*** UPDATE *** I was on my way out the door for a speech when I posted this and didn’t realize I’d closed comments. Oops.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Oy…
Two-thirds of Americans would have difficulty coming up with the money to cover a $1,000 emergency, according to an exclusive poll released Thursday, a signal that despite years of recovery from the Great Recession, Americans’ financial conditions remain precarious as ever.
These financial difficulties span all income levels, according to the poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Seventy-five percent of people in households making less than $50,000 a year would have difficulty coming up with $1,000 to cover an unexpected bill. But when income rose to between $50,000 and $100,000, the difficulty decreased only modestly to 67 percent. […]
Yet when faced with an unexpected $1,000 bill, a majority of Americans said they wouldn’t be especially likely to pay with money on hand, the AP-NORC survey found. A third said they would have to borrow from a bank or from friends and family, or put the bill on a credit card. Thirteen percent would skip paying other bills, and 11 percent said they would likely not pay the bill at all. […]
When AP-NORC asked if they will have enough savings to retire when they want to, 54 percent of working Americans say they are not very or not at all confident they will have enough. Only 14 percent say they are confident they can retire on time.
- Honeybear - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 3:27 pm:
Your speech was really top notch I was told. I thought it was intentional that you had no comments from not wanting to spoil the glow from the last time we discussed it.
Honestly this topic hits it on the head. On the bus up to Springfield for the rally we were talking about your previous post on this. For most of us we could squeak by with a 1000$ bill but just barely. It could possibly jeopardize several other things. There was a good amount of robbing Peter to pay Paul strategy in the responses. This from our “paid to much state workers”. This study hits it right on the head. The study that we discussed was that 51% of our Illinois children need free or reduced price school lunches. On NPR this morning they had a bit about a new metric put out by Columbia Univ called Material Hardship. Here’s a link
https://www.robinhood.org/sites/default/files/user-uploaded-images/PovertyTracker_Spring14.pdf
- PublicServant - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 3:42 pm:
===Only 14 percent say they are confident they can retire on time.===
Yeah, those 401K’s are a resounding success. /s
- Redeft - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 3:56 pm:
This article from The Atlantic says a 2013 survey by the Fed found that 47% of Americans could not meet a $400 emergency. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/
- Enviro - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 4:34 pm:
It seems that the economic recovery has only
benefited the top 1% or perhaps the top 14%.
The rest of the people have been left behind.
- No Raise - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 4:37 pm:
As a public service veteran for 30 years in Cook County, I advise readers not to panic over this article. The problem is that consumers have no idea how to budget. I spent decades in paternity court where parents had “no money” to raise the kids but were dressed in sharp clothes and always had the state-of-the-art cell phones, most better than mine. It’s all about choices and trust me, on a $50,000 salary, there is no reason for a lack of a $1000 emergency fund. Naturally, there are some exceptions, but overall, personal responsibility anyone?
- burbanite - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 4:52 pm:
http://inequality.org/income-inequality/
I used to think 50,000 a year was a lot of money, then I had kids: braces, dental, medical, school fees etc.
- RNUG - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 5:03 pm:
I’m not surprised by this. The greatest generation had no problem learning to save; they lived through the Great Depression.
The Baby Boomer generation had lots of opportunities and advantages, but a lot of them didn’t do a good job of saving and investing. And even the ones that did a good job are now caught between helping parents who didn’t save enough and kids who can’t find anything more than part-time just over minimum wage jobs. And that’s the boomers who were / are solidly Middle Class. If you weren’t / aren’t part of that success story, then you are even worse off.
Then you have the Gen X / Millennials buried under student debt and lack of good careers. Most of them can’t get ahead, and probably never will because the boomers won’t have anything left for them to inherit.
Did some of these groups make bad choices? Undoubtedly, yes. But there were a lot of external trends and pressures on the various groups that didn’t help.
And anything that destroys the few remaining job, like Rauner’s union destruction proposal, is not good.
I’m going to close with my initial thought upon first reading Rich’s posts:
Doh!
- A guy - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 5:09 pm:
Hey Willy, I could use a grand.
- lovecraft - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 5:47 pm:
Keep electing big business bozos like Rauner and watch the middle class continue to get squeezed to the bottom of the economic barrel.
- Anonymous - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 6:55 pm:
Those Boomers who did save for their retirement however, are being looked at to tap into for some help by our government ala taxes. So, the question starts to become: Should I save, only to have others take for themselves, or should I just enjoy my earnings for myself and family? See how people get into this?
- Matt P - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 7:08 pm:
Yet these same people will rush out to buy the new iPhone 7 and put it on their credit card.
Americans are addicted to debt.
Some. of this is personal behavior. Not all. But some.
- cannon649 - Thursday, May 19, 16 @ 8:24 pm:
This does not surprise me. I like to see the average debt those people have.
Wages and the saving rate are what you understand - sadly we rarely even discuss them.
- NSideLady - Friday, May 20, 16 @ 8:31 am:
I agree with several of the comments here. My mom is a boomer — caught between taking care of her mother and my younger sister who can’t find full-time work. The sister is back in school to become a dietitian (of which my mom is helping her financially with this as well). Thankfully, my mother did learn how to save. However, I’ve had to help out because she is getting stretched too thin. I fear for my oldest, about to start college this Fall who almost always goes over her weekly budget no matter how much we go over the topic. She’s barely out of high school and credit card companies are already mailing credit offers! How can she pay a credit card bill when she doesn’t have a job?
- Horse w/ no name - Friday, May 20, 16 @ 9:00 am:
“in paternity court where parents had “no money” to raise the kids but were dressed in sharp clothes and always had the state-of-the-art cell phones”
Yeah, look at all those fancy working poor with thier “clothes” and “communication devices ”
Take a walk with that coded language b.s.
- JB13 - Friday, May 20, 16 @ 9:46 am:
Yeah, but let’s just go ahead and jack up taxes on everybody anyway. Those freeloading taxpayers won’t miss it. They’ve had it coming for years anyway.