Same Pay, More Expenses Means Little Emergency Savings

About one-fourth of Americans have no emergency savings, and that’s barely changed in the past four years. Experts at Bankrate, which conducts the annual survey, believe the reason is simple: Many Americans just don’t have that extra money to sock away. That’s because for many Americans, their paychecks have stayed about the same even as there have been modest increases in expenses for things like food. That’s leaving little wiggle room in the budget. The Bankrate survey found:

• 26 percent of Americans have no emergency savings, about the same as in previous years
• About 23 percent had six months or more of savings, which is an ideal amount that many experts had recommended.
• The rest have some savings, but not six months’ worth, or did not answer.
• The phone survey of about 1,000 people has a 3.6 percent margin of error.

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