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.
I have pretty decent savings, but I also live in a country with public health care. With some health incidents in the last few years that required the ER, I suspect that in the US I’d be broke.
This is true. I pay a lot for health insurance and it still cost me a lot to go to the doctor. Other countries got profit out of their health care. We can do it to. I don’t mind paying taxes for healthcare.
Americans pay more for healthcare than any other country. In fact, Uncle Sam pays more per patient than any other government in the world, and patients still have to pay an obscene amount on health insurance premiums, high deductibles before insurance will actually pay for anything, and then a 20% co-pay on everything that your insurance company decides they will actually “cover”.