A: Plenty actually, let’s explore
You probably already know that Americans love debt. Actually, I guess it would be more accurate to say we love our stuff and are willing to spend more than we make to get, and keep, our prized possessions (my precious).
I found some average debt levels from www.investmentzen.com (see link at the bottom). Total owed, by average US household, by debt type:
1) Mortgages $176,222
2) Student loans $49,904
3) Auto loans $28,948
4) Credit cards $16,748
Those numbers are pretty ugly but how much interest does that cost annually?
1) Mortgages $7,474 at 3.95%
2) Student loans $2,225 at 4.29%
3) Auto loans $921 at 3.24%
4) Credit cards $2,766 at 15.59%
If you were fortunate enough (insert sarcasm) to have all of those, you would be paying over $13,000 (each year), in interest alone!
Let’s look at our savings accounts.
Q: How is the average US household doing?
A: I found some good stats from www.makingsenseofcents.com (see article link below)
1) 26% of us have no emergency savings whatsoever – yikes!
2) 37% of us have about $1,000 in savings for the proverbial rainy day
3) 24% of us have less than 3 months worth of living expenses set aside
4) 23% of us have 6 months, or more, in their emergency fund (woo hoo!)
Q: How about retirement?
A: I’ll give you a hint, the average US household isn’t prepared. . .
The median amount saved for retirement is less than $60,000
1) $12,000 saved by households younger than 35
2) $42,700 for households ages 35-44
3) $69,500 for households older than 75
Those stats are only for households that have actually started saving for retirement, 45% of households do not have any retirement savings.
Michelle (of makingsenseofcents.com) lists other stats that will make you go HMMMMMM . . .
1) 68% of people live paycheck to paycheck, with less than $800 to cover expenses until the next paycheck.
2) $220 per person is spent annually on the lottery (craziness I say!)
3) 300,000 – that’s the number of items the average home has – that’s a lot of clutter – which leads me to another stat;
4) tripled – the size increase of the average home from 1950 to now. It was less than 1,000 square feet in 1950 and now its over 2,600 feet (those 300,000 items had to go somewhere right?)
5) 10% of households also rent a storage unit. 2,600 square feet apparently isn’t enough to store 300,000 items. . .
6) 12 days – the average person spends 12 days per year looking for things they can’t find – I would say craziness, but that actually probably makes sense; based on the size of the home, the number of household items, and the fact that the item might be in the storage unit. . .
I think I am out of time – I didn’t even address the average person’s eating, sleeping and exercise habits – I’m not even going to research those – you know they’re not good. . .
http://www.investmentzen.com/data-visualization/average-household-debt-in-america/
https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2017/11/money-minimalism-statistics.html
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