A lot of people here think this is about you parse "savings". It's not:
47% of Americans say they lack the cash to pay a surprise $400 bill
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/09/...
47% of Americans say they lack the cash to pay a surprise $400 bill
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/09/...
It's easy to assume throwing $100 around here or there is normal when you're able to throw $800 on an impulse iPhone without a problem. Many people can't.
I'm probably just as guilty too.
Yep!!
I grew up in an entirely different mindset than the upper middle class office workers I work with. I often feel like that I can't fit in or relate to them in many ways because they seem very out of touch with the world outside of their own upper middle class existence. Even in college they never worried about bills or living expenses, their parents paid.
It wasn't that long ago (less than a decade) that spending $600 on a car repair was absolutely unbearable for me. I went through that stress and now it almost seems surreal that sort of money was such a stress in my life when I look back on it.
I will never, ever, lose touch with the sort of lifestyle that my income can provide me (though I prefer to blow $800 on a weekend trip instead of an iPhone...)
The most interesting thing is that having so much extra money provides so much more opportunity to earn even more money. The old "You gotta have money to make money" really is true. I do money making activities outside my day job that I would never be able to do if I didn't have several thousands of dollar on hand to float for a month or so. If you are talking about real estate you need tens of thousands of dollars. The more money you have the easier it is to obtain more.
Any what are they doing about it?
Please don't just stop at that. World today is at a point, where any skill can be gained at a very little price, which is almost free. You can learn anything you want, provided you 'want' to learn.
If you stretch a little, sleep a little and push harder you can learn how to repair stuff, build websites and what not.
I think most people can bail themselves out of poverty in first/developing world countries, if they learn simple management skills. Planning, setting goals, reviewing, taking next logical steps etc.
But there's still a problem in that the $400 is "pay immediately". The other study from the same article showed 50% of Americans could cope with a surprise $2000 bill that they had 30 days to pay, in 2009.
If you're living paycheck to paycheck a bit of time will let you figure it out but you don't have the cash today to pay a small bill.
You shouldn't assume most people have much in the name of savings, much less capital.
People aren't eschewing savings accounts because rates are low. They don't have money in savings accounts because they literally don't have ANY money to put in one.
"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche."
So called "cash buffer" problems are actually a separate problem for many people. For many americans, maintaining a cash buffer is an inappropriate strategy because of their revolving credit balances.