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Most Americans Aren’t Financially Healthy Despite Booming Economy, Survey Finds

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The economy is growing, unemployment is low and, lately, workers are starting to see some wage gains. But a new survey from USC and the nonprofit Center for Financial Services Innovation makes the case that, despite an overall healthy-looking economy, many Americans are struggling to save, pay bills and remain on firm financial footing. Los Angeles Times reports:

The survey, called the Financial Health Pulse, found that only 28% of American households are financially healthy, meaning they are in control of their spending, are saving money, don’t have too much debt and are planning for the unforeseen.

An additional 55% are financially coping — struggling in a few areas, but doing OK in others — while 17% are classified as financially vulnerable, meaning they are struggling with most aspects of their financial lives.

Jennifer Tescher, CFSI’s chief executive, said the goal of the survey, which the group plans to do annually, is to get a sense of how Americans are doing without relying on the kind of high-level economic data that policymakers typically focus on.

More Than One-Quarter of renters Can’t Cover a $400 Emergency

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More than one-quarter of U.S. renters in a survey are not confident they could cover a $400 emergency. Financial stress visits renters more than homeowners. That’s the main takeaway from a new report by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. CNBC reports:

“Rental costs are rising much faster than renters’ salaries. Between 1960 and 2016, the median income for a renter grew by just 5 percent. During the same period, the median rent ballooned by more than 60 percent, according to The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University… Half of renters in the survey reported a material hardship in the past year, compared with one-third of homeowners. Around 18 percent of homeowners reported low emergency savings.”

IRS Increases Contribution Limits for Retirement Accounts

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The IRS has increased the contribution limits for various retirement accounts for 2019.

The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday that the contribution limit for employees who participate in 401(k), 403(b), most 457 plans, and the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan is increased from $18,500 to $19,000.

The catch-up contribution limit, which is a higher threshold for employees 50 years or older using these accounts, remains unchanged at $6,000. The changes were among several inflation adjustments announced by the IRS.

The limit on annual contributions to an IRA, which hadn’t increased since 2013, were also raised to $6,000 from $5,500.

How much money you need to be part of the 1% worldwide

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Just how much money do you need to be among the global 1 percent? According to the 2018 Global Wealth Report from Credit Suisse Research Institute, you need a net worth of $871,320 U.S. Credit Suisse defines net worth, or “wealth,” as “the value of financial assets plus real assets (principally housing) owned by households, minus their debts.” CNBC reports:

More than 19 million Americans are in the 1 percent worldwide, Credit Suisse reports, far more than from any other country, while “China is now clearly established in second place in the world wealth hierarchy,” with 4.2 million citizens among the world’s top 1 percent.

To be among the top 10 percent worldwide, you don’t even need six figures: A net worth of $93,170 will do it.

And even if you have just $4,210 to your name, you’re still richer than half of the world’s residents.

Whopping 62 Percent of Jobs Don’t Support Middle-Class Life After Accounting for Cost of Living

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Despite an unemployment rate that has reached a 50-year low of 3.7 percent, most jobs across the U.S. don’t support a middle-class or better lifestyle, leaving many Americans struggling, according to a new study. USA Today reports:

Sixty-two percent of jobs fall short of that middle-class standard when factoring in both wages and the cost of living in the metro area where the job is located, according to the study by Third Way, a think tank that advocates center-left ideas.

“There’s an opportunity crisis in the country,” says Jim Kessler, vice president of policy for Third Way and editor of the report. “It explains some of the economic uneasiness and, frankly, the political uneasiness” even amid the most robust U.S. economy and labor market since before the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009.

A slight majority of Americans, 52 percent, do live in middle-class households, according to recent annual reports by Pew Research Center. And another 20 percent or so live in upper income households. But that’s because they’re juggling multiple jobs, for example, or relying on investments, an inheritance or other household members who may have higher-paying jobs.

Americans Save Less to Sustain Spending as Income Gains Cool

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Americans kept on spending in September as income gains cooled, pushing down the savings rate to the lowest this year. Inflation matched the Federal Reserve’s target, reinforcing the central bank’s outlook for gradual interest-rate hikes. Bloomberg reports:

Purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, rose 0.4 percent from the prior month, matching economists’ estimates, following an upwardly revised 0.5 percent increase, Commerce Department figures showed Monday. Incomes advanced a less-than-projected 0.2 percent, the weakest in more than a year, while Americans saved 6.2 percent of their disposable income, matching the lowest level since 2013.

