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62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
- manigandham 11y agoThis should be more explicit in saying "Savings Account" and not just savings. I have plenty of savings yet have 0 savings accounts (since they're practically useless). A little misleading here when many people just keep their money in checking or investment/retirement accounts.
- johnward 11y agoThis is what I was wondering. I assume they mean liquid savings. I rarely have any liquid savings but I have 40k in various retirement funds.
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- 6stringmerc 11y agoWell, I think it's relevant to consider that any type of investment vehicle outside of an insured savings account is subject to risk. Of course there are varying risk profiles, but in cold, hard terms an insured savings account (FDIC) is, conceptually, a secure store of funds. No downside risk and access without penalty to 100% of funds is something I don't think many investment vehicles can claim.
- kd5bjo 11y agoChecking accounts are also insured by the FDIC, and most people wouldn't include their checking balance when asked about a "savings account"
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- hugh4 11y agoI probably would, because I'm not sure I see the distinction. I'd also answer "none of your business" if asked.
- joshuacc 11y agoIn the US there is a legal distinction between savings accounts and checking accounts, which governs how many "convenient" transfers can be made to/from savings accounts, among other things. The question is specifically asking whether people have money in the legal "savings account" category, not whether they have savings in any random bank account.
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- manigandham 11y agoChecking accounts and certain retirement accounts are also insured, and easily retrievable The issue seems to be the relative lack of use from a separate savings account.
- greglindahl 11y agoMy Internet bank doesn't even offer savings accounts -- all accounts are checking.
- km3k 11y agoPlus, there's not a lot of difference between the interest rates of savings and checking accounts these days in general, so there's not a lot of difference between the two.
- ryandrake 11y agoBut, surely anyone with over, say, $10,000 in total savings/investments has at least $1,000 (10%) of it in some kind of cash account. Why on earth would one keep all of their assets in accounts that could lose value?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- igorgue 11y agoI don't have a savings account, but I do have more than that to spare and spend on whatever I want or not...
- patio11 11y agoThere's a conversation to be had about many Americans living in precarious financial situations, but the reason why most Americans don't currently view their savings accounts as priorities is because in the current interest rate environment savings accounts and CDs are products with vanishingly little to recommend them. The APY my bank offers is one basis point. That's $1 per year for every $10k held in the account. You can imagine that if I suddenly found $100k burning a hole in my pocket I would not immediately think "Sweet! All I have to do is stuff that it the bank for a year and then I can almost afford an entire movie ticket!"
- gipp 11y agoWell, they offer liquidity. I keep one for emergency living expenses; there's no real advantage over leaving it in checking, I guess, other than as a unit of organization, to explicitly mark it as "emergency funds".
- steve-howard 11y agoI do this too. Funny enough, my checking account earns a higher rate on the first $10k than my "savings" account, but I use a split direct deposit to grow my emergency savings and then try not to look at the savings account to reduce the temptation to use it.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- vvanders 11y agoI'd be surprised if it's just savings percentage driving this. As tech workers we're a bit more privileged in that we have access to salaries and opportunities that a lot of America doesn't have. Less than 6 years ago I was very much in that 62% category as high cost of living was eating into our combined paycheck pretty heavily.
- Shivetya 11y agoA lot of people get into the dangerous mentality that since the interest rates are not high that it somehow makes saving not a good idea, similar to many people in our industry who won't max out their 401k simply because the employer does not fully match. With regards to savings and lack thereof, regardless of salary. Far too many people excuse themselves from budgeting because they believe they are stretched too far to benefit. Yet the primary benefit of a budget is to understand where all your money is going, from major bills to day to day expenses; which can be a simple as that morning coffee or a pack of gum. Knowing where your money is going is the first step to getting yourself out of debt and a bad situation.
- learning_still 11y agoIt is worth noting that these statistics never take into account people's retirement funds. The survey also does not ask how much people have saved, but rather how much they have in their Savings Account. Many people keep all of their money in a checking account. Hence 1 in 5 people saying they don't even have a savings account. This is a rather misleading statistic overall. But yes, most Americans do not save. They have absolutely no education when it comes to personal finance, and feel absolutely no responsibility to educate themselves. They honestly think they can figure out their budgets on their own. This is shown by a lot of other similar statistics as well as many books on personal finance. The reality is we live in a debt culture. Most people do not understand why savings is necessary not optional. When shit happens, they just think, "There's no way I could have prepared for that." But the reality is that shit always happens. That's the whole purpose of saving.
