28% of Americans have no emergency savings

@CNNMoney June 25, 2012: 6:15 AM ET
28% of Americans have no emergency savings

28% of Americans have no emergency savings

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Most Americans don't have nearly enough money stashed away for emergencies and more than one-in-four don't even have a single penny saved.

While the general rule of thumb is to have an emergency fund that will cover at least six months of expenses, only 25% of Americans have that amount saved, research released Monday by Bankrate.com finds.

About 49% of Americans don't even have enough money saved to cover three months of expenses -- slightly worse than the 46% of Americans who reported having less than three months worth of savings last year.

And 28% don't have any cushion whatsoever -- up from 24% last year, according to the report, which was based on a survey of 1,000 adults.

"Incomes are largely stagnant, so it's difficult for people to make significant headway on savings when household expenses are creeping higher but incomes are not," said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com. "Prolonged unemployment has also depleted the savings of many people who at one time had a more appropriate cushion."

While the overall saving situation has gotten slightly worse in the past year, Americans are saving more this year than they were six years ago. In 2006, Bankrate found that 61% of Americans didn't have enough emergency savings to last three months.

"Relative to a year like 2006, the needle has moved a little bit, but this is more of an indication of how woefully undersaved Americans were during the 'go-go days' of the housing boom," said McBride.

While some may argue that they don't have enough money to contribute to an emergency savings account, McBride said it's just a matter of getting into the habit.

"The biggest barrier to saving is not being in the habit of saving," he said. "By establishing that habit, even if an unplanned expense comes up and wipes out what you've accumulated, you're only one paycheck away from restarting the saving process."

To start saving, he recommends setting up a direct deposit from your paycheck or checking account into a dedicated savings account and to keep track of your spending so that you funnel as much extra income as possible into your savings account each month. To top of page

Help! We need a makeover
Young dad, $15,000 in credit card debt
Readers' Choice

Carlos Rodriguez is trying to rid himself of $15,000 in credit card debt, while paying his mortgage and saving for his son's college education.

$400,000 portfolio, too many holdings
Readers' Choice

Susan Carson and Laura DeLallo make $225,000 and have half a million in retirement savings, but their sprawling portfolios is proving hard to manage.

Overnight Avg Rate Latest Change Last Week
30 yr fixed3.80%3.88%
15 yr fixed3.20%3.23%
5/1 ARM3.84%3.88%
30 yr refi3.82%3.93%
15 yr refi3.20%3.23%
Rate data provided
by Bankrate.com
View rates in your area
 
Find personalized rates:
  • -->

    Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.