The American Family’s Financial Turmoil

The American Family’s Financial Turmoil

The average American family is in a serious financial position that leaves no room for financial problems and incorporates little planning for future financial needs. Meet the average American family…

The average family has $3,800 in the bank. No one in the family has a retirement account (in 50 percent of American households). Their neighbors (the other 50 percent) only have $35,000 saved for retirement. The family has no mutual funds, stocks or bonds. The house is worth $160,000, but the family owes $95,000 on it to the bank. They make $43,000 a year, but can’t manage to pay off a $2,200 credit card balance.

The average American family’s finances, by the way, are in shambles. Forty percent of working Americans are not saving for retirement. Twenty-five percent have no savings at all—retirement or otherwise. The average household has $117,951 in debt. That’s enough to buy 7.5 2010 Honda Civics.

The combined amount of personal debt held by Americans is $2 trillion. This is about the GDP of England. Twenty-four percent of workers have postponed their retirement age in the past year. Eighteen percent of people polled are very confident about having enough money for retirement.

Among Americans, 7.7 percent don’t have a bank account. Only 1.7 percent of Utah residents don’t have a bank account, while 16.7 percent of Mississippi’s residents don’t have a bank account. Less than 4/10 of American adults have an emergency fund to fall back on in the event of some financial disaster.