- brewdad 11y agoHere's some interesting info on retirement accounts for those 50-64. http://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/guaranteeing-retirement-income/528-retirement-account-balances-by-income-even-the-highest-earners-dont-have-enough.html http://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/guaranteeing-retiremen... In short, very few Americans will be retiring at all, much less comfortably.
- eimai134 11y agoI'll bet a lot of people have money elsewhere. However, I have a lot of friends who are poor (by that I mean that they qualify for food stamps), and it's amazing to see the way they spend money. When I was poor I bought the very cheapest shampoo ($1) and bought generic everything. The poor people I know now buy name-brand products and buy a ton of Christmas and birthday presents. My husband and I have savings but we don't do any of these things!
- realquick81 11y agoIndeed, much of the poor are poor because they have low IQs.
- sleazebreeze 11y agoMy partner's family lives in government subsidized housing and they get the full array of benefits including disability and food stamps. His mother buys new luxury items like purses from Coach regularly with cash from under the table jobs. They have more TVs, newer smartphones and iPads and lots of other expensive goods, and yet they have zero savings. I don't understand the thinking there. I just hope their retirement plan isn't to live with my partner and I.
- cfontes 11y agoYou can bet your ass that the line of thinking is "They will support us"
- exhilaration 11y agoAt least in the U.S., putting that cash into savings would make it visible, putting their government benefits at risk. They probably don't make enough to survive -- those TV's and smartphones might only add up to a month or two of rent alone -- so they're trapped.
- eimai134 11y agoI've known three women in the past year who receive benefits and do work under the table for cash. One told me a story about how bad it was when she started making more money and lost the benefits and how it "wasn't worth it." Another has two kids, is unmarried to get more benefits, and even though she job training said that she is never going to get a job that pays a lot because she wants to remain on food stamps. The other has an unreported side business that brings in about $1500 cash that she doesn't report. Might be worth it for you to have a small place so there is literally "no room" for your partner's family...
- dlandis 11y agoAs others are pointing out it is a totally meaningless survey. They asked, "How much money do you have saved in your savings account?". Many people will only keep a small emergency fund in cash plus some money in a checking account and have everything else invested. Do those investment accounts and retirement accounts qualify as "savings accounts"? Probably not if people are reading the question literally.
- cvburgess 11y agoThose accounts that you mention are not liquid - if something happens and you need money tomorrow yo don't have immediate access to those funds. Also, sot retirement accounts levy fees if you pull funds out before you are 60.
- david927 11y agoA lot of people here think this is about you parse "savings". It's not: 47% of Americans say they lack the cash to pay a surprise $400 bill http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/09/hunter-schwarz/47-say-they-lack-ready-cash-pay-surprise-400-bill/ http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/09/...
- oberstein 11y agoThat is a much better line of questioning since it avoids the arguments about what is meant by savings. Also clicking through I found it avoids the followup argument of "what about credit cards"? To quote the whole thing: "47: The percentage of Americans who can’t pay for an unexpected $400 expense through savings or credit cards, without selling something or borrowing money, according to the Federal Reserve." But there's still a problem in that the $400 is "pay immediately". The other study from the same article showed 50% of Americans could cope with a surprise $2000 bill that they had 30 days to pay, in 2009.
- nemo44x 11y agoBecause they could use their paycheck and hit a payday loan store and begin to fall behind on other things. If you're living paycheck to paycheck a bit of time will let you figure it out but you don't have the cash today to pay a small bill. You shouldn't assume most people have much in the name of savings, much less capital.
- nemo44x 11y agoI think the audience on this site is mainly out of touch. When you're making a fine salary it's easy to forget that most people don't. When you're spending your time looking up at those above you and positioning to get to their level (because upward mobility is an option) it's easy to forget to look at the piles of people below you where it isn't It's easy to assume throwing $100 around here or there is normal when you're able to throw $800 on an impulse iPhone without a problem. Many people can't. I'm probably just as guilty too.
