Building an emergency savings fund is a difficult task for Americans. Both the economy and the way we're psychologically wired may be to blame.

When faced with an unexpected $1,000 expense, more than one-third of Americans would borrow the money, according to a new Bankrate survey. That may include tapping their credit cards, seeking money from friends or family or taking out a personal loan.

Most would not turn to cash savings because they don’t have it, the personal finance website found.

Fewer than half of Americans, 44%, say they can afford to pay a $1,000 emergency expense from their savings, according to Bankrate’s survey of more than 1,000 respondents conducted in December.

That is up from 43% in 2023, yet level when compared to 2022.

“We’re just not wired to save,” said Brad Klontz, a certified financial planner and expert in financial psychology and behavioral finance. Our brains are instead programmed to focus on our immediate needs.

  • @[email protected]
    8•5 months ago

    You’re right, it is unbelievable. Unbelievable that the wealthiest nation in the world, which built that wealth off the backs of those people (ignoring for the moment the colonialism, slavery, and other forms of economic abuse over its brief 250 years of existence), allows them to exist on the fringes of society where a $1000 emergency can be life or death. Unbelievable that there are tools like yourself who still insist this is an individual problem rather than a societal one. Unbelievable that we continue to do nothing about it but turn a blind eye and vilify them as they sink further and further into instability and poverty, and then turn around and wonder why half of society has given up on the very idea of society. And unbelievable that you can say the shit you say with a straight face without someone smacking the taste out of your mouth.