Most Americans have almost zero in savings
By Harry Bradford, Huffington Post
Got five Benjamin Franklins stored under the mattress? You’re doing pretty good then.
Nearly half of Americans don’t have more than $500 saved up, according to a recent study by CreditDonkey.com, a credit card comparison company. Of the roughly 1,100 Americans polled, 41 percent reported having less than half a grand of readily-accessible savings at hand.
With the country struggling to recover income lost during the recession, the study isn’t the first to make clear the desperate state of so many Americans’ finances. Back in March, it was estimated that less than a third of American workers had savings of $1,000 or less, according to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
That lack of savings means most Americans have little in the way of a backup plan when things get tough. Indeed, over two thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, a survey by the American Payroll Association found last month.
Perhaps that explains the retirement anxiety, which has begun to afflict some people still in their thirties. Many Americans have even more pressing concerns: 45 percent told CreditDonkey.com that they fear they’ll never be able to save much money at all.
Stop taxing savings and investments and you’ll see people save more.
Instead the new healthcare law will raise taxes on capital gains from 15 to 23.8%; it will raise taxes on dividends from 15 to 43.4%; and it will raise taxes on savings interest, annuities and rent income from 35 to 43.4%. Now that is no incentive to save, is it.
Just how much income do the people this article is talking about, people that actually work for a paycheck, derive from capital gains, dividends, savings(non-existent)interest, annuities and rental income? What a pantload argument that is attempting to justify the bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
If the estate tax code changes at the end of the year, my family will lose approx $2.5 million. I know anybody reading my post will say “oh boo hoo” you deserve it, or something along that line. But my family worked hard for that money, and to see it stolen just to pay for your food stamps makes me want to puke blood.
No, barfl2, not all of us. That money was already taxed (at least once!) and government has no right to it now.
Hard work and wise investing should be rewarded. If somebody worked and left you that money, why should government have any right to say otherwise? By what right?
Barfl2, I bought my first property here in So. Lake Tahoe in 1975. I have worked, prospered, paid all my taxes, raised successful children that are also local property owners and taxpayers and am fortunate enough to have never needed to use food stamps to feed my family. I don’t have to worry about the 2.5 mil. estate tax because I’m just a middle-class guy. Your claim about that huge increase in estate tax would put you in the uber rich .001% of the country. So boo-frickin’-hoo.
Class envy is killing this country. Those who would rather pull down others than raise themselves up. . . so WHAT if you aren’t a millionaire? Just because an unjust tax system doesn’t hurt YOU doesn’t make it okay. That’s just as self-centered an attitude as you accuse the 1% of being.
Dogula is right. Perhaps it is time to save under a mattress, do trades and quit paying so much in taxes??? No that is what has already started to happen and it will rapidly continue if we get 4 more years of the pity party enhancers in office!
There’s two kinds of people that support the filthy rich and their trickle-down schemes; those that actually Are filthy rich and the suckers.
Legalize prostitution, drugs and gambling…then I really won’t be able to save money.
The notion that people don’t save money because of some tax code is BS. The same goes for business. Business-man hires more people if those people make him money. I’m tired of the argument that taxation rate freezes everybody in their tracks. It’s right wing fairy-tales.
Private business is wildly flush with cash and they are not hiring. They are not hiring because demand is soft, or they are maximizing profit, not because their tax rate is a couple of points this way or that.
That said, I personally don’t believe that rich people need to be unfairly treated just because they are rich. That’s unamerican.
What’s lost on most Americans is that the uber-wealthy are now paying a historically low tax rate. No wonder Romney is willing to offer up that wealthy americans will not pay any less, that they will pay the same rate under his watch. That’s because they’re paying super low rates right now.
People don’t have any savings for a variety of reasons. I think most people live beyond their means and lack planning and money management skills.
Atomic, I think you nailed it!