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- mikestew 11y ago"Savings account"? I have $5 in my savings account to keep in good stead with the credit union. Despite that, one can rest assured that the total net worth of my wife and me is many orders of magnitude greater than what our savings account reflects. Maybe I'm out of touch, but asking about savings accounts strike as being in the same vein as asking how much I feed my horse.
- 6stringmerc 11y agoI'm not criticizing, but would like to point out you may fit the definition of "asset rich and cash flow poor" and, under certain circumstances, could essentially be bankrupt due to an inability to access funds. A recent example would be the entertainer 50 Cent declaring bankruptcy in the context of a judgment totaling in the millions. Also, based on my experience on Wall Street (note: not a licensed advisor or broker), I remember when the Auction Rate Securities market collapsed, and hundreds of millions of dollars in "as good as cash" (sic) structures were suddenly rendered illiquid. I mention this simply as context for what can happen in the financial markets in undesirable scenarios.
- mikestew 11y agoNot taken as criticism, and I absolutely know where you're coming from; solid advice. My mitigation is tight stops, and yes, I know what the downsides of those can be in a crashing market. The risk/reward for me versus a savings account at 0.5% is acceptable to me. Or if you mean it's all tied up in a 401K, yeah, I hear ya. The vast majority of our funds are in there. The mitigation to that is a goodly amount of cash (easily get by for a year with no income) in a standard brokerage account that has a debit card and a checkbook I've got lying around the house somewhere, under the assumption that something like AAPL should be liquid enough should we need the cash. But, see above...
- 6stringmerc 11y agoVery cool! Also, a nice elaboration without getting too granular. I'm hoping none of these scenarios come to pass...but they aren't called "rainy day funds" because of sunny outlooks.
- humbleMouse 11y agoThis is a silly article, who uses savings accounts anymore?
- brianwawok 11y agoLots of people. My ally savings account is 1%, about the same as a CD.. so I keep 2 months of expenses in it.
- 6stringmerc 11y agoMy gut feeling is that the population of commenters here may exhibit some selection bias. As in, leveling criticism that the article doesn't include "investment vehicles" is a negative may be a valid point in some circles, but as a profile of the general population in the US, is a valid approach. With housing having gone through a giant bubble cycle and rents approaching all-time highs IIRC, there really isn't any extraneous income to invest (well, save) with a large portion of the population. I'll refer to the following chart as relevant to supporting my perspective: http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/09/Rich%20vs%20Poor_0.jpg http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/im...
- manigandham 11y agoHow does not including other vehicles help give an accurate picture of "savings"?
- jellicle 11y agoThe vast majority of the population is not saying "I have nothing in savings" because all their money is tied up in yachts and Manhattan real estate; it's because they have no money.
- 6stringmerc 11y agoThank you for that take on it. As a 30 something, I've been "coached" over time that savings is for liquidity in the case of an unexpected event - loss of job for X months (cover bills with savings), medical emergency (cover bills with savings), or potential family development (need to purchase vehice for teenager). These events are not supposed to be covered by "dipping" into retirement funds, e.g. IRA or 401k. The ideal method of financial planning I was taught is to invest for retirement through financial products which minimize risk and are not liquid assets, while concurrently saving in a "traditional" account.
- beambot 11y agoThen why not ask a more accurate (less biased) question...? E.g. david927's comment: "47% of Americans say they lack the cash to pay a surprise $400 bill" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10354263 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10354263)
- brianclements 11y agoSo many people live paycheck to paycheck that saving is just this intangible concept that "wealthier" people do. No one they know saves, no one taught them to save growing up, and even if they tried, they probably couldn't. Cost of living has outmatched wage growth; it's a mess. On the personal responsibility side of it though, I'm willing to bet that over recent decades, another thing that has also inflated is many peoples "minimum standard of living". I've seen people who, for probably very cathartic reasons, will make very poor spending choices on food, electronics, gas guzzling cars and other things instead of plan for items that move their lives forward. And the sad part is that everyones minimum standard of living SHOULD be going up, we all SHOULD be living better then our previous generation. But the actions of many in the governance tier of our society have chosen otherwise for us.
