Study finds few have enough savings to get through emergencies
Posted January 31, 2012 in Press Releases
More than a quarter of Americans have little or no savings to help them survive an emergency that leads to a three-month loss of income, according to a new report on the health of Americans' finances.
And that's only if they can sell their homes or cars to get fast cash.
The number jumps to 44 percent when researchers exclude assets like homes, businesses and cars that could be sold to raise cash, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development, which got an assist from Ohio Policy Matters.
In other words, lots of us are asset poor, even if our incomes may look OK on paper.
The report is an effort to go beyond the poverty figures released annually by the U.S. Census and take a deeper look at Americans' financial security, according to Jennifer Brooks, one of the authors.
To create its state rankings and recommendations, the group compiled publicly available data and supplemented it with information purchased from private sources, like credit bureaus. As it looked at the data, it found:
• More than half of consumers have subprime credit scores.
• One in five jobs is low-wage.
• More than half of employers don't offer healthcare.
• Just over half of American workers either don't have or don't participate in retirement plans.
"Ohio is doing better than many other states," Brooks said. The state has policies