24% of Americans Have No Emergency Savings

According to the Bankrate.com Financial Security Index for June, 24% of Americans have no emergency savings whatsoever.

Many financial planning experts recommend having a minimum of six months worth of expenses set aside for a "rainy day fund", just in case a major earner in the household loses their job or some other catastrophe takes place.

According to Bankrate.com, just 24% of those included in the survey said that they had "six months or more" of emergency savings sitting in a checking account, savings account or money market account (easily accessible cash).

Here was the breakdown from those that were included in the survey:

"How much do you have in emergency savings?"

No Emergency Savings - 24%
Less Than Three Months' Expenses - 22%
Three to Five Months' Expenses - 22%
Six Months or More - 24%
Don't Know/Refused - 8%

As you can probably imagine, the youngest respondents in the survey (18-29) were in particularly rough shape when it came to emergency savings. 35% reported having no emergency savings whatsoever, while 28% had less than three months worth of emergency expenses.

As you can also probably imagine, respondents over the age of 65 were a bit better off, but having said that, only 39% reported having six months or more in emergency savings. That's a pretty scary number.

Source: Bankrate.com - Financial Security Index: "What The Nation Said"

Filed under: General Knowledge