Over 25% of Americans have no savings, not even change.

[powderman]

http://www.whas11.com/news/consumer/More-than-1-out-of-4-Americans-have-no-savings-160361185.html
 
 
More than one quarter of Americans have no savings  More than one quarter of Americans have no savings   by WHAS11 WHAS11.com Posted on June 26, 2012 at 8:39 AM
Updated yesterday at 8:51 AM        (WHAS11) - More and more Americans are finding it difficult to stash cash for emergencies.
A new BankRate.com study reveals 28 percent of Americans don't have any money saved. That number is up from 24 percent in 2011.
Researchers blame stagnant incomes and the rising costs of household expenses. Prolonged unemployment has also dried up some Americans' savings.
Financial analysts suggest setting up a direct deposit from your paycheck or checking account into a dedicated savings account.

[briarpatch]

They never cover the real issue. Those that lack responsibility in the area of finance expect the government to take care of them after they whore and drink theirs all up. You could give most of them $1000 a minute and they would be broke by the end of the week. Ive worked with more than one like that.

[Rock6.3]

To qualify for welfare or food stamps you cannot have any appreciable savings.  For that reason I suspect these folks stuff it in the mattress so they can qualify for their freebies.

[DDZ]

Maybe if many of them would shed the "keep up with the Joneses" mentality they would have some money to save.  We live in a society where many think they need to accumulate a bunch of stuff to be happy. Personal responsibility has gone by the wayside. Government will feed me, clothe me, house me, and keep me safe. Why in the world would we need personal responsibility?
Not only do many people not have any savings, they are deep in debt. Just put it on the credit card, I'll pay it tomorrow.   

[fatercat]

how much you guys got in savings???

[jimster]

how much you guys got in savings???

Wife has been reading Dave Ramsey books for quite a few years. Need I say more?  It's not so important how much you make as it is how you follow a budget to get totally debt free, after that the money piles up pretty fast.  Pretty much do the opposite of your government, you'll be fine.
I could not have what I have today if not for my wifes conservative attitude toward budgets and money. So all the credit goes to her. She has no use for the socialist mentality of spending what you don't have yet...everything is cash, you save for it no matter how long it takes, or you don't buy it. Period. 

[lakota]

I guess I am a lazy bum because I got hurt and could no longer do my old job and went back to school instead of filing for disability. I had a doctor encourage me to file but I refused because I am not ready to consider myself disabled because I am a lazy bum. Because I am such a lazy bum and was forced to hobble around on crutches for a year all of our savings was eaten up.  Right now while I am in school my wife and I live paycheck to paycheck because we are lazy bums. I hope none of you fine folks sustain an injury that causes you to become a lazy bum too.
 
Only lazy bums have no liquid assets in a savings account, right?

[powderman]

Only lazy bums have no liquid assets in a savings account, right?

 
LAKOTA. Most assuredly NOT. Our savings is long gone. Since obummer got in I don't even have change. POWDERMAN. 

[PowPow]

I'm surprised that its only 24-28%, would have thought it was more like 50-60%, probably because of the environment I grew up in.
I have lived paycheck-to-paycheck for most of my life. Got some savings now, mostly from living fairly frugally and being satisfied with what I got.

'Preciate ya, Lakota. We are all just one step off the curb from being right behind you.

[Victor3]

 Like losing weight, saving money can be simple but not at all easy for many people, regardless of income.
 
 Following the principles in this little book (published in the 1920s) took me out from under crushing debt to now having savings/investments. Again; simple but not easy. It didn't happen overnight.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Richest-Man-Babylon-George-Clason/dp/0451205367
 
 As a boy, I couldn't undertand why we didn't have luxuries that our neighbors did, even though my Dad had a good job. He put all three of us kids through college though, and left Mom with enough to be able to live out her life without a care about money. She could live like a queen, but the dollar store is her favorite place to shop.
 
 Growing up in the Depression formed my Parents' view of finances. One consequence of the current economy will be that some younger folks (the wise ones) will learn to make do with less, and in the process become more financially responsible as they get older.
 
 As I see it, an important question to ask yourself is, "do I need it or do I want it?" How a person habitually answers that question will often detemine if he builds savings or not.

