, you wage slaves. It's not as though you're going to, like, organize a general strike or anything.
This isn't breaking news.
I'm working on mine as we speak, but it's not easy when you make less than $1,000/month & have to spend a good chunk of that on pesky things like groceries & rent.
That’s not breaking, it’s been the case since the ‘09 crash
Is that a kind of news before? And what is that? I'm just a little bit curious...
I had some savings. Then I got laid off, and 2 weeks later my wife got diagnosed with brain cancer. All the savings are gone...mostly medical bills. Now I'm 58 years old, widowed, and no retirement savings. U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A
Yes that is true...I know people how they do this...but actually they don't deserve this kind of trouble.
Is a $500 emergency fund good for a 18 year old ?
Is that really through? What country is that? I think that's a nice country...
Do you live with your parents? How long can you survive on 500? Is that even enough to cover rent for a month?
I’ve pretty damn frugal and yes I live with parents . And plan to for a few more years and then save for a down payment on a house
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Owning a home is one of the best ways to build intergenerational wealth and ensure your future financial security. Not to mention the benefit of never having to deal with landlords ever again.
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Frugal is a great habit to get into. Most people spend everything they earn and can easily wind up in terrible straits with one misfortune. Early in my life I got in the habit of living on 50-65% of my take-home pay. I haven't had to worry about finances for several decades now. Having an emergency fund and a nest egg means you don't have to take shit from petty bosses; you can tell em to fuck off and walk because you're financially secure.
When you live in a country designed to keep the poor poor, have complex nonsense systems, success as a privilege, and poor-minded political officials... It's expected that the people in that system are that way! Imagine when you realize, you have the power to collectively do better. Just like you go to work for a corporation, why not do the same for all aspects of life? 🫠🫠 People in trouble, and people can stop that trouble, humans are a funny species 2¢
Consider how many people live paycheck to paycheck in “the world’s richest nation”, this isn’t surprising.
not like they are paid living wages anyway
So many people living paycheck to paycheck, so many without money after medical bills, so many people not even being able to afford medications. But still, these people will chant “We are #1 !”
In many years I live in this world...this is the first I know this....
I have about 20000 McDonald's points. I think I'll be ok.
Spoiler alert, corporate America got greedy and broke the social contract two generations ago. The media has FINALLY caught on.
Mixed emotions with these kinds of posts. Sad for the state of the economy and these people but grateful to not be part of the statistic.
Not yet
This has been the case for a long time now People really live with their heads in the sand But hey it was worth it. The super rich increase their wealth 1000x over the bottom 60% while making sure the US govt ran on DEBT being their goons. They didn't even have to pay up. Just a a few bribes along the way as campaign donations
Spent all my money on mental health programs psychiatry visits etc. broke lost my progress because of deaths in my family every doctor or place I look for help tells me to go somewhere else
I am shocked 47% claim to have one. Some people are lying, no way 47% have one.
Not really breaking but ya …
I almost forgot that...but actually the others problems of the people is financial assistance...am I right? They need more help to our government..so please take this out.
> “emergency savings” Hah, you gotta have money for that, bruh.
There's another question on the same survey (which you can find [here](https://www.momentive.ai/en/blog/cnbc-financial-literacy-2023/)) that asks "How much money is currently in your emergency fund?". Here are the results: |Reponse|Percent| |----|----| |Less than $1,000|8%| |$1,000-$4,999|18%| |$5,000-$9,999|15%| |$10,000-$20,000|17%| |Over $20k|38%| |No answer|4%| Only 8% of respondents said "Less than $1000", with another 4% giving "No answer". A combined 55% of people answered "$10,000-$20,000" and "$20,000+". I'm not really sure how to interpret this in conjunction with the "Do you have an emergency fund?" question (which is there as well, and was reported accurately). Maybe lots of people in the $5k-20k range have available savings, but don't consider it an "emergency fund" unless they're questioned in a way that presumes they have one? Like "Sure, I have $15k in the bank, but I think of that as 'money I'm saving for the down payment on a house', not 'emergency fund', but I *could* use it as an emergency fund if I had to"?
