6 in 10 Americans don't have $500 in savings

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/12/pf/...dex.html?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool

The title says it all. The average American is tapped out, by decades of consumerism and stagnant wages. They spend all they make. How are those people going to consume more, jumpstarting the promised magnificent Trump economy? Answer: They are not, unless they get a significant bump in wages. This, is, however, unlikely with the deck stacked against the job applicant and towards the employer.

But, first on the GOP agenda is not to help those people, but rather give a tax break to the people making more than $250,000. Yes, in the middle of the night the GOP voted to repeal the 3.8% surtax on capital gains in that income group, giving them a huge tax break. And the MSM said barely a word.

Are the rich going to use this additional money to create jobs in the US? Why would they, if the vast majority has little money to spend? Thus aggregate demand is going to remain low, unless more money is put into the hands of the average consumer. Yet, the GOP tax policies will do exactly the opposite, give more money to the top few %, who'll just stash it under the mattress or use it for stock buybacks or to inflate asset bubbles, as they have done for decades.

If supply side economics is your only hammer, everything looks a nail.

 

Thats funny the talking point just a short while ago was those that saved and did not invest were hurting the economy by "hoarding".. Then randomly throw in slurs like uneducated, fear monger, paranoid or for some reason "gold bug"...

The left needs to get together and figure out some consistency.

 

I dont see how its possible considering what some of my possible expenses are with a house, pet and vehicle; and im sure having a child comes with lots of added risk of expense. I spent more than 500 dollars at the vet, on my vehicle, and am looking at possible pipe damage in the near future. I'm glad I have saved more than most people according to this article, just the costs of random maintenance things like roofs, plumbing, ac, heating and appliance on a house would all be far more than $500 to remedy. And thats just for housing much less anything else that can go wrong in life.


6 in 10 Americans don't have $500 in savings
http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/12/pf/...dex.html?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool
"If you are human, have a pet, kids, a house or a place to live, something is going to happen that will cost you money," said Cornfield.

-- And 233,610 to raise a child from birth to 17

 

Result of 8 years of the Obama regime.

 

BULL(*)(*)(*)(*) ALERT

This FNN article is based off what is essentially an ad for selling home equity loans and credit cards.

The Bankrate claim itself comes with no mention of their polling methods or results, it has no corroboration, and makes no attribution as to cause (which obviously wasn't important to FNN).

Furthermore the FNN scum are cross-linking to other FNN articles in an attempt to use this bad repackaged claim to substantiate "something something GOP is bad" ...you guys know the drill.

On top of that FNN cuts out every single mention of fiscal responsibility, which is the single greatest problem of personal debt, that was in the original Bankrate article ...now gee why would Democrats want to downplay personal responsibility?

/sigh

This is some pretty (*)(*)(*)(*) poor journalism.

 

I find this hard to believe with this booming economy.

 

It's hard to believe, isn't it? Almost half of the households would have trouble dealing with a situation requiring a few hundred bucks. People always vastly underestimate what the true income & wealth distribution is. Please note, I'm not advocating for anything here, I'm just stating some aspects of the situation. One tidbit I came across that shocked me was in the annual Credit Suisse global wealth report. This was average wealth (net worth) per adult and the median number as well. The shock was, even though average wealth per US adult was about $345,000.00 the median was only about $45,000.00. The average was clearly higher than all other large western industrialized nations but the median was woefully lagging these nations. Take a neighboring country, Canada, for example - average wealth per adult in Canada is $270,000.00 but median wealth is $96,600.00. The median number is more than twice that of the US yet total wealth per adult seriously lags behind the US. If you assume the median adult is the middle class it would appear other nations' middle classes seem to be faring better? I found this pretty sobering. Link is below, for those who are interested you can download the report and methodology from this link.

https://www.credit-suisse.com/us/en...2016/11/en/the-global-wealth-report-2016.html

 

Unfortunately I don't, but it's not because of the job market. I know many people with good and really good jobs that have next to nothing in savings. There was a termed coined many moons ago "keeping up with the Jones's". Many people that I know spend every penny they make because they "feel" they have to.

Personal example:
My sister and her husband live in a paid off house that was given to them...free...by his grandmother. My sister works a good job and my brother-in-law works. They had no car payment and yet they were always complaining about money. Of course they have all of the latest gadgets, go on vacations regularly, and generally are irresponsible with their money. Then they go and buy a new 2017 truck loaded, and continue to complain.