- Artistry121 11y agoThe average standard of living is going up. Things get better all the time. Many people in debt have nicer cars than people did 20 years ago. The sad thing is people choose to buy new cars rather than the perfectly functioning old ones and higher quality food. Or people without large families choose bigger houses rather than perfectly acceptable ones that two generations ago couples with 7 kids would fit in. A very good standard of living in America can be had for well under $20k a year in family spending given smart decisions. The problem is people don't make those smart decisions. Maybe the government needs to step in - or maybe those people prefer their decisions to the ones other people think they should decide. I chose healthcare and an eight year old car and $100+ in savings a month whereas my similar earning coworker chose a new car payment. Also people spend lots and lots of money on alcohol I notice - and the % of that spending doesn't change much with income - they just buy higher priced drinks.
- byuu 11y ago> Or people without large families choose bigger houses rather than perfectly acceptable ones that two generations ago couples with 7 kids would fit in. I think about this myself. I have a house that's probably three times the size I need. But I bought it because it got me into a nicer neighborhood. All of the affordable, two-bedroom houses are always in really seedy neighborhoods where cars are always broken into, the cops are always being called out to, etc.
- eli 11y agoMetacomment: Great example of how to turn a cheap Google Consumer Survey into a blog post that gets a bunch of traction.
- vvpan 11y agoI wonder how many of those people are paying off mortgage with what would be their savings.
- arbitrage 11y agoYou should be able to pay off your mortgage and still maintain & increase savings. If you can't, you have too much mortgage.
- mod 11y agoIs there a reason, generally speaking, why you shouldn't use the excess money to pay off your mortgage faster, rather than increasing savings? (Assuming you already have enough savings to cover emergencies etc)
- lmm 11y agoI've been overpaying on my mortgage by 150% all year; that's the money that I would otherwise have saved. Savings account would give me 3% tops; stocks would give me more but not risk-adjusted more. Paying my mortgage off early is 4.2%, risk-free. Am I being dumb? It's quite possible there's something I've missed.
- AjithAntony 11y agoLong term fixed rate? Why bother paying early. Interest rates must rise eventually. If even if they don't the future dollars are much cheaper anyway becuase inflation won't stop. In real terms, your interest rate goes down every year, to the point where is can reach 0 or negative. Locking the money in the house means opportunity costs to take advantage higher rates later.
- wil421 11y agoDoes savings include 401k? If not then I would fall under the less than $1,000 only because I made a large purchase a few weeks ago. If I had over 10k in savings I would try to invest at least some of it in something that would give a marginal return in a few years. It would be better than just letting it sit in a savings account.
- cvburgess 11y agoReposting my comment to another commenter: A 40 is not liquid - if something happens and you need money tomorrow yo don't have immediate access to those funds. There may also be heavy fees if you pull funds out before you are 60.
- wil421 11y agoThat is true but why should I let the bank make all the money off my savings? If I were to lose my job today I could easily find a bartending job like I did in college to support myself in the time it takes to find a new job. My situation may be different than a lot of people and I live in a large city. If I had 15k in savings to buy a house in two years I could put 10k into a CD and still make something like $300. The 5k could be for emergencies and the 10k is still more liquid than a 401k.
- bmj 11y agof I were to lose my job today I could easily find a bartending job like I did in college to support myself in the time it takes to find a new job. My situation may be different than a lot of people and I live in a large city. This is not an option for a lot of people, particularly those with families. That said, your follow-up makes sense, and I've typically done something similar.
- nommm-nommm 11y agoDon't count on the fact that a bartending job will always be easy to come by just because it once was. Back in 2008 any job (even fast food) was hard to come by in my area.
- ausjke 11y agoWhen you have 0 interest rate people will park/invest their money _anywhere_ but saving account. checking accounts, investing, real estates etc, check all of those big-data then you can get the real picture.
- drzaiusapelord 11y agoGood! Savings account is the worst place to keep money. Mine are in my 401k, investments, tied up in my home, or just sitting in checking ready to be used. I really hate these "OMG USA IS THE WORST" articles. How we handle money in the US is different than some countries. American cash is often invested and/or invested in their retirement via the 401k system, as opposed to the pension system controlled by the government or a union. There's probably a good discussion to have about spending, how poor young people are, college tuition, and retirement savings and such, but not with this data. Net worth is probably what people are looking for when having these kinds of conversations. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/26/the-average-americans-net-worth-by-age-heres-where.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/26/the-average...