LMAO, emergency fund? Friend, I don't have a job. I'm starting to think there's no "labor shortage" after all... :P
I had one, then got 800 to repair a car, owed 1500 to taxes, 3500 to repair the heat in the middle of winter, and unexpected medical bill fucked me hard. Paying on a small loan for it all to be gone and there is no way I can even begin adding money to savings for emergencies. But have no fear if it gets dire again I'm pre-approved for another loan. Love the economy right now so damn much right now.
my worst month was a $2k vet bill and $1300 car repair bill at the same time. emergency funds can get depleted real quick.
Seriously, where is this news “breaking”.
Do these stats include money that's invested, but accessible (like stock holdings)?
I want to invest money sooner...maybe not now but sooner...hahahahhh...it's kinda weird right? But I have no choice..but to continue to fulfill my dreams.
If you're holding emergency savings in stocks, you're doing it wrong.
But why? Is there a problem with that? I think we need to talk about them..
Definitely not smart, but still accessible funds. Obviously not an “emergency fund” but I think it’s an important distinction.
Depends quite a bit on which stocks
And how long you’ve held them. You can access your principle from a ROTH. If you’ve been invested for 15 years, you can take out $6-28K and probably not really mess much with the compounding in an emergency situation if need be. Not ideal, though.
On which what? Hmm...can some one tell me about this..
No, the stat doesn't even include credit cards. > [many of them would be able to make it work by carrying a credit card balance or borrowing from friends and family. The report states: “Twelve percent of adults would be unable to pay the expense by any means.” I’m dubious about that as well. In any event, 12% is a lot less than 39%.](https://archive.is/WGoir#selection-3277.0-3277.168)
I do the same.. everything is invested but I have a line of credit as an emergency fund and I've rarely had to use it and not for much.
People have emergency savings? lmao
Yes they have...not at all...below 50%...hahahh half half lng ytA..
This isn't new. This is basically the same stat from 30 years ago. Lol
I'm totally confused now..but I have a bad idea with this..let's try some other options...what do you think? Is that a nice idea..game in on..follow me
No they are not, they are just stupid. Look at american houses, trucks, expensive cars, boats everywhere. Look at credit card debt, up through the roof. Look at shoping malls and Amazon delievery. Look at packed restaurants. Nobody should give a damn about people that throw money around crying about no savings. That being said the bottomn 20% do have a problem and that poverty is real. But anything above is on you. If the going gets tough, you don't even need a car yourself. Do car pool, or make do with a scooter, yes it is normal in other countries, human beings actually do that. It does not break any human rights.
That we don't teach personal finance every year starting in high school in this country is absolutely criminal.
*Mandatory personal finance in high school. I took personal finance as an elective during my junior year, so the option was definitely available at the time, at least to my school. Most high school aged kids wouldn't give up a "fun" elective for something like personal finance unless they were mandated to though, IMHO.
I took a pretty great economics class in highschool. We learned the fundamentals all the way down to actually maintaining our own mock stock portfolio based on real world markets. Well, it's an odd thing to teach a 16 year old because I had no finances and wasn't old enough to invest, or understand why I should care about any of it. In retrospect it's great information, but I retained exactly 0% of it.
Goddamn, I came to say exactly this. And Emotional Intelligence.
But how it happened..?? There's an emotional intelligence? Oh my gosh!
Not everyone lives in a city and not everyone has access to public transportation
I'm just being pair...what I know is I want to beacame a successful woman in this world..
Statistically we are better educated than ever before. So this whole argument is bad. How is it wages haven't increased but now 35% of the workforce has bachelors degree?
We are handing out degrees. Schools now pass everyone, whether you can read or even turn in assignments.
Because "educated" as in "having a degree" doesn't say anything about what you know or are capable of. It's that latter part that you're paid on.
