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While a surprising statistic, this number has actually improved in the last five years. "This is an improvement from half of adults in 2013 being ill-prepared f
by samcampbell 7y ago
While a surprising statistic, this number has actually improved in the last five years. "This is an improvement from half of adults in 2013 being ill-prepared for such an expense [$400]" - Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2017 [0]
[0]https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2017-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201805.pdf https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2017-repor...
- kibwen 7y agoThis feels a bit like damning with faint praise; the most likely cause of an emergency debt is a trip to the hospital, and the average deductible of a US employee on private health insurance is $1500 (closer to $3000 for family coverage). (We don't need to bother considering people who don't have jobs and thus don't have insurance; the failure mode for them, as before, is "resign yourself to lifelong financial ruin and dodging debt collectors".) So the question then is: what percentage of households can cover a $1500 emergency bill, rather than a mere $400 bill? And, at the rate of growth since 2013, how many decades will it take for that number to creep up to 50% (and don't forget to adjust for inflation).
- gshubert17 7y agoHere's the actual Federal Reserve Board news release from which Bloomberg made their report: https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20190523b.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/othe...