[guzzijohn]

Did a quick search and in January of 2006 22% had no savings so things have not changed much. It is an individual thing. Even on minimal income you can have some savings if you discipline yourself. 
GliderJohn

[blind ear]

Early on when the banking crisis started it was issued by financial advisors that the Federal Reserve guarantees on savings were likely to fail because of the leveraged debt that the banks hold. Too much debt to print money to cover. Social Security falls into this realm also.
-
If they cover the savings/debt by printing money the inflation and dollar devaluation will make the savinge worth little. Savings will be worth little. The following depression will level the field for the young to build a future. Without a depression we will end up under socialism.
-
I don't have squat and will work all of my life like most Americans always have. If the government wants us to work all of our life I just wish the government/pharmasutical industry would approve an over the counter "speed" so that I could get up and go to work when I am 65 or 70 or what ever. ear

[briarpatch]

My grandfather had 2100 acres with eight houses and two business and did not own the little 10' camper he was in when he died. Drinking and women.
My father thought the clown was going to take care of him because that is the governments job to take from those that work and save and give to those that don't.
He drunk, partted and whored all his money away and had to work until he could not at 86 years old, he passed this February. Most people when they saw the old man working at any little job just to put food on his table would not believe he was at the head of a large company with a great retirement and made unreal money. 
He has two sons following in his foot steps neither will work but stand and beg like birds in a nest, they are in their 60's all they have is a bunch of empty beer cans where they lay. Both have found out they are the wrong color for the government.
I realized early on SS was not going to do it, I would have to take care of retirement and old age on my own.
This lakata is the people I am talking about, they are the majority. Unfortunately there are those caught up in the whirl winds of life and are spit out naked but even then there are things that can be done to help resolve those problems.
I took an almost 7 dollar an hour pay cut to go with a company that had better benefits at retirement. That was a hungry household there. In order to make ends meet I took a paper route for 3 years until I got through the rough patch. No cable TV, no guns or anything not needed, wants were on a back burner. I was an overtime hog but in the end it payed off big time.
 

[jhm]

     When I was 12 yrs. old I delivered the Detroit News paper, back then their was also a Detroit Free Press paper, and I had one lady that would pay me extra (tip) if on Sunday I would bring her both papers, so I would ride my bike a couple miles down to Fort St and Livernois where a Motts hanburger stand was and a elderly man sold papers out of a wooden lean too shed, well that old man told me something I have tried to live by and it was rough at times, but he said son if you will save 1 quarter out of every dollar you make you wont have to sell paper out of a shed like I do, well today I am 65 yrs old and dont sell papers on a street corner today, if I could meet that fellow today I would thank him till the end of my time and BTW how much cash someone has is their bussiness not anyone elses no flame just some things you dont ask people.   Jim

[Conan The Librarian]

A friend of mine died, and I went over to help his mother sort things out. I arranged all the details and took as much burden off her as I could. One of the tasks was to get a good grip on finances. It was horrifying. He had dug himself deep into debt and I couldn't see how he was going to get out. He had died of a sudden heart failure, and I have believed ever since that his debt load was a stressor that contributed to his death at age 49.
 
As for the 25% number, I have to wonder where the data comes from. Probably self reporting of some kind. If I had eleventy gajillion bazillion megadollars in the bank, I'd still say I had no savings because it's none of anybody's business.

[Empty Quiver]

that number is quite believable. Is the unemployed figure not somewhere around 15%? Add to that those who would be considered under employed?
 
You know the guy who bought a modest house, drove older cars, fixes his own stuff, made do with what he could afford, setting a bit aside every payday. He has lost his job driving a forklift, and his buddy that would hire him on weekends to help with roofing houses is short too. This fella is scratching now as his savings are used up paying the mortgage. He is within a couple months of going tits up. Is this fella familiar to any of us? Is he short sighted, shiftless, lazy?
 
My house is poorly glazed and I'm careful how and where I throw rocks here. 

[jhm]

     If the implication of throwing rocks was to me or for me, as stated in my post no flame here or no rocks were thrown, all I was trying to point out was at a early age some of us tried to see into the future as to how we wanted to spend our lives and for me selling papers on a street corner as a old man wasnt one of the ways, I was also in the pawn business and for almost 13 yrs I saw how society outside of my home lived, newest car in the neighborhood, best cel-phone money or (credit) could buy largest flatscreen TV they could put into their homes, then when it was time to pay the light bill, water bill, etc. etc. here they would come to pawn their guns, wedding rings, u name it to pay their bills all the while talking on the cel-phone planning a lunch date or dinner with one of their friends, alot of the blame for peoples failures is staring back at them in the morning when they are looking in the mirror, yet they want to blame others for it.  Jim

[Empty Quiver]

No harm meant. My point is that it is very easy these days to be without savings. I believe this is that rainy day people save for.
The squanderers are always there. That figure is known I suppose, now that it has risen to >25% it has become another blip on the economic radar.