- kristopolous 11y agoSo what do we do about this? Should we have a society where people are working full-time and living paycheck-to-paycheck? Is that a fair and equitable thing? After we fix our government corruption in this country, we should look towards more socialism - I'd rather live in a society that houses homeless children, cares for its disabled, helps its sick, and empowers its poor, then one that doesn't - and I think most people share my view.
- mod 11y agoYeah, I share that view--where we differ is you're saying "socialism is these things, and capitalism isn't," and I disagree.
- howdoipython 11y agoDoes it really matter what it's called?
- mod 11y agoNo, it matters how it's accomplished. Socialism and capitalism differ in that regard.
- kristopolous 11y agocorrect! capitalism doesn't help those without capital.
- irremediable 11y agoAs others have pointed out, the article is stupid because it asks a misleading question. So, instead of discussing that, I'd like to ask: roughly what savings do HN readers have? How much should I be saving at the minute? What should I be saving it in? I'm a PhD student in my early 20s, living in London, and I only have about ~£500 in savings. I'm trying to save £1000-£2000 per year. At the minute, I just keep my savings in a separate current account to my main account -- which also has higher interest (3%).
- tn13 11y agoI dont keep any money in my Savings account. The interest rate is rubbish. I just invest it someplace better.
- rozap 11y agoSo 38% of Americans are have more than $1000 sitting around becoming less valuable everyday? That may be a more interesting conversation to have.
- TallGuyShort 11y agoOnly 38% of Americans are capable of being self-reliant in the event they miss a paycheck or two. edit: Why the downvotes? Is there a problem with being moderately self-reliant?
- lmm 11y agoSavings accounts aren't the only way to achieve that.
- mod 11y agoYou can put me in that group, though I don't know why you have to declare me a sucker--you don't even know my motivations. Surely you can have the conversation without tossing around insults.
- ghaff 11y agoAnother way to look at it is the following. Many Americans (but fewer than 38% I'm sure--to be fair) have more than $1000 sitting around earning minimal or no interest--but also fully liquid at zero to minimal risk of capital loss--as part of a diversified portfolio strategy.
- JustSomeNobody 11y agoLess than 86% even have enough for a proper emergency fund. This is very sad. Either they have found a place to put it other than a savings account (which we all know doesn't provide even enough interest to cover inflation), or people are in a world of hurt right now.
- jsprogrammer 11y agoAny given dollar is primarily a representation of someone else's debt. Since the number of dollars can only expand through debt, the sum total of dollars (savings) over all people will always be near 0. You'd need most of the debt to be taken out by corporations or governments for the people to have a >0 average savings.
- code4tee 11y agoTheres a big difference between "savings" and "cash in a savings account." Given the current interest rate situation theres essentially no difference between money in a checking account and money in a savings account, other than that the checking account likely has a debit card of some sort directly linked to it. Both are likely earning near 0% or so close to 0% it makes no difference. Not that long ago CDs were paying >5% so it made sense to put cash into such instruments. Right now a CD is essentially pointless. I would agree, though, that too many people have far too little cash on hand (regardless of where its stored). I often see people that live in a million dollar home but don't have enough cash in their bank account to pay the cable bill. These so called "asset rich cash poor" people are playing with fire since it's often that they banked too much on the appreciation of those assets to justify the situation they've put themselves in. People should maintain a healthy chunk of readily accessible liquid assets which could include non-retirement non-speculative investments and some good old hard cash too.
- agentgt 11y agoTo me savings is liquid cash that you have on hand. It is an emergency buffer account. Every month (or whenever I get paid) since I have been employed or my wife has I have had money taken out of our checking account and put into another account. It doesn't really matter that its savings or checking account but that I can get immediate access to the account. When the account has gotten too big we just apply some of the money elsewhere (which is not really hard). I understand how the truly impoverished unable to save but I'm sort of disturbed to read so many here post that they think their 401K/Roth IRA is an emergency cash account. I actually once tried to sell stock to get liquid cash. Perhaps it was just Scottrade sucking but it took a significant amount of time... so much so that I had to use my emergency buffer (savings account). Its been awhile since I have tried so maybe things have changed.
