Almost 20% of U.S. Households Lost Entire Savings During Covid

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-13/almost-20-of-u-s-households-lost-entire-savings-during-covid

For many Americans, Covid lockdowns—with nowhere to go and nothing to do—were a time to save. But for almost 20% of U.S. households, the pandemic wiped out their entire financial cushion, a poll released Tuesday finds.

The share of respondents who said they lost all their savings jumped to 30% for those making less than $50,000 a year, the poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health finds. Black and Latino households were also harder hit. The researchers surveyed a nationally representative sample of 3,616 U.S. adults ages 18 or older.

Avenel Joseph, a vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said many people dipped into their savings to cover child or health care expenses. “When crisis hits, or anything goes out of the norm—your child is sick, for example—you are sacrificing wages,” she said. Almost two thirds of households earning less than $50,000 a year said they had trouble affording rent, medical care, and food.

About two-thirds of people surveyed said they received financial assistance from the government in the past few months. But 44% said those programs only “helped a little.”

[Johnny2X2X]

1. This seems misleading

20% wiped out their savings? Last year it was reported that 25% of US households had no emergency savings to start with. So is this on top of those 25% without any savings to start with?

Not to diminish the trouble lower income people have experienced, but this headline is misleading at best.

Wages right now are rising at the fastest rate in decades, UE is falling fast and already below 5% which some consider nearing full employment. Right now, lower income people are in a spot to gain.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Exact numbers can vary, but according to most surveys, the majority of workers live paycheck to

paycheck, which implies little to no savings. The country may be "recovering" in the aggregate, but it's precarious.

ETA: Wages are growing, but adjusted for inflation, median wages have fallen almost 9% since 2006. There's a lot of room to make up.

[mopinko]

3. i took quite a hit. not from lost wages,

but from having trouble finding workers to take care of my rental properties.
started a rehab last march that will hopefully be finished in the next month.

but i have one unit that needed very little, clean and touch up paint, and i'm just getting that back on the market after being empty since july.
nothing in, but plenty out is not a good business plan.