50% of Americans Couldn't Come Up with $2000
 

An article here says that 50% of Americans could not raise $2000 in the event of an emergency.

That is a scary statistic. I'm sure the economy is partly to blame, but it's also the fact that many (most?) American families did not save while the economy was good.

Define "emergency" and then I'll know if I can come up with it.

I can't.
There were about 10 years in my life when I could have.
But I was bloody miserable for most of them.

Now I would have to throw myself on the mercy of my brother and my Grandad. Which is certainly not the same thing.

I wonder what the % was 5 years, 10 years and 20 years ago.

I wonder if the numbers would be that different.

Here's a graph of savings rates since 1960.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/PSAVERT

The supposition in the article was:

The hypothetical cost "reflects the order of magnitude of the cost of an unanticipated major car repair, a large co-payment on a medical expense, legal expenses, or a home repair."

What is $2000 in plasma?

Blood money? :-)

Interesting, savings declined on a pretty consistent basis since the early 80's, then in about 2005 it started to increase dramatically.

Here is the chart for those who don't like to click on links.

It's also interesting that savings rate seems to jump up when there's a recession and drop off when things are better.

Maybe recessions are caused by people saving money, instead of spending.

I must assume that means 50% are totally maxed out on every credit card. Credit cards are an emergency fund of last resort. One solution for cash flow problems. Difficult is to believe that 50% of Americans are totally maxed out on all credit cards. That article do not discuss this.

Given my current situation, perhaps it is unusual that I can say that I am part of the "good" 50% of this statistic.

That may or may not be true in the coming months. But as of today, I'm all right.

Yeah. Except for the 'legal expenses' the others aren't really emergencies.

If you've gotta pay a co-pay before they will give you treatment, I'm thinking it's not so much of an 'emergency'.

Cars? I can always borrow.

home repair? What are those? ;)

I cleaned out my car and found $2,000.25 in change down the back seat.

Unfortunately, I spent it all on the quarter car wash.

Why would you get just 1/4 of your car washed? :D