It’s Easy to Pay Our Bills. But When It Comes to Saving, Americans Are

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Paying your bills and buying your much-needed hump-day latte is no big deal. But when it comes to stashing away savings, Americans are having serious trouble, a new study finds.

The 2016 National Financial Capability Study, released this week, shows that despite an improving economy, many Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck.

The study analyzed data from multiple state surveys, which combined included information on more than 25,000 adults, and found that about one third are satisfied with their personal finances. That’s up 15 percentage points from 2009, shortly after the Great Recession hit. What’s more, 48 percent of those studied say they can easily pay their monthly expenses bills—and that’s up 12 percentage points from seven years ago.

But despite that good news, the number of Americans who are willing and able to save remains low. The study shows that fewer than half of Americans spend less than what they bring home—and about 18 percent spend above and beyond what they make each month. That’s about the same number that reported living paycheck to paycheck in 2009, showing that Americans haven’t been able to truly recuperate after the Great Recession.

Savings accounts seemingly don’t exist for many Americans, either. About one-third—or 34 percent—of those surveyed in the study say they couldn’t come up with $2,000 if disaster struck within the next month. That number rises to 57 percent when you isolate millennials ages 18 to 34.

And that’s not the worst of it. The study also shows that 23 percent of Americans who have retirement accounts have taken out a loan or hardship withdrawal from those accounts. Again, that number spikes when you look only at the youngest working Americans. According to the study, 42 percent of millennials took out a loan or hardship withdrawal from their retirement accounts in the last year alone.

If you’d like to start saving, it’s OK to start small. After all, that once-a-week latte could add up to more than $500 a year. And that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Source: http://www.glamour.com/story/pay-bills-sure-but-when-it-comes-to-saving-americans-are-struggling