Nearly Half the World Lives on Less Than $5.50 a Day: World Bank

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Despite progress in reducing extreme poverty, nearly half the world’s population lives on less than $5.50 a day, with a rising share of the poor in wealthier economies, the World Bank said Wednesday. Phys.org reports:

In a twice-yearly report, the bank took a broader look at poverty to see where countries were lagging, even though the share of those living in extreme poverty—defined as earning less than $1.90 a day—has continued to come down in recent years.

Under the expanded criteria for poverty, the report found the number of poor worldwide was still “unacceptably high,” while the fruits of economic growth were “shared unevenly across regions and countries.”

Even though global growth of recent years had been sluggish, the total count of people in poverty declined by more than 68 million people between 2013 and 2015—”a number roughly equivalent to the population of Thailand or the United Kingdom.”

Despite the improvement, the report said current trends indicated the World Bank’s goal of reducing extreme poverty to less than three percent of the world’s population by 2030 may be unattainable.

Many Pay High Investment Company Fees for Services They Don’t Use, Survey Shows

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If you are investing in stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, you have a wide range of options to help manage your portfolio—everything from traditional brokerages to mutual fund companies to online financial firms. But as consumers search for an investment company, many pay little attention to the fees they’re being charged, according to a just-released Consumer Reports survey of more than 46,000 CR members. Penelope Wang, writing for Consumer Reports:

Four out of 10 surveyed said they weren’t sure what they paid in fees. And of those who knew the costs, only 60 percent rated their investment company in our survey as Excellent or Very Good on the amount charged.

“Hidden and confusing fees are proliferating across the marketplace, making it hard for consumers to know what they’re getting for their money, and to comparison shop across providers,” says Anna Laitin, director of financial policy at Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports.

“It is concerning that so many investors don’t know how much they are paying in fees and that many of those who do understand the fees don’t appear to think they are getting their money’s worth,” she says.

40% of American Middle Class Face Poverty in Retirement, Study Concludes

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Nearly half of middle-class Americans face a slide into poverty as they enter their retirement, a recent study by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School has concluded. CNBC reports:

Roughly 40 percent of Americans who are considered middle class (based on their income levels) will fall into poverty or near poverty by the time they reach age 65, according to the study.

The study also concluded that if workers age 50 to 60 decide to retire at age 62, 8.5 million of them are projected to fall below twice the Federal Poverty Level, with retirement incomes below $23,340 for singles and $31,260 for couples. Further, 2.6 million of those 8.5 million downwardly mobile workers and their spouses will have incomes below the poverty level — $11,670 for an individual and $15,730 for a two-person household.

Half the World Is Now Middle Class Or Wealthier

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Something of enormous global significance is happening almost without notice. For the first time since agriculture-based civilization began 10,000 years ago, the majority of humankind is no longer poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty. The Brookings Institution reports:

By our calculations, as of this month, just over 50 percent of the world’s population, or some 3.8 billion people, live in households with enough discretionary expenditure to be considered “middle class” or “rich.” About the same number of people are living in households that are poor or vulnerable to poverty. So September 2018 marks a global tipping point. After this, for the first time ever, the poor and vulnerable will no longer be a majority in the world. Barring some unfortunate global economic setback, this marks the start of a new era of a middle-class majority.

In most countries, there is a clear relationship between the fate of the middle class and the happiness of the population. According to the Gallup World Poll, new entrants into the middle class are noticeably happier than those stuck in poverty or in vulnerable households. Conversely, individuals in countries where the middle class is shrinking report greater degrees of personal stress. The middle class also puts pressure on governments to perform better. They look to their governments to provide affordable housing, education, and universal health care. They rely on public safety nets to help them in sickness, unemployment or old age. But they resist efforts of governments to impose taxes to pay the bills. This complicates the politics of middle-class societies, so they range from autocratic to liberal democracies. Many advanced and middle-income countries today are struggling to find a set of politics that can satisfy a broad middle-class majority. The tipping point in the world today offers opportunities for business but complications for policymakers.

