this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
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Well that's weird, because well over half of Americans have less than $5000 in their savings accounts.
Do they keep the rest in a mattress?
Forbes paints a different picture if you simply take the average across the available generations (which is what I did) and I have the impression they would be far more accurate.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/savings/average-american-savings/
Also the Forbes data is more recent.
Bruh
1−(.54+.52+.42+.29)/4 = 56%
This assumes that there's the exact same number of people in each generation. There are not. If the above is what you did, then what you've calculated is the percentage of generations that have over 5k. Squid is talking about the percentage of people who have over 5k. Those are two different numbers.
Thanks for providing a source, but I'm very skeptical of anybody using averages to represent this rather than the median. If you put 99 destitute and homeless people in a room along with Elon Musk the average net worth in that room is over 4 billion dollars, which to put it mildly does not reflect the reality of most people in the room.
Doing this by savings brackets actually avoids this problem but I would agree in another scenario.
If we exclude the top two savings brackets we arrive at 46% of Americans having over $5,000 and under $250,000 in savings outside a 401k.
Im certain that is a higher percentage of Americans with $5,000 savings than in 1946!
It certainly is higher than in 1946, but not as high as it should be relative to income or purchasing power, which I think is why the meme is effective. Assuming somebody else in this thread was correct when thy said $5k in 1946 is equivalent to $80k today that's a sixteen-fold difference, but I'm extremely skeptical that the average American is able to save 16x what his great-grandfather did, whereas the price of everything (housing, food, whatever) has increased far more. It isn't a healthy position for a developed society to be in, especially one without public healthcare. If I were an American and had only $5k in the bank I'd be terrified.
Yes. Averages do paint different pictures than actual hard numbers. And yet the actual hard numbers show the reality of the situation, and that reality is that a lot less than 56% Americans have more than $5000 in savings because that has nothing to do with an average.
That’s… not how this works.
Try reading the article to see the breakdown of savings brackets by generations before you reply and demonstrate your ignorance.
Breaking it down by generations still does not change the fact that a lot less than 56% of Americans have more than $5000 in their savings accounts. Maybe more of certain generations do, but that's not what you said.
Take the average of the brackets across all generations that have more than $5,000 in savings and you get 56.25%.
It’s very simple math. If you need a step by step guide I will provide it but it will be embarrassing for you.
Yet again, in hard numbers, measuring physical human beings, it's far less than 56%. I have no idea why you think averages are relevant.
What do you think is being averaged? Please continue to demonstrate you haven’t read or comprehended the article.
It’s hilarious how some basic math I expect a 6 year old to manage is beyond you.
It doesn't matter what is being averaged. When you are talking about what percentage of Americans have something, it's about hard numbers, not averages. Insulting me won't change that, but if you insist on continuing to do so, I'll just report you for violating the rules and move on.
I’m talking about getting the average from savings brackets across multiple demographics.
Again this is super simple stuff. Read the article.
If you don’t want your intelligence being questioned you should perhaps read the article. Then do some extremely easy math which will validate my answer of 56%.
You aren’t discussing in good faith if you won’t even read the provided source when discussing hard numbers.