Americans Tend To Be Poor Savers and Poor Planners When It Comes to Money
While the October Employment Report showed a “surge” in wage, we’ve yet to see a shift away from the mentality that has led to such dismal savings and safety fund percentages among Americans. Maybe it’s the “spend it when you get it” mentality or perhaps it’s still just Cash-strapped Consumers, but either way there will be much financial pain ahead as the Aging of the Population is factored into the personal financial equation.
Americans on a whole just aren’t great savers, to the point where almost 70% of us don’t even have $1,000 in the bank.
Furthermore, almost half of Americans claim that to cover a $400 emergency, they’d need to borrow the money or sell something quickly to round up the cash.
And though some of us can legitimately point to low earnings as a reason for not saving, for many of us, it’s a matter of poor money management — namely, failing to create and follow a budget.
According to a recent study by U.S. Bank, only 41% of Americans use a budget even though it’s one of the most effective ways to keep track of our finances. This data is only a slight improvement over a 2013 Gallup poll, which showed that just 32% of U.S. households maintain budgets.
Source: Nearly 3 in 5 Americans are making this huge financial mistake – Oct. 24, 2016