My wife and I both work. I have a good job and she works as a teachers aid. We send both of our sons to private school, have a house payment, 1 car payment.....ever, and take family vacations about every 3 years. Our house has not been updated in 15 years, unless something breaks and manage to have enough in savings to live without jobs for approximately 8 months or so, and continue to add. Do we have all of the latest gadgets...no.....do we want them....yes.

My other sister and her husband make way more money than me and they complain about not having money.

I'm not trying to sound perfect because we're not, but people just need to get their priorities straight and learn how to budget. Oh, and I credit my wife for our ability to do this.

 

This ties into the fact that approximately 53% of Americans receive welfare and/or "subsidies" (another word for welfare) to one extent or another. The radical Democrat Party and the rotten, stinking RINO's who have 'looked the other way' for decades are responsible for this!

 

Less than $500 in savings is frightening. No wonder so many people are scared to death over the election.

I've owned a $500 car. (1970 Plymouth Fury III converted to propane w/ 40 gallon tank in trunk and air shocks. It weighed 5,400 lbs and you could hear it coming for 3 minutes - TRUE - I used to fly RC gliders out in the country - one time I arrived late, everyone was using their stopwatch and clicked stop when I turned off the key - 2:54 minutes)
Bud I digress:

I suspect more Americans are living paycheck to paycheck than many of us realize. Think about it: Our government is in debt equal to 105% of our Gross Domestic Product. It's not a stretch to assume many American families are similarly in debt.

 

I've heard that people are behind on their retirement savings too. This is all going to lead everyone to the poor house.

 

The class wars are over; the rich won. End of story. And a greedy billionaire born with a silver spoon, who owns a gold elevator, pretends he's going to turn this country around for the working man, whom he has never identified with, much less sympathized. By building a wall across our southern border and then overhauling the Corporate State. It's a story right out of Bizarro World, swallowed by his cult members.

 

If Obama was such a great president, and if his economy was so great, people wouldn't still be dealing with consumerism and stagnant wages. But stagnant wages are not the reason why so many people are barely scraping by. The real reason is that these same people are taking out loans on cars they can't afford, taking out 30-year variable-rate mortgages on houses they can't afford, signing up for credit cards they can't afford to pay off at the end of every month, and taking out student loans for degrees that can't support all of their freaking payments. If you are reckless with money and owe $28,000 on a car, $170,000 on a mortgage, $8,000 on a credit card, and $50,000 on student loans as the average person does, you're going to essentially be treading water constantly and won't have anything left at the end of the month to put away towards savings. Obama and Trump aren't forcing you to take out all these loans, regardless of how much you love or hate them, and you can't borrow or refinance your way out of debt.

Furthermore, I happen to be in the minority of Americans who do actually have $500 in savings, and it's not because I'm stinking rich (I'm actually a jobless college student right now) but because I know how to handle money sensibly.

The whole point of economics is to make someone better off without making anyone else worse off, so your point about economics is invalid. Furthermore, giving more money to people who already don't know how to spend money won't solve anything. To prove my point, look at the number of professional athletes in financial trouble. These are the people who generally go from "rags to riches", who didn't know how to manage money when they had very little of it, and still couldn't figure out how to manage it despite making seven figures for most of their careers.

"According to Sports Illustrated, 78 percent of National Football League (NFL) and an estimated 60 percent of National Basketball Association (NBA) players go bankrupt or are under financial stress in just two years and five years, respectively, after their retirement.."

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/more-sports/21-sports-stars-whove-gone-bankrupt/ss-BBlmIiX

 

And why do they spend the money rather than save it?

 

Why save when the Nanny State will provide everything you need? Perhaps saving is antiquated.

 

Yay! We're all doomed!

 

Obama was president in the 1980's?

 

You know all these know nothings are all liberals

that don't have the good common sense to plan

or save for anything.

They want the village to take care of them..

We need to teach these dummies how to fish instead

of begging for a living.

 

Obama is president today and has been for 8 years, Clinton was president in the 90s, also for 8 years..... Given the catastrophic financial situation of the American people as per OP, any pretense that the Dems care about the working people is beyond absurd.

There's a good reason why Trump destroyed the Republican party during the primaries and the Democratic party in this election. The American people have had enough of both.

 

The poster I quoted tried to blame obama for 30+ years of trickle down policies which resulted in the largest wealth gap in decades. I was asking if he thought obama was president in the 80's.

 

The GOP has always, always been for the rich elite class. Only when the D's joined them have the American people been royally screwed.
The elite rich, now have both parties under their control.

 

Recently, I guess.

Historically, no.

I would argue that the Democrats have already been there. Republicans have just been more honest about their alignment.

 

everything is relative

what is wrong with a $170k mortgage on a home worth more than $500,000 ? What is wrong if the payment is less than 10% of your monthly take home income?