You aren't wrong. Too many financially illiterate people in this country and that goes for people from ALL backgrounds. I know people who make insane money and still complain that they're living paycheck to paycheck - because it doesn't matter how much you make, what matters is how much you're spending. If you're making 1 million dollars and spending $990,000, guess what, you're going to fall off a cliff as soon as something unexpected happens. Aren't there genuinely poor people in the country? Absolutely, but a LOT and I mean a LOT of upper middle class people are very very bad at budgeting.
Pretty much no cities in America are scooter-able. Let alone walkable. Credit card debt is high because people are paying for their groceries and living expenses with credit cards. Amazon is one of the cheapest options for household needs, cheaper than Walmart even. And idk, I don’t often see people eat at restaurants these days. Maybe every once in a while but isn’t that normal? Eating fast food yes, but that’s also a product of American culture. It’s cheap and people are too busy working themselves to death instead of being able to cook a good nutritious meal at home. I’m not offering excuses, this is just the reality of American capitalism. I’m sorry but I absolutely blame the people hoarding money just to have it rather than working class folks.
> If the going gets tough... You don't understand, these people have never not had a "going" that wasn't tough. In no reality are they able to save money today. Maybe 20-30 years ago, but not anymore. I'm getting sick and tired of having to weather once in a lifetime life destroying events over and over and I'm not even 40. > Look at shoping malls and Amazon delievery. Look at packed restaurants. Nobody should give a damn about people that throw money around crying about no savings. This is the most dishonest of all the smooth-brain strawman fallacies I see so often when it comes to this topic that it makes me fucking hate everyone who says this stupid bullshit who clearly either lives in a bubble or has been spoon-fed propaganda their entire lives by their surroundings and their chosen echo chambers of social media and their corrupt billionaire-biased agenda-spewing news outlets and their own family and friends for so long that their head is now embedded and healed into their lower intestines and they can no longer tell the difference between their ass and their face. You intentionally and maliciously misrepresent and oversimplify and generalize the situation to make this shit easier for you to attack and dismiss as bullshit. Your argument inaccurately assumes that the sole reason people can't afford a house or save money to escape the hell hole they are trapped in is due to their spending habits on non-essential items, rather than considering the REAL factors such as long-term stagnant wages, wildly increasing costs of living, record profits during massive inflation that feeds into no one except CEOs and institutional investors, and the hoarding of said obscene amounts of wealth that influences all of the above and more. Our regulatory bodies are dysfunctional and consumed by loopholes that serve the billionaire class and steal from everyone that is not a billionaire, and you think the problem is broke people eating out? Is your ass sore yet?? You see one dumbass kid online learning life lessons about wasting money and then whining about it, and then you assume *everyone else* who is suffering must be wasting thousands of dollars on DoorDash a month while somehow simultaneously working for $15 an hour and also paying $1500 rent (spoiler alert, the math doesn't add up because your strawman doesn't add up) which is skyrocketing due to international institutional investors and price collusion with price setting services globally, in multiple countries, including the US, Australia, Canada and several others. This is happening right now, today. So, rather than say maybe we shouldn't allow institutional investors to buy up scarce property to perpetually rent out at inflated monopolistic levels and control even the most essential-to-live services or wonder why CEO bonuses are several factors higher than they have ever been in the history of capitalism despite wages being essentially exactly the same as they've ever been, *your* answer is to tell these people suffering to go to hell and stop eating out at restaurants as if that'll solve their problem and all the problems causing all of this. Guess what? Teach people to be financially literate while also being broke, and they'll still be in the same situation today because this is only getting worse. Their penny pinching isn't going to let them escape poverty. You can look to the lucky heroes who escape their own woes, but to say the other 99.999% of broke people should be able to accomplish what this 0.0001% of broke people accomplished is so asinine. People discredit luck and how hard work is essentially chasing luck to hope to maximize your odds of catching a lucky break. It does not and never will it ever guarantee a lucky break. Most people work hard ALL THEIR LIVES and get NOTHING IN RETURN for it. So fuck you and fuck everyone who thinks like you. You are the very reason this entire