Chinese Anger Grows as ‘Get Rich Quick’ Investment Schemes Go Bust

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When Cao downloaded the Qiangqiantong app, he certainly never expected it could ruin his life. So Cao invested the equivalent of $11,600 — his entire savings — with Qiangqiantong. And why not? The app claimed to offer amazing investment opportunities, with high returns and little risk. Instead, this June, the company shut down. Now Cao does not know if he will ever see his money again. The Washing Post reports:

Over the past decade, millions of investors sunk their cash into thousands of companies like Qiangqiantong (which roughly translates to Get Rich Quick) and others with names like Money Pig and Qianbao, or Wallet.

The promises were the same: steady growth, big dividends and a chance for investors to put financial worries behind. Investors lapped it up. It was once among the largest small-investor cash flood in the world, with as much as $200 billion riding on P2P dreams.

Some state-owned banks even helped facilitate payments, and government officials spoke of some of the P2P companies in glowing terms.

But since June, hundreds of upstart investment companies have gone bust — many falling victim to credit runs, risky bets or the same Ponzi-scheme unraveling that brought down fraudsters such as Bernie Madoff.

30% of America’s Student Loan Borrowers Can’t Keep Up After Six Years

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In order to compete in the economy of tomorrow, many young Americans will need to earn an advanced degree — around 65 percent of all jobs in the United States will require some post-secondary education by 2020. But wages have not grown significantly over the past several years, and student debt holders are being pinched.The result: More than 30 percent of student loan borrowers are in default, late or have stopped making payments after just six years.

CNBC cites reports that within six years, more than 15% of student borrowers had officially defaulted, while 10% more had stopped making payments and another 4.8% were at least 90 days late. And for-profit colleges fared even worse, where nearly 25% of graduates defaulted, and a total of 44% faced “some form of loan distress.”

These trends were masked by Department of Education reports which stopped tracking repayment rates after just three years (reporting defaults rates of just 10%), according to Ben Miller, senior director for post-secondary education at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. “Official statistics present a relatively rosy picture of student debt. But looking at outcomes over more time and in greater detail shows that hundreds of thousands more borrowers from each cohort face troubles repaying.”

70% of Millionaires Don’t Consider Themselves Wealthy

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Are all millionaires wealthy? Not if you ask them. A whopping 70% of those with at least $1 million in assets that are invested or available to invest, excluding home values, don’t consider themselves to be wealthy, according to a survey of 4,500 affluent investors by UBS. CNN Money reports:

Rather, it’s only when they hit the $5 million mark that millionaires begin to feel “wealthy.” Why $5 million? Apparently, that’s the level at which most rich people feel they have “no constraints on activities,” according to the survey.

In addition to feeling like money is no object, most wealthy people also find it important to hold a substantial amount of their fortune in cash because it helps them feel more secure.

“Holding a significant amount of cash is is a critical component of investor confidence, as investors believe these are assets they won’t lose,” the survey said. “Investors aren’t quick to forget the significant losses they endured in 2008.”

Almost Half of Americans Can’t Pay for Their Basic Needs

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Four in 10 Americans are struggling to pay for their basic needs such as groceries or housing, a problem even middle-class households confront, according to a new study from the Urban Institute. CBSNews reports:

Despite the U.S. economy being near full employment, 39.4 percent of adults between 18 and 64 years old said they experienced at least one type of material hardship in 2017, according to the study, which surveyed more than 7,500 adults about whether they had trouble paying for housing, utilities, food or health care.

The findings surprised researchers at the Urban Institute, who had expected to find high levels of hardship among poor Americans but hadn’t predicted so many middle-class families would also struggle to meet their basic needs. That may illustrate that a middle-class income “is no guarantee” of protection from hardship, said Michael Karpman, research associate at the Urban Institute’s health Policy Center and a co-author of the report.

1 in 3 Americans Have Less Than $5,000 Saved for Retirement

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The vast majority of Americans, 78 percent, say they’re “extremely” or “somewhat” concerned about not having enough money for retirement, according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2018 Planning & Progress Study. CNBC reports:

A shocking 21 percent of Americans have nothing at all saved for the future, and another 10 percent have less than $5,000 tucked away, the study finds.

That means about a third of Americans have only a few thousand dollars, or less, put away for their golden years.

Of course, some people are more prepared: A quarter report having $200,000 or more stashed away, while 16 percent have between $75,000 and $199,999. But overall, Northwestern Mutual found that Americans with retirement savings have an average of $84,821 saved, which is far from enough. Experts typically recommend trying to accumulate at least $1 million.