Half of US working families are living paycheck to paycheck

Market Watch – by Quentin Fottrell

More than seven years after the Great Recession officially ended, there is yet more depressing research that at least half of Americans are vulnerable to financial disaster.

Some 50% of people is woefully unprepared for a financial emergency, new research finds. Nearly 1 in 5 (19%) Americans have nothing set aside to cover an unexpected emergency, while nearly 1 in 3 (31%) Americans don’t have at least $500 set aside to cover an unexpected emergency expense, according to a survey released Tuesday by HomeServe USA, a home repair service. A separate survey released Monday by insurance company MetLife found that 49% of employees are “concerned, anxious or fearful about their current financial well-being.”  

One explanation: Americans are crippled under the same amount of debt as they had during the recession. The New York Federal Reserve on Monday predicted that total household debt will reach its previous peak of $12.68 trillion in 2017. The last time it reached that level was in the third quarter of 2008, during the depths of the Great Recession. Indeed, it’s already close: Total household debt in the fourth quarter of 2016 was $12.58 trillion. Fewer borrowers have housing-related debt in 2017 and, instead, have taken on auto and student loans.

One illness can push people to the brink of financial ruin. Wanda Battle, a registered nurse for four decades, was recently hit with a $100,000 medical bill. She has visited her local emergency room on more than one occasion due to severe migraines and mini-strokes. Battle, who is based near Nashville, Tenn., managed to reduce her latest hospital bill to $32,000 based on her relatively low income, but still faces $650 monthly payments for a previous $22,000 medical bill. “There were times I couldn’t work,” she told MarketWatch. “I have not held a job that is continuous.”

“A key consideration regarding household finances and overall economic well-being is the ability to withstand financial disruptions, according to a separate 2016 report released by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which surveyed nearly 9,000 adults. Many individuals who experienced a financial hardship in the prior year indicated that they drew down savings, undertook some form of borrowing, or both. Some 20.5% of those who reported a financial hardship and earn less than $40,000 per year did just that. (The percentage was 11% for those earning between $40,000 and $100,000.)

Not everyone is vulnerable to an unexpected medical bill or layoff. Over a quarter of Americans in the HomeServe USA survey said they had $8,000 or more set aside for unexpected emergency expenses, and respondents aged 65 and over are likely to have the most money set aside for unplanned expenses, with nearly half (48%) of Americans within the age group reporting having $8,000 or more in emergency funds (versus just 20% of those aged 18 to 64). Around half of those surveyed said they most expected a big medical or car expense within the next 12 months.

On the upside, President Trump inherited an economy that is far healthier in many respects than the one his predecessor inherited in 2008. The unemployment rate when President Obama took office, in January 2009, was 7.8% compared to 4.8% in January 2017, MarketWatch reported. What’s more, the U.S. lost 793,000 jobs during the month Obama was sworn into office, while it gained 227,000 positions in January when Trump took office, and the U.S. economy created 235,000 new jobs in February in the first full month of the Trump White House.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/half-of-americans-are-desperately-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-2017-04-04