A new study by Bankrate.com found that only 24 percent of Americans have a six-month emergency savings cushion, while another 24 percent have no emergency savings whatsoever.
Coupled with the fact that 6.2 million Americans have been out of work for six months or longer, the lack of savings is espcially worrisome.
"The majority of Americans still have much work to do in building an adequate emergency savings cushion," said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com. "Those most likely to have an adequate savings cushion are individuals in their 50s and 60s and higher-income households. But even among these groups, at least half do not have six months' expenses in an emergency fund."
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Bankrate's Financial Security Index is based on telephone interviews with 1,006 adults in early June 2011.
Twenty-two percent of the respondents have some savings, but not enough to cover three months' expenses, while 46 percent have at least three months' expenses saved. This matches the result from a 2007 Bankrate survey and is higher than the 39 percent figure from a 2006 Bankrate poll.
Other key findings of the study include:
- Feelings of financial security among Americans, as measured by the Financial Security Index, dropped slightly, from 98.5 in May to 97.8 in June.
- Twenty-six percent of Americans are more comfortable with their debt now compared with 12 months ago. Just 19 percent report feeling less comfortable with their debt, the lowest figure since Bankrate began its monthly Financial Security Index polls in December 2010.
- People younger than age 30 and the lowest-income households are the most likely to report having no emergency savings at all.
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