Brace yourself, this is how much America's 1% has saved [View all]

[Zorro]

Some of these people are not like the others.

The median American household currently holds just $11,700 in savings, according to a new analysis of Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data by personal-finance site Magnify Money. Median balances (the midpoint value) are lower than the average savings rates. The top 1% of households in the U.S. by income have a median savings of $1.1 million across a variety of saving accounts. The bottom 20% by income have no savings accounts and the second lowest 20% income earners have just $26,450 saved.

The average savings in retirement, money market deposit, checking and savings and certificate of deposit accounts are skewed by higher earners with more money. The top 1% of households have an average of $2.5 million in accounts, while the bottom 20% of households have an average of $8,870 saved. To put that in context: The average household has $277,670 in retirement accounts and $4,830 in savings accounts, while the median household only has $72,840 in retirement accounts and $32,130 in savings accounts.

Stagnant wages, student debt, soaring house prices and rising credit-card debt have not helped people save. “Lots of families are living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to save even a little,” said Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit policy group based in Washington, D.C. “Limited savings isn’t only an issue for low-income families. Quite a few middle- and high-income families have no savings cushion to fall back on. One in 5 middle-income families and 1 in 10 high-income families have no retirement savings.”

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/brace-yourself-this-is-how-much-americas-1-has-saved-2018-08-24