Is this for real?
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Yes, it’s a well-known fact. Combination of income inequality and financial illiteracy.
EY3 take a breath. I agree with nearly everything you just wrote.
The thing is, that's about 10% of society. OP's stat mentions 70% of Americans. My comments were directed at the 60%.
Rising Star
This is just unimaginable. Makes you realize how privileged we here are
No knock on you at all! But this is unimaginable to people that come from a wealthy background or at least higher end of middle class. But this is the reality for the general population living off minimum wage or close to it. Keep in min the federal minimum wage is only $7.25 per hour.
It’s incredibly tough saving money when living pay check to pay check on top of a ton of social economic issues you face. Sudden medical bill or car problem really hurts.
We are super privileged here. Majority of us are the top 1-10% of income earners for our age. Hope people stop to actually appreciate that.
Leave the financial literacy comments at the door. Not everybody knows what a ETF is, but nobody knows where every dollar is going to & knows how to stretch it the way a poor person can. This is the reality of life for MOST outside our bubbles, where our $40 no-thought Uber ride is how much a mother has to spend on groceries.
Okay, so no, you have not seen what the resources look like at poor public schools today. The distance is even more apparent in thinking on campus college counselors are pointless when there are so many teens coming from homes where nobody has ever applied to college, or that don’t have any access to the internet at home. It actually is very easy to recognize that public education funding & distribution inherently puts poor people at a disadvantage. It’s funny how you’re quick to point out your household income several decades ago, to approximate yourself to low income people today, to then pivoting to this being a cultural issue of Hispanic & Black people says A LOT🥴 If you’re an SM you’re probably middle aged - while you were going to school, on your way to a college degree to further your life even if in a shit pay household, your Black counterparts were running laps around your work ethic either in underfunded redlined school districts, in households with true shit pay and lack of $resources (parents who worked under Jim Crow, grandparents who worked under slavery). Black Americans are starting from scratch as we speak, while the capital they produced in slavery for white families is still being passed down generation to generation via assets like the family home or small and large inheritances and reinvested to produce more. But Lol sure the wealth & education outcomes gap is a race culture issue, I hope one day my future Hispanic children have a white parent and family like yours to learn the TRUE value of an education from and be able to reach cheap state school heights too 🙏
It’s pretty close. More conservative estimates are 40% of people couldn’t cover $400
Expense.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fool.com/the-ascent/amp/banks/articles/does-average-american-save-money/
I always question that statistic.
D- absolutely a great resource. Still not where most of the volume is. Also limited by the type of surveying they do. I like a lot of the research that comes out of the Fed, but they don’t do the double clicking down into human behavior and causal hypotheses, nor do they tend to acknowledge the shortcomings in how govt statistics are reported, so like many things, privately-funded research tends to be more helpful for many in understanding how to put all of the pieces together.
I’ve been there. income inequality and lack of generational wealth, plus a lot of financial growth being severely exponential... “you need to have money to make money”... seeing as the average income is around 65,000 makes it almost impossible for a large percentage of people to get ahead. One major health issue or a divorce can blow it all up.
That’s also average income. A lot of people make less than that. It used to be much easier to get a good paying job without a college degree, or pay for college. Many of us are very, very fortunate.
This was me for a long time, only got out of that cycle about 2 years ago even with 3 part time minimum wage jobs
Yes. And the more apparent that is if you spend time away from the kinds of jobs/industries represented on these boards. I can say from personal experience that the vast majority of Americans really, really struggle to make it each month.
Visual Storyteller
It’s prob 85 pct with covid.
Chief
I always question these statistics as well. I never had an official “savings account” until this year (25). But I kept about 2-3 months living expenses in my checking account and have saved 100k+ in investment accounts. Would I have qualified as one of the 70%?
Yea it was me until I was almost 30. I couldn’t find a job in my area making a real living wage until then and now I have a great base&bonus (not rich but still, a big step up) and I have more in savings and retirement. Also, had credit card debt too from a time when I had crappy medical and dental insurance and had bills.
For those looking for official government stats (seems like a lot of people questioning), this is the FDIC Unbanked/Underbanked report.
~25% of households do not have access to a full range of banking services, (of which ~7% have no bank account at all). Over half state the primary reason is not having enough money.
https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/2017/2017execsumm.pdf
There’s other less formal studies that have shown most people can’t pull together $1000 in case or an emergency.
Wow, I’m sure post-COVID-19 this will change. Should be a wake up call for many.
I think This is true. My account balance negative 500$ and I have no savings. Majority of Americans are also in same boat from what I heard
@chief: unfortunately, I’ve met people like you through the course of my struggle to the top. When I got accepted into a great MBA program in Texas, one of my uncles advised against it because he didn’t see how I could afford it, I did just the opposite and took on more debt and ended up with a 3.86 GPA. When I accepted the offer at EY, people like you told me it was horrible pay but didn’t give me any referral to their better paying firms even though I asked them to help. I accepted the shitty pay and worked my ass off!!
I’m taking a chance on myself for my sake, for my family and my generation unborn. While it’s rough now, it’s not gonna be like this forever and as I write this, I have an offer from an aerospace company that’d pay me close to 200k per annum with 18% bonus and 20k in stocks!
While I’m still struggling and can barely make rent, the future is looking fucking bright!
People like you often thin you’re so “pragmatic” and “realistic” but don’t know you’re as foolish as they come. If you’ve never taken a chance on yourself, how can you relate??