- Vraxx 11y agoHow long is a "significant amount of time"? If it's anything less than a month a credit card could cover that with 0 interest right?
- agentgt 11y agoThere is a surprising amount of things that don't take credit cards particularly emergency house repair. There was another time when I had to put a down payment right away or else some one else would buy it. I suppose that is not that much of an emergency but I still think it's good to have a reserve with auto deposit.
- s3nnyy 11y agoSome manage to live frugally, and retire within 5 years: http://earlyretirementextreme.com/how-i-became-financially-independent-in-5-years-part-i.html http://earlyretirementextreme.com/how-i-became-financially-i... My personal savings-rate is around 80% (I spend about 1.2k CHF and make around 6.5k CHF) - I probably can also retire in five years or I will keep on working 20%-40, when I have kids. I live in Zurich, read my story here: "Eight reasons why I moved to Switzerland (to work in IT)" https://medium.com/@iwaninzurich/eight-reasons-why-i-moved-to-switzerland-to-work-in-it-c7ac18af4f90 https://medium.com/@iwaninzurich/eight-reasons-why-i-moved-t...)
- pizzaburek 11y agoToo bad that a far more interesting discussion about Libertarian communism got flagged (or at least is not visible on a main page). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10351830 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10351830
- abritinthebay 11y agoAnd people wonder why they say Tech is out of touch. Reading the comments here is a great demonstration. Examples: > who uses savings accounts anymore? > Cash on hand or it's invested in stocks, bonds and my home. > The truth is you're losing more money by not having any of it generating higher potential yields. > the total net worth of my wife and me is many orders of magnitude greater than what our savings account reflects These kind of statements just show that the audience here is woefully out of touch with the average person. The average person in the US is unable to absorb a $1000 emergency. The average person in the US avoids going to the doctor because they can't afford it. The average person in the US doesn't have enough money to justify an investment account of any kind. But we in tech are privileged and goddamnit if we're not mostly (as a group) utterly blind to it... or worse - in denial that we are (and aggressively defensive about it). The median household income in the US is $51,939 the median individual income in the US is $28,567. Note: median, not mean. That is the financial reality of the average american. In tech we're used to making 6 figures and then bitching that other people aren't trying hard enough. We quibble over what "in savings" means. We try our hardest to minimize problems that we ourselves don't experience rather than work on the very real, very clear, issues at hand. This feels like we have a maturity and empathy problem as an industry to me...
- throwawaymsft 11y agoThank you, the comments look like something from the Onion. "Oh, I don't have any savings either, it's all tied up in my money market account, stock portfolio, house, car, and business." When someone reads "less than $1000 in savings" and interprets it as "they must mean less than $1000 in a single investment vehicle" there's a huge empathy gap.
- abritinthebay 11y agoSeriously, the headlines write themselves: "Young Tech Entrepreneur Says People in Poverty Just Need To Have More Money."
- luther07 11y agoThank you. This is the only interesting comment in this thread.
- MadManE 11y agoIt's interesting to see this juxtaposed with the story about extreme poverty dropping globally: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10352189 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10352189
- KirinDave 11y agoThe US financial industry has been consistently reducing the value of consumer savings accounts. Their interest is poor, their rules are arcane, they're awkward to work with, and they're often oversold as a feature to consumers who neither need nor want them. In many institutions, interest bearing checking accounts with sufficient minimum balances deliver HIGHER returns than savings accounts for the same balances. In most cases, the march of inflation means your savings account is a pretty depressing way to LOSE money over time. The savings account is a legacy product from an entirely different era in the American banking system. For the most part, consumers realize this and avoid them.
- curiousjorge 11y agoI wonder what the numbers are like for Canadians
- tomasien 11y agoWhat do people use to save? I use Qapital, I know a lot of people like Digit. I know they can't foundationally help the problem but they can help a lot of people who are capable of saving but aren't - which I would suspect is probably close to the majority of these folks.
- kelukelugames 11y agoKeep in mind median household income is below 60k. This isn't surprising. I wonder what the statistics for our social economic level are.
