Author Topic: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.  (Read 9127 times)

Fearthebait

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According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« on: September 20, 2016, 11:04:17 AM »
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-20/make-six-figures-there-s-a-decent-chance-you-ve-got-almost-nothing-in-the-bank

Interesting read that drives home the point that in our society, it doesn't matter how much you make because a majority of individuals spend it all anyway. I could never imagine making 300k/yr and not being able to save even $1,000. The lifestyle creep is real.

Chris22

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2016, 11:15:38 AM »
Quick skim, but it appeared that just looked at savings accounts. If it's ONLY savings accounts, that's a silly metric to me; my savings is relatively low because I keep money in other places like mutual Funds, 401ks, IRAs, and 529s.

MilesTeg

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2016, 11:46:12 AM »
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-20/make-six-figures-there-s-a-decent-chance-you-ve-got-almost-nothing-in-the-bank

Interesting read that drives home the point that in our society, it doesn't matter how much you make because a majority of individuals spend it all anyway. I could never imagine making 300k/yr and not being able to save even $1,000. The lifestyle creep is real.

Certainly does not mean people don't save enough, but this article doesn't seem to take into account things other than savings accounts, which means it's pretty much useless.

I am in the demographic mentioned, and I have $5.01 in my savings account. Doesn't mean I have only saved $5...

MgoSam

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2016, 11:47:01 AM »
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-20/make-six-figures-there-s-a-decent-chance-you-ve-got-almost-nothing-in-the-bank

Interesting read that drives home the point that in our society, it doesn't matter how much you make because a majority of individuals spend it all anyway. I could never imagine making 300k/yr and not being able to save even $1,000. The lifestyle creep is real.

Certainly does not mean people don't save enough, but this article doesn't seem to take into account things other than savings accounts, which means it's pretty much useless.

I am in the demographic mentioned, and I have $5.01 in my savings account. Doesn't mean I have only saved $5...

Yup I have zero in my savings account. Of course my checkings account is with Ally, so I still earn something from it.

honeybbq

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2016, 11:51:11 AM »
I guess the headline is kind of gasp worthy-- until you think that maybe people are deflecting money into other places  -throwing money at student loans, prepaying their mortgages, maxing 401s etc.

I find it strange though that they wouldn't even keep 1,000 in their bank account. That seems like a relatively low amount of money even if they regularly deflect money to other savings vehicles.

100k Gross
60k Net
-18k 401
-12k student loans
-30k basic spend
= 0



Chris22

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2016, 11:54:59 AM »
What if you leave it in checking and never bother moving it to savings?

Miss Piggy

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2016, 12:24:41 PM »
What if you leave it in checking and never bother moving it to savings?

Then you get articles written about you and people on web forums do a lot of finger-pointing. Don't be that guy.  ;)

Papa Mustache

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #7 on: September 20, 2016, 01:04:23 PM »
Too bad that the article didn't look at more aspects of people's financial situations but I suppose that article would have been much harder to research.

I got the feeling that the author looked up income vs savings account balances on some big data database and wrote a quick article and pocketed the writing fee.

Edited: substituted "wrote" for "wrong"
« Last Edit: September 20, 2016, 03:06:21 PM by Joe Lucky »

MilesTeg

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2016, 01:29:07 PM »
What if you leave it in checking and never bother moving it to savings?

Then you get articles written about you and people on web forums do a lot of finger-pointing. Don't be that guy.  ;)

The COH I keep is always in my checking account, which through my credit union has a 2% APY (with conditions that are easily met) vs a 0.5% APY on the savings account.

DblEntry

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #9 on: September 20, 2016, 01:30:51 PM »
What if you leave it in checking and never bother moving it to savings?

Then you get articles written about you and people on web forums do a lot of finger-pointing. Don't be that guy.  ;)

Except in the UK checking accounts pay more than saving accounts (e.g. Santander).

Strange, but true.

FINate

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #10 on: September 20, 2016, 01:36:40 PM »
Lazy journalism...do they even teach this at university anymore? It appears most articles these days are from someone mindlessly pounding away at a keyboard instead of really investigating. Net worth is the metric they should be looking at.

slugline

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #11 on: September 20, 2016, 01:45:24 PM »
What about the people who just keep it all in a Scrooge McDuck-style money bin?

