Americans Tend To Be Poor Savers and Poor Planners When It Comes to Money

While the October Employment Report showed a “surge” in wage, we’ve yet to see a shift away from the mentality that has led to such dismal savings and safety fund percentages among Americans. Maybe it’s the “spend it when you get it” mentality or perhaps it’s still just Cash-strapped Consumers, but either way there will be much financial pain ahead as the Aging of the Population is factored into the personal financial equation.

Americans on a whole just aren’t great savers, to the point where almost 70% of us don’t even have $1,000 in the bank.

Furthermore, almost half of Americans claim that to cover a $400 emergency, they’d need to borrow the money or sell something quickly to round up the cash.

And though some of us can legitimately point to low earnings as a reason for not saving, for many of us, it’s a matter of poor money management — namely, failing to create and follow a budget.

According to a recent study by U.S. Bank, only 41% of Americans use a budget even though it’s one of the most effective ways to keep track of our finances. This data is only a slight improvement over a 2013 Gallup poll, which showed that just 32% of U.S. households maintain budgets.

Source: Nearly 3 in 5 Americans are making this huge financial mistake – Oct. 24, 2016

About the Author

Chris Versace, Chief Investment Officer
I'm the Chief Investment Officer of Tematica Research and editor of Tematica Investing newsletter. All of that capitalizes on my near 20 years in the investment industry, nearly all of it breaking down industries and recommending stocks. In that time, I've been ranked an All Star Analyst by Zacks Investment Research and my efforts in analyzing industries, companies and equities have been recognized by both Institutional Investor and Thomson Reuters’ StarMine Monitor. In my travels, I've covered cyclicals, tech and more, which gives me a different vantage point, one that uses not only an ecosystem or food chain perspective, but one that also examines demographics, economics, psychographics and more when formulating my investment views. The question I most often get is "Are you related to…."

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