I wonder what the numbers are like for Canadians
62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
141–150 of 370 posts
Re: 62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you're implicitly doing an asset allocation for the poster. > Cash on hand or it's invested in stocks, bonds and my home. That could be $100k on hand in checking, $600k in stocks/bonds, and $200k in home equity, with $0 in a savings account. Asset allocations that don't use savings accounts are not necessarily 'precarious'. Also, it's worth noting that most financial advisors do not recommend that you keep a…
everytime someone says that, I always think of a great quote by Nouriel Roubini: "asked whether he invests in stocks, he replied, "Not as much these days. I used to have a lot in equities—about 75%—but over the past three years, I’ve had about 95% in cash and 5% in equities. You’re not getting much from savings these days but earning 0% is better than losing 50%." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouriel_Roubini
> "Fame and Fortune: Nouriel Roubini" Times Online, June 21, 2009
Nouriel Roubini lost 260% gains + dividends between 2009 and today. So... I wouldn't really count on this guy's advice at all.
Re: 62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reposting 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.
That 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. T…
The savings account (liquid emergency cash account) is sort of like life insurance. It depends on how risk averse you are and lifestyle. For example if you are older and have a family (ie kids) and a more expensive lifestyle you might want to have more cash on hand. This is similar to life insurance where if your young and have no kids there is really little reason to get it. There are many times in my life I have had less $1000.00.
Regardless less than $1000.00 on hand for emergency for the majority is disturbing.
Re: 62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think if I ever have a kid I'll let him open a "bank of Dad" account which pays a decent interest rate just to get him into the habit of investing.
Best example ever: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/05/20/what-im-teaching-m...
MMM has at least two rental properties and is a phoney.
He can teach his kid to be a rentier by borrowing long and taking advantage of the separation between the value of labour vs assets when fiat money is over-issued by private banks.
And how to run a web-site about being frugal whilst deriving rental income from three families who cannot save because they are busy working hard to keep MMM pumping out half-truths on the internet.
Can we all take up three times as many houses as we need and live off the rental income siphoned off from the labour of others? No.
Re: 62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
#145So 38% of Americans are have more than $1000 sitting around becoming less valuable everyday? That may be a more interesting conversation to have.
Another 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.
Re: 62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
#146Re: 62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
#147So 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…
The 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.
Re: 62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
My net worth is probably top 5% or so and I haven't even had an open savings account in 10 years. Cash on hand or it's invested in stocks, bonds and my home.
Curious, not criticizing: What is your plan if you get sick or laid off, or for some other reason need a large amount of cash immediately? I always thought it was common advice to keep ~6mo living expenses in cash savings for emergencies.
Most of my savings is invested in index funds. Pretty much all of them allow you to withdraw the full amount in 3 days or so.
Granted, do you have any idea what such a scenario might look like? Odds are, it can wait. Even large medical operations if you don't have medical insurance (where I live), simply require a modest deposit before they start the operation or expensive procedure. Though I do think they ask for some sort of proof that you have the money on hand.
But, again, most people here have enough money to pay for private healthcare insurance, or they rely on the free state hospitals.
Car, insured. Medical, insured. Bond payments, predictable.
So, I'm trying to figure out a valid plausible scenario where a large amount of "cash" is required in a very short amount of time. Any ideas?
Re: 62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
#149What 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.
Re: 62% of Americans Have Under $1,000 in Savings, Survey Finds
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you need liquid savings, cash is king. I opened a savings account with my son a few weeks ago. In my day, those accounts paid 3-7%. There was a story of compounding interest to tell. Now, I feel like I'm teaching my kid to be a sucker.
But what was your real interest rate when they were paying 3-7% in interest? Back in the 1970's savings accounts were paying 15%+. However, inflation was double digits as well. You'd be lucky if your real interest rate was more than a few percent.
This. Now real interest rates are negative as inflation stats don't reflect reality. So 0.5% when prices are rising well above this.
Almost nobody on hear is speaking of "real" rates. Disturbing.