On any given month I could have racked up $8,000 or more on a credit card in travel expenses, so what? The neat thing is to pay it off each month and the credit card companies give me cash back!!!!!

With respect to 60% of Americans not having $500 in savings, I find that quite plausible

Some might have money within a 401K but very little in on-hand cash as they can't afford anything beyond the 401K

We've been hearing how swell things are but that is if you think a part time job in foodservice is the definition of "good".

Let's see if having a business friendly adminstration can get the needle to move. We've see what 8 years of failed liberalism has done so let's try something else

 

I know a single guy. $8/hr. 40 hrs per week. $1280/mo before taxes.
He has to pay rent, shared apartment of 400/mo. Leaves $880.
$200/month food, doesn't eat out ever. Leaves $680.
$100/mo gas to and from work and shopping. Leaves $580.
Utilities, elect, heat etc his share, $150/mo. Leaves $430.
Phone, $100/mo. Luxury item. Leaves $330.
internet, also luxury. $100 Leaves $230
Cable tv, also luxury. $100 Leaves $130.
20% of 1280 for taxes, $256. Leaves $-126.

- - - Updated - - -

The gov't gets to print it's money. We can't.
And the gov't is in debt mostly to itself. We aren't.

- - - Updated - - -

All part of the rich global elites plan. The R's sold out working Americans, well, they were never for working Americans. The D's sold them out under clinton.

 

That the GOP is the "party of the rich" is one of the most obvious lies the union label Complex tells its dependent minions and others gullible enough to believe it. Despite they themselves knowing it's a lie, they will parrot it out endlessly... it's pretty much all the policy bankrupt left has, resentment-based, identity politics talking points to repeat endlessly as advertisements.

1. The Democrats and Democrat politicians get just as much money from the rich and rich corporate interests as the GOP, in many instances, such as the recent election, FAR more.
2. The highest income cities/areas in the country are overwhelmingly Democrat. They have enough such that no tax rate will ever bother them (they don't make much income after all and can afford expensive tax planning). They have a vested interest in keeping upstart competition OUT that could interfere with their dynastic plans for their trust fund babies. THEY... VOTE... DEMOCRAT. Go wear a MAGA hat walking around on the Upper West and get back to us on the reactions.
3. The left doesn't want you to know it, and their public unions do everything in their power to conceal it, but a vast majority of the tech millionaires of the last 30 years are very left leaning, divest their wealth nearly as fast as they get it, and into LW type causes and charities to boot. Why, then does the Complex yammer on about wealth inequality so much? Simple, because all the public union teachers, contractors, SEIU, etc. etc. need MAXIMUM extraction of taxes from the MIDDLE CLASS to secure their advancement. They know it. We know it. All the identity politics wealth inequality lies are window dressing over that simple fact. Any money that doesn't go through the wasteful, corrupt, incompetent sieve of government is "bad" money. What a coincidence!
4. The rich and poor in the US are overwhelmingly THE... EXACT... SAME... PEOPLE... just at different points in their career. I started work at 13 in 1977 making $2.10 an hour, just like a vast majority of US workers do. Then over the years, we all make much more provided we keep working and making even half-assed decent life choices. The left wants you to believe there are "static" rich and poor classes and goes to great effort to hide the fact that the rich and poor are mostly the same people at different points in time.
5. In line with "4" above, they want to be there with the big govt gun to STEAL the product of your productive middle class life when the time is ripe by calling you "the rich." You scrimp, save and sacrifice as a small business owner or stakeholder for decades. Then when it's time to cash out and enjoy the earned benefit of your good choices? "Oh well, you are the rich, and always have been." What a toxic, self-serving LIE. Don't believe it, and don't become an accessory to wholesale theft by using it as a rationalization. The vast majority of "wealth" in this country is not some tech millionaire's (they skew the way wealth is measured) but the product of honest hard work of street level entrepreneurs, doctors, plumbers, contractors, dry cleaners, nail salons, who provide a valuable service to their communities, bust their ass for decades, and then have a greedy public teacher's or other union ready to steal the results of their hard work at the finish line. Don't buy it.

They seek to fool you with a big lie narrative that wealth is zero sum and if you don't have everything you want, someone "took" yours illicitly. Nothing could be further from the facts, yet they preach the lie to their ignorant blocs endlessly. It's all about lining THEIR union label wallets with YOUR middle and upper middle class money (not some 1 in a million outlier hedge fund manager's but YOURS) at the end of a govt gun barrel. Don't be fooled by the whitewash to the contrary.

Are they fooling you?