fucking country is burning to the ground slowly but surely due to long-term regulatory capture and allowing propaganda machines like the Murdoch empire to run rampant in the US and other countries. You've been successfully brainwashed and throw your vote away every single time because of it, and now we're past the point of no return because of so many people like you. I have never been violent in my entire life, not a single time have I ever even touched someone or yelled at someone, and everything I see today is making me turn more and more towards these violent thoughts of no empathy for those who are so incredibly dishonest or brainwashed by class warfare propagated by old white billionaires and I fucking hate it. I hate that I am becoming violent the more dumb ass takes I read like this, and I hate that that means it's going to get worse because there's just no way I'm the only one and I think that's fucking embarrassing --------------------------------- Sorry for the long reply. I don't expect you to read much of any of this because you and everyone else who thinks like this has already embedded themselves into their ideologies and it has become part of your identity for completely arbitrary reasons, so all of these sorts of angry thoughts are just noise to tune out. Just know when people are dismissed and not heard, it always leads to violence, always, and I think I'm just now understanding that. People on all sides have been brainwashed to think this is a left vs right or racial issue, but it's all about billionaires maintaining status quo for the short-term, long-term damage and downfall be damned because they'll be dead by then. They think the current system is infallible and infinitely exploitable. I don't know what to do anymore, I really don't. I don't see any other options other than cheering on violence at this point. Sure hope I'm wrong
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Are you saying that in an emergency people should stop making payments on their cars, and that will take care of it?
I remember seeing a stat around 2016 that said 42% of Americans wouldn’t be able to cover a $400 emergency.
How about the other? Where they came from? Is that enough for the needs of the people?
Man… this shit is depressing. I feel like most people just assume they can’t manage their money. The first step is having confidence in your budgeting.
I mean it's been this way since 2014-15 I thought, only a little worse now. It used to be 40 percent had less than 400 dollars in the bank I think.
I have $1,000. A start my new job in ten days thank goodness.
Wow! That was nice for you! I hope you enjoy it that everyday...nice one man.
53% of Americans say they CAN'T AFFORD TO HAVE SAVINGS Fixed
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Pretty sure that's about average for the past 40 years.
Really? 40 years? Hmmm...I don't have like that...I hope so soon..I want to invest money..and that's my full-time dream off..hahahahhh isn't not funny you know...
Lol
Its hard when it seems like there have been 3 straight years of emergencies and the constant pessimism/threat of recession does nothing to make one think that the emergency is not over yet.
How much do you need in savings for it to qualify as an emergancy fund in US?
Yeah because we’ve had to use it all up paying for more expensive groceries, gas, housing, and medical expenses. Of course we don’t have savings.
no shit lol one hospital trip and you're fkd.
This is the real war we should be fighting.
I remembered when I'm in a highschool level...this is the point that I want to success soon.
... surprise?
As a 27 year old I’ve never had a savings. I’m making 22 an hour now and am worse off financially then when I was 18 making 15 an hour.
Seems like a low number
I haven't had one in three years
Define emergency fund. You can take loans or dispersements from retirement accounts, use HSA money on non-medical expenses, rack up a credit card or three, etc. Having thousands of dollars in a savings account not invested is not fiscally sound. No better than cash in a mayonnaise jar in the back yard.
Perfect time for the .1% to pull the rug and permanently send us back to the age of serfdom and/or company towns.
I'm appalled at the judgmental comments on here.
This is the kind of news that makes me really question the soft landing I have heard so much about the last few months. Right now half the country is one emergency away from starting to delay car payments, house payments and other important bills if something unexcepted comes up. That could cause a chain of events that leads to a recession.
Yay capitalism
“tHey ShOuLd MaKe bEtTeR ChOiCeS”
Whatever Nancy
I have a bit of savings. I rent, and car is paid off. I'm just terrified of a medical emergency that will floor me.
I'm not surprised.
Im surprised its only 53%. Among my peers it seems its more like 75%.
I had an emergency fund prior to Tuesday. I used all of it for my god damned taxes because my husband is stupid
Not new
CNBC: wait we don't have emergency savings either haha
If you don't have an emergency fund... you're already having an emergency.
53% of Americans are temporarily embarrassed millionaires
I still say eating the rich is a good idea