- zeckalpha 11y ago"our"?
- kelukelugames 11y agoI bet most people on here make more than 50k a year.
- racl101 11y agoBecause the rest of their savings is in Bitcoin? Right?
- uptown 11y agoIndividuals have a variety of options for where to invest excess cash. On a slightly different subject, does anybody have any advice what a small business should do with cash? Are there practical or relatively safe ways to get a return on a corp's cash on hand beyond basic interest?
- darkstar999 11y agoFlawed survey, it asks “How much money do you have saved in your savings account?" Which isn't the same as "how much savings do you have?"
- tracker1 11y agoEvery extra cent I've had for the past 5-6 years has gone towards paying off medical bills from a hospital visit that exceeded my insurance policy's maximum by about $138k... I now have under $8k left to pay (everyone that would take sane payment arrangements or reductions has been paid off at this point). It's been very tough, I emptied my retirement accounts and have handed over tax returns etc. to pay it all off... After this coming year, my plan is to start putting 20% of post-tax income into a Roth IRA.
- jtwaleson 11y agoStories like this make me very happy not to be an ill person in the USA...
- cheriot 11y agoIt's not just the ability to save, the return on savings, but also the ability to draw on credit that discourages savings. The permissive rules that allow credit cards to bypass state regulations make it easier for them to encourage this kind of precarious situation.
- habosa 11y agoThere is a lot here about the interpretation of "savings account" and I agree that it is problematic. I have 10x as much in investment/checking as savings. However I don't think that fixing the semantic issues would change the overall issue: the distribution of wealth is even more skewed than the distribution of income. Most of this country would be utterly ruined if they got into a car crash and owed $10k to medical/repairs. And then there are people like most of HN (and me) who get paid ~$100k and save 20-60% of it and are not worried about that situation at all. It's not because we are better people or really that we deserve anything, we just have the right skills/opportunities at the right time. We are the few. I was born into the wealthiest gender of the wealthiest race in the wealthiest nation and I happen to find working in one of the wealthiest industries to be not only easy but enjoyable. I have won the lottery. I have no idea what it would feel like to be at the other end of the spectrum, I just hope I don't forget how lucky I have been.
- stuxnet79 11y agoI applaud you trying to maintain perspective because a lot of people lack it.
- hwstar 11y agoThe whole economy in America has no margin of safety and is a house of cards just waiting to fall down. The average employee lives paycheck-to-paycheck. The small business owner is constantly worrying about making payroll, and is constantly on credit hold with his suppliers. The large corporations are holding profits offshore and are draining away the opportunities by offshoring. The banks and Private Equity are conjuring up ways to rip the small business owner and common folk off.
- izzydata 11y agoMy savings account is pointless. The interest rate is about 0.01%. The question should probably be restated to get a more accurate response in how much of their own money people actually have access to in emergencies. I have over 10k in checking, more in 401k/IRA and 0 in savings. The last time I had 1k in savings they gave me 1 cent in interest.
- tcdent 11y agoSince this discussion turned into a conversation over semantics and investing, I'm curious to see if there are any trends in HN readership. I expect some people won't feel comfortable commenting about this so I created a poll: What is your NET worth? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10355745 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10355745
- intopieces 11y agoThe articles says that "The responses are representative of the U.S. internet population, with a margin of error within 1.70 percent." They don't give us any information I could use to refute that assertion. So with that, we can assume that the people who reported <$1000 savings were not people with diversified portfolios or people who voluntarily eschew savings accounts because the interest rate is not profitable for them. It's astounding what a bubble this communitiy lives in that it could forget that most of the country doesn't have a bunch of money lying to around to invest.
- bebop 11y agoInteresting article, but I wonder why they did not use red=>green for "No Savings"=>More than 10k. It seems like an easier way to visualize the information.
- coryfklein 11y agoIt actually surprises me how many people keep >$10,000 of cash in their savings account. That would make sense to me if you have a large expense coming up like a house or a car, but if it were me then most of that money would just be sitting there and I'd rather have it somewhere that it's making more money for me.
- calvinbhai 11y agoDoes anyone know the survey sample size or where/how this survey was conducted? Title says "savings", article is about savings accounts. Also, the definition of millennials, is quite eye popping