CheapskateWife

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #12 on: September 20, 2016, 01:48:52 PM »
Mine is under my mattress....

MandyM

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #13 on: September 20, 2016, 02:20:51 PM »
There's always money in the banana stand.

moof

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2016, 05:52:59 PM »
http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/03/21/the-average-american-has-this-much-saved-for-retir.aspx

The punchline is that the median person in their 60's has a whopping $172k in retirement savings, and only $63k in their 40's.  I'd like to have actual distribution plots, but those are depressing numbers.  My real fear is being aged out of my field by time I hit my 50's (based on empirical data) and I don't want to go into management as a life boat.

mizzourah2006

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #15 on: September 21, 2016, 12:29:29 PM »
Quick skim, but it appeared that just looked at savings accounts. If it's ONLY savings accounts, that's a silly metric to me; my savings is relatively low because I keep money in other places like mutual Funds, 401ks, IRAs, and 529s.

Yeah, I keep around $1k in my savings account (I actually have about $850 right now), so I would answer that I don't, but we are putting away about $48-55k/yr in 401ks, IRAs, HSAs, and brokerage accounts. Not saying that I am normal, just that I would actually be one of those that earn between $100-$149,999 that doesn't as well.

Purple Economist

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #16 on: September 21, 2016, 10:30:12 PM »
There's always money in the banana stand.

I can't believe you're advocating insurance fraud.

Papa Mustache

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #17 on: September 22, 2016, 08:34:14 AM »
I don't understand the leap from banana stand to insurance fraud. Care to clue me in?

meg_shannon

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #18 on: September 22, 2016, 08:57:49 AM »
It's from a TV show. If I remember correctly, a character burns down the banana stand (the business) for insurance money. Except, the walls of the banana stand were filled with cash. The patriarch of the family (who was in prison) kept telling his family members "there's always cash in the banana stand." They were too dumb to pick up on it.

I don't understand the leap from banana stand to insurance fraud. Care to clue me in?

MgoSam

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #19 on: September 22, 2016, 09:13:07 AM »
It's from a TV show. If I remember correctly, a character burns down the banana stand (the business) for insurance money. Except, the walls of the banana stand were filled with cash. The patriarch of the family (who was in prison) kept telling his family members "there's always cash in the banana stand." They were too dumb to pick up on it.

I don't understand the leap from banana stand to insurance fraud. Care to clue me in?

Correct, though there was no logical way for Michael to understand that his dad meant there was $200k hidden inside the banana stand.

frugalnacho

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #20 on: September 22, 2016, 10:08:37 AM »
It's from a TV show. If I remember correctly, a character burns down the banana stand (the business) for insurance money. Except, the walls of the banana stand were filled with cash. The patriarch of the family (who was in prison) kept telling his family members "there's always cash in the banana stand." They were too dumb to pick up on it.

I don't understand the leap from banana stand to insurance fraud. Care to clue me in?

Correct, though there was no logical way for Michael to understand that his dad meant there was $200k hidden inside the banana stand.

Yet there was no way to directly tell him on account of being imprisoned.  Hilarity ensues.  Arrested development is a great show, gets 9/10 on IMDB, and is on netflix.  Everyone should watch it. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367279/

mm1970

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #21 on: September 22, 2016, 10:34:44 AM »
There's always money in the banana stand.

I can't believe you're advocating insurance fraud.
I miss that show.

Papa Mustache

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #22 on: September 22, 2016, 12:22:25 PM »
Oh - I've heard good things about that show. I'll watch it this winter. ;)

frugalnacho

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #23 on: September 23, 2016, 08:14:37 AM »
Oh - I've heard good things about that show. I'll watch it this winter. ;)








Metric Mouse

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #24 on: October 08, 2016, 11:19:05 PM »
Oh - I've heard good things about that show. I'll watch it this winter. ;)









You just made yourself look like a fool infront of T-Bone.

Enigma

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Re: According to Forbes....Americans do something we already knew.
« Reply #25 on: October 10, 2016, 09:19:00 AM »
Dang...  I guess I am one of the bad ones...  I dont have a savings account :'(

I do have multiple checking accounts, lots of property, 401k, and IRAs.  The days of the savings accounts are over.  Nearly 0% interest rates, charges for debit cards, monthly fees, hidden fees, banks opening accounts without your approval (Wells Fargo), and countless other factors are leading to its death.