When faced with an unexpected $1,000 expense, more than one-third of Americans would borrow the money, according to a new Bankrate survey. That may include tapping their credit cards, seeking money from friends or family or taking out a personal loan.
Most would not turn to cash savings because they don’t have it, the personal finance website found.
Fewer than half of Americans, 44%, say they can afford to pay a $1,000 emergency expense from their savings, according to Bankrate’s survey of more than 1,000 respondents conducted in December.
That is up from 43% in 2023, yet level when compared to 2022.
“We’re just not wired to save,” said Brad Klontz, a certified financial planner and expert in financial psychology and behavioral finance. Our brains are instead programmed to focus on our immediate needs.
I think it is more like people don’t have high paying jobs with extra money to save.
The media has been blaming poor people for not having money for forty fucking years or more.
If people are hungry then let them eat cake!
Been going on for a lot longer than fourty years.
“We’re just not wired to save,” said Brad Klontz, a certified financial planner and expert in financial psychology and behavioral finance. Our brains are instead programmed to focus on our immediate needs.
Hahaha, this guy can legit go fuck himself. We’re in a fucking Gilded Age where we’re being fucking bled dry by fucking corporations ripping us off, nickel and dime-ing us to death, and just fucking over customers as much as they can to make a buck.
But nooooo, it couldn’t be that half the country isn’t paid a fucking living wage!
You couldn’t get by in the cheapest places in the country.
Right now Lubbock, Texas has rents roughly $900 a month for a one bedroom apartment (Lubbock is cited in many studies as one of the cheapest rental markets in the US).
Minimum wage is $7.25 in Texas.
To afford a $900 apartment on your own, you would need to be making $16.87 an hour.
The average wage in Lubbock is $26,413/year, or about $13.75, which is about three dollars short of a renter allowing you to rent that place (income per month x 3 is the standard).
So, even in the cheapest places to rent in the country nobody can actually afford to live alone.
But sure Klontz, you fucking clod, it’s that “wE’rE jUsT nOt wIrEd tO sAvE!” What a fucking crock of shit. Can someone who knows this person in real life maybe try slapping the fucking stupid out of his idiot face?
EDIT: Shit like this why idiotic people like Trump voters don’t trust “experts.” If he’s an expert I’m Mickey Fucking Mouse and Disney can just try suing me for existing.
Both things can be true. I think there is something to the remark that people aren’t wired to save. I don’t feel like I can afford to buy frivolous things at every store I go into and I make decent money. On the other hand, I know someone making FAR less than me who literally does buy junk every chance they get.
I do feel like I am the outlier, I’ve been saving money since I was a child and everyone else around me tended to blow any lump sum of money as soon as they got it. Whereas I would spend 0-10% and put the rest in savings.
“we’re not wired to save” is a weird way of saying
44%56% of Americans barely make it paycheck to paycheck with no disposable income.Edit: wrong percentage
Yeah something like 25% of Americans make under $35k. That’s poverty wages in this economy.
You kidding? That’s almost a congressman’s wage in my country. I want 35K a year 😭
You need to check what the purchasing power parity between US and your country is.
Someone making 35K USD per year in USA is doing roughly as well as someone making 15.3K USD per year in Lithuania. That’s a higher end retail wage here, or 1170 euros.
I make more than that after taxes, and that includes national health insurance and national pension fund.
The caveats are that plane travel, vehicles and electronics will be more expensive to a Lithuanian but fresh food, real estate, rent and services will be more expensive to an American.
“Not wired to save” … Mother fucker is completely out of touch with systemic pressures squeezing every last ounce out of people.
Friends of ours busted their asses to raise kids and simultaneously go to college for accounting. The other parent rose up to management in a factory.
They still can’t afford a basic house and are endlessly caught in a loop as renters where they get fucked even more.
My wife and I were lucky in the timing of getting our home and lucky to just know a realtor in our family. Luck, luck, luck. I’m not working half as hard as they are if I’m honest and they are getting fucked by a system that doesn’t give a shit about them, all the while the rich get richer then turn around and tell all the plebs to blame the poor immigrants seeking a better life.
But why have children if you can’t or struggle to afford them? Save for longer…then have kids.
Even if they didn’t, it would make little difference.
But (and I don’t know in their case) unplanned kids or not aside, now you’re saying they should wait for this magical time where they might be able to afford owning a home (when in reality they probably did at the time feel they could when prices were lower), versus the fact that you can’t just magically have kids whenever. The older you get, the more risks and complications versus the challenge of simply raising kids when you’re older in general.
The point is there was a time when this sort of calculated planning wasn’t necessary; yet the squeeze from the rich now makes it so we have to literally postpone fucking life because of how rigged the real estate market and the broader wealth gap is.
The point is there are only dilemmas and no good options while societal pressures continue to increase for the poor and middle-class. Besides that, there’s a lot of tolerance and room for forgiveness when you’re rich. Not so much when you’re poor. Make one mistake and you’re fucked. And no, this is not a meritocracy.
