40% of Americans don’t have $400 in the bank for emergency expenses: Federal Reserve

[SaysWho?]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/10-americans-struggle-cover-400-emergency-expense-federal/story?id=63253846

Quote

 

About 27% of those surveyed would need to borrow the money or sell something to come up with the $400 and an additional 12% would not be able to cover it at all, according to the Federal Reserve's 2018 report on the economic well-being of U.S. households released on Thursday.

In addition, 12% of adults said they wouldn't be able to pay their current monthly bills if faced with the unexpected $400 expense, the survey found.

 

The 2018 resultss are very similar to those from the Federal Reserve's 2017 survey.

 

 

[johnny]

America is the best it’s ever been under Trump! 

[SilentWorld]

Fucking idiots. 

 

 

[SilentWorld]

Just now, johnny said:

America is the best it’s ever been under Trump! 

This isnt even a trump thing. The amount of people that make six figures, and still somehow have a car payment and depend on their credit card to pay day to day bills. Goddammit. Unbelievable.

[Remarkableriots]

I have 7$ in my bank account. I barely make it paycheck to paycheck.

[Bacon]

4 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said:

I have 7$ in my bank account. I barely make it paycheck to paycheck.

Ha! I got $17

[Remarkableriots]

12 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Ha! I got $17

[marioandsonic]

Obviously this means we just need to give millionaires another tax cut.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

I found it sad when I discovered that there are people making $250k+ a year that manage their money so poorly they live paycheck to paycheck. 

[johnny]

13 minutes ago, marioandsonic said:

Obviously this means we just need to give millionaires another tax cut.

It’ll trickle down 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Yeah, I think a lot of this is just people managing their money really, really poorly.

[marioandsonic]

I thankfully do have over $400 in savings if I have an emergency that costs that much.

[SuperSpreader]

Kamala Harris was on Colbert talking about how if you have to buy tires, most Americans are fucked, yet we don't fix the roads that make tires more likely to die.

[Reputator]

It's called living paycheck to paycheck. Why are people acting like this is something new?

[Remarkableriots]

Quote

many experts say it’s best to spend no more than 30% of your monthly gross income on housing-related expenses, including rent and utilities. Under that rule, it’s best to make sure that the amount you spend on rent is well below 30% of your household income

https://smartasset.com/mortgage/how-much-should-i-spend-on-rent

 

My rent is way over half my pay. Most apartments around where i live cost over what i make.

[Remarkableriots]

20 minutes ago, 2user1cup said:

Kamala Harris was on Colbert talking about how if you have to buy tires, most Americans are fucked, yet we don't fix the roads that make tires more likely to die.

He can only fill so many!

[MarSolo]

There's a lot of apps out there now that help people save money. I basically have three extra savings accounts now thanks to apps like Digit, Stash, and Acorns. 

[Keyser_Soze]

I almost posted this story last week but I had no money.

[skillzdadirecta]

Damn that's bad... I remember reading somewhere awhile ago that most people couldn't come up with 3000 dollars in emergency money if they needed to. $400 dollars though? Damn.

[legend]

7 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I found it sad when I discovered that there are people making $250k+ a year that manage their money so poorly they live paycheck to paycheck. 

 

To be fair, if you're living in the bay area, $250K is pretty destitute.

[Jason]

22 minutes ago, legend said:

 

To be fair, if you're living in the bay area, $250K is pretty destitute.

 

A Bay Area family of four with an income of $100k is classified as low income by the federal government. 

[SaysWho?]

Some of you guys get paid better than you think.

 

Several years ago, I was in this position. I'm thankfully not anymore. You can manage the money as well as you want, but if you barely make shit, there's not much to manage.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Median household income is like $60k. If you've got a family to feed, house, insure I can easily see how you would be unable to come up with $400 in an emergency

[CastlevaniaNut18]

And some people are just bad at managing money. I have a friend who is poor, has always been poor, will always be poor. 

 

Doesn't stop her from splurging on shit she doesn't need and an ever growing family of cats and dogs she can't afford to take care of or having 4 kids that she and her husband never could afford at any point. And they weren't accidents. She wants more but complications with the last pregnancy has left her unable to have more. 

 

Some people just aren't terribly smart. 

[SaysWho?]

19 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

And some people are just bad at managing money. I have a friend who is poor, has always been poor, will always be poor. 

 

Doesn't stop her from splurging on shit she doesn't need and an ever growing family of cats and dogs she can't afford to take care of or having 4 kids that she and her husband never could afford at any point. And they weren't accidents. She wants more but complications with the last pregnancy has left her unable to have more. 

 

Some people just aren't terribly smart. 

 

We know. There's still an issue with bad pay, income inequality, high medical expenses, inflation, and lackluster upward mobility in the country.  

[TheGreatGamble]

Poverty breeds ignorance. The idea that this is because people can’t manage money is ludicrous. For every one case of someone making 250k and being broke, there are thousands who are living below the poverty line and going without many basic needs. 

 

For people to claim they are idiots is naive and, dare I say idiotic. 

 

Fuck, employers are even allowed to pay their employees less than minimum wage in the restaurant business, expecting the customer to pay their wages. This country is fucked up, plain and simple. And people being broke is a direct result of the government making laws to ensure the rich gets richer and the middle class dies off. 

 

Of course the poor mismanage money. Poverty leads to bad decision making. A couple can have two jobs and still not be able to afford children. The problem is a system rigged against the poor, that’s the one thing that the parties are bipartisan on. A poor populace is easy to control, they are too busy thinking of their own problems and stress that they dont have the energy to fight back against corruption.

 

The two party system is cancer. Worst democratic elections in the wold. Two parties which are left to bully and deny every other party a chance. And the two leading parties have formed such a horseshoe that they have begun acting exactly the same.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Related perspective I thought was worth sharing

[GeneticBlueprint]

1 hour ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Related perspective I thought was worth sharing

 

GOP solution: Don't stop global warming.

[elbobo]

The fact that personal finance is not taught in every high school in the country is an absolute travesty. 95%+ of people will never touch the cosine button on a calculator again after 12th grade but we had to learn Trig but everyone needs to understand compound interest, taxes, budgeting, savings, retirement, and ROI but not a single minute is spent explaining any of this in high school right before kids go off and sign off on six figures of debt for a potentially useless degree. 

[Guest]

Things in the country can be bad and people can be terrible with money at the same time. It certainly is not one or the other.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Yeah, I'm not reading anything I don't already know. Sometimes people just need to take responsibility. I know some folks are dealt a bad hand. But some of them don't help themselves out with continued poor decisions and people have to accept some responsibility for themselves. To an extent.

[SaysWho?]

31 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Things in the country can be bad and people can be terrible with money at the same time. It certainly is not one or the other.

 

Then I don't see the relevance in bringing it up besides to be distracting?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

Then I don't see the relevance in bringing it up besides to be distracting?

Both are relevant to why a person could struggle to come up with a relatively small amount of money in an emergency.

[SilentWorld]

Tbh, I bring it up because it allows me to feel superior to others and I like that feeling.

[Zaku3]

1 hour ago, elbobo said:

The fact that personal finance is not taught in every high school in the country is an absolute travesty. 95%+ of people will never touch the cosine button on a calculator again after 12th grade but we had to learn Trig but everyone needs to understand compound interest, taxes, budgeting, savings, retirement, and ROI but not a single minute is spent explaining any of this in high school right before kids go off and sign off on six figures of debt for a potentially useless degree. 

 

I feel that is by design. Either a causalities of the focus on college or it helps our corporates.