28% of Americans have no emergency savings

Corilyn Shropshire, Chicago Tribune –

Nearly half of Americans — 49 percent –don’t have enough emergency savings to cover three months expenses – up from 46 percent last year, according to research released Monday by Bankrate.com.

Only one quarter of the people surveyed said they had saved six months’ expenses, the generally recommended cushion, according to Bankrate.com, a Web-based financial content provider. That figure climbed by one percentage point compared to last year.

If these results seem dismal they are better than in 2006, when 61 percent of Americans polled reported having less than three months worth of savings.

“While we’ve seen some improvement since then, the bottom line is that much more progress is needed,”said Greg McBride, CFA, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. “Having sufficient emergency savings is critical to avoiding high-cost credit card debt when unexpected expenses arise.”

This news wasn’t all bad, however.  Americans’ overall financial situation is positive, according to the survey, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, which interviewed a “nationally representative sample” of 1,000 adults living in the continental United States. Currently, 24 percent of those surveyed report a better overall financial situation compared to one year ago, although that is slightly lower than 28 percent last month.

Fewer are feeling bad about their savings. Currently 32 percent of Americans surveyed said they are “less comfortable with their savings,” compared to 47 percent, who said they with they had a better nest egg, a year ago.

Most people surveyed said their net worth has been unaffected by the stock market correction that began in May.  Although slightly fewer — 26 percent — said their net worth is higher than it was this time last year, down from 27 percent last month. And 51 percent said their net worth is the same as it was last year, up one percentage point from May.