[jlwilliams]

I would think the actual number is way higher.  25% with no savings in a country with about 15% real unemployment and generations of credit use sounds a bit conservative.  I'll bet that if you really did an accounting of real peoples' real net worth, you would find that even the 'well off' are at or below zero in actaul net worth.  If you take all you own, subtract all you owe, the resulting number is net worth.  With so many people upside down on their mortgages and paying credit cards and a car payment (for a vehicle that lost 1/4 of it's value when they pulled off the lot) I would suspect that even people with a home and a little bit in the bank are actually well below water, which means they really don't have the money they have in the bank.  When those aforementioned folks who thought they were doing OK hit a bump in life's road like a job loss or an injury, bang- they go from OK to not OK.  Just like that.
 
  Point is, if 25% really can see that they have no savings the actual number with nothing is like an iceburg.  You can't see most of it, but it is still there.

[45-70.gov]

i am in the rental business
it is amazing the number of people looking to move
that don't have $1000 to their name.......i mean a whole family not just one person


of the 25%  this thread  is referring to
i wonder  what % are democrats and/or obumer voters


do these people pay their fair share of taxes??

[mcbammer]

Today   there  is  no   incentive   to   save  .   Interest   rates   on   C.D.s   at   the   bank   are   like   1.0%   

[Conan The Librarian]

Isn't the interest rate on spending still -100% ?

[hardertr]

Today   there  is  no   incentive   to   save  .   Interest   rates   on   C.D.s   at   the   bank   are   like   1.0%   

Makes sense to me..... if they aren't going to pay me to take care of myself and family, I'm not going to do it either!   

[Dixie Dude]

I know interest rates are extremely low right now.  However, I did a spreadsheet for my kids.  If they worked 40 hours a week at mimimum wage for about 35 years and saved 10% of their income, at 2% interest they would be a millionare in about 35-40 years. More compounded interest quicker, lower longer.  It is not impossible to save even 5 or 10% of anything, even the poor can cut back on something and save. 
 
I know of a black guy at work that was a deacon in his church.  They wanted to build a new building.  Told the members they couldn't until they could raise some money.  He said it wasn't long until they had enough cash money to do it.  He said poor members who didn't trust banks had money in mattresses, freezers, and such, but brought it out. 
 
I would venture to say some do have money but don't tell anyone since it is in cash and/or it would cut their government benefits.   Some are legit though, especially in these hard times.

[stimpylu32]

I'm one of the guys that never has more than a few hundred in cash most of the time , my savings are in my gun safe , if need be , I can scrape up a few thou. fairly quickly and still have what I need to feed & protect my loved ones .
 
You got any idea what a couple rounds of ammo can be worth to someone that is out ?  Or a roll of TP for that matter ! 
 
stimpy

[mcbammer]

I  knew   a   fellow   worker   back   in   the   early    80s   that   took    his    paycheck    and   bought  gold    .  Had  a  cigar   box   full   gold   coins    at   jobs   end .dont know  where   he   is   today  as  we   worked   construction   and   you   lose   track   of   people   over  time   as   you  travel   the   country . Wish   I   would   have   been   that   smart .Gold   at   that   time   was   around   300$  a   once  .

[Empty Quiver]

If you are able to live on 90% of minimum wage I tip my hat to you partner. Furthermore if you can do it for 35 years you, my friend are a serious moocher. You cannot feed and house a cat working a  minimum wage job.
 
I understand the point of saving though. 5% - 10% of nothing is even adding up in your example.

[45-70.gov]

i have a hard time keping my mouth shut


when some one talks about being broke


with a cigarette or beer  or soft drink in their hand


what  morons

[mcbammer]

If you are able to live on 90% of minimum wage I tip my hat to you partner. Furthermore if you can do it for 35 years you, my friend are a serious moocher. You cannot feed and house a cat working a  minimum wage job.
 
I understand the point of saving though. 5% - 10% of nothing is even adding up in your example.

So   blue   collar    workers   are   moochers  .   Dont   go   down    to   the   local    bar   talking   that   trash.

[Conan The Librarian]

Whether you're rich or poor, it's nice to have money.