How much do you have in savings
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2012-01-23 12:22 PM |
Champion 7347 SRQ, FL | Subject: How much do you have in savings As a sidebar to the "financially fit" thread I'm curious how much people keep in savings. I'm not talking about your retirement fund, your RV in the garage, your 5 cars... I'm talking about how much money do you have in your "rainy day" account that if you needed to you could tap into. I ask this because of the recent statistic that a majority of Americans have less than $2,000 in savings. (I don't expect much discussion about your savings, no need to do that, but curious about your attitudes towards saving..) ETA: And yes I do realize that a population of triathletes are going to probably skew the results a bit towards the higher end... Edited by TriRSquared 2012-01-23 12:27 PM |
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2012-01-23 12:28 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Pro 4339 Husker Nation | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings I started a thread a year or two ago asking this same question with the options being delineated by $1,000 increments, up to "over $10,000" and I got chided because that maximum was "too low". I too was curious about the statistic you referenced, but was surprised to learn that about half the responses were >$10,000. Guess that statistic about the median income of triathletes isn't too far off after all ;-) edit: guess it was more like 60% http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp... Edited by Bripod 2012-01-23 12:29 PM |
2012-01-23 12:37 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Champion 7347 SRQ, FL | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings I question the $200k+ response. If you've got that much in "savings" you're doing a really poor job at making your money work for you |
2012-01-23 12:46 PM in reply to: #4006129 |
Pro 4339 Husker Nation | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings TriRSquared - 2012-01-23 12:37 PM I question the $200k+ response. If you've got that much in "savings" you're doing a really poor job at making your money work for you Or they're highly risk-averse. Or they just sold a second/vacation home. Or they just received a significant inheritance or life insurance benefit. Or they have a net worth over $1,000,000. Or, or, or... |
2012-01-23 12:51 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Elite 3277 Minnetonka | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings "Not enough" is not a choice... |
2012-01-23 12:53 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Pro 6191 | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings My savings account is about to hit a big (for me) milestone. Once I'm beyond that point, I'll be a little more comfortable with IRAs, money market accounts, etc. I've played around with them, but I think I'll be able to make more substantial contributions to them. I know I'm ahead of the curve for my age... but I'm way behind for most of my fellow engineers. But that's because I have fun |
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2012-01-23 12:57 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Melon Presser 52116 | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings TriRSquared - 2012-01-24 2:22 AM As a sidebar to the "financially fit" thread I'm curious how much people keep in savings. I'm not talking about your retirement fund, your RV in the garage, your 5 cars... I'm talking about how much money do you have in your "rainy day" account that if you needed to you could tap into. I ask this because of the recent statistic that a majority of Americans have less than $2,000 in savings. (I don't expect much discussion about your savings, no need to do that, but curious about your attitudes towards saving..) ETA: And yes I do realize that a population of triathletes are going to probably skew the results a bit towards the higher end... I feel so much better ... I actually have a (small) nest egg larger than that of most Americans'! Especially since I live in a country where the living cost is 1/10 (approx.) that of the U.S., and because I haven't worked steadily in a year and a half ... however, living in Indonesia means I've been able to hugely stretch the savings I did/do have. Probably a more useful metric is that a majority of Americans don't have two months' worth of their current living expenses in savings. That's scary. Not laying blame anywhere ... that's just scary. |
2012-01-23 12:57 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Regular 525 | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings Right now we have more in pure savings because we are saving for a 2012 home purchase. We aren't going to purchase until we have 100k saved. At that point we won't have to worry if we sell our current home right away. That's is also not to say that we would put the entire 100k into that new house. Just where we want to be before we buy something. |
2012-01-23 1:07 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Pro 4578 Vancouver, BC | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings Think, I'm in the higher end, though it looks like I am in the median here. My SO and I aren't particularly good with savings. We don't have any special account or anything. In fact, we only have one account and everything we do comes out of that. RRSPs, mortgage, other bills get paid out of that and we put our pay cheques into it. However, we both make decent money and don't have a lot of bills, so it grows faster than it depletes I guess. We pretty much buy what we want and don't budget too much. We usually have enough for at least 2 nice vacations/year, new bikes (though we get team deals and sell the old ones for about the same amout we pay for them) and various other stuff and have much more than $2000 in savings. It's not likely that we'll both lose our jobs at the same time, so we don't worry too much. We could probably do a better job at savings and investing, but we do have monthly RRSPs (Canada's registered retirement saving plans) and we don't like to stress about money, so we mostly ignore it. |
2012-01-23 1:09 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Pro 3906 St Charles, IL | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings What counts as "savings"? With stupidly low interest rates on pure "savings" accounts, I keep more in various types of short term investments, so that I gain a slightly higher interest rate than the pathetic 0.01% or whatever it currently is. That is separate from my retirement savings ( 401k, whole life ) and from my "play" investments ( which I can stand to lose entirely ). |
2012-01-23 1:12 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Extreme Veteran 655 Victoria | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings around negative thirty thousand and climbing. hopefully this whole getting an education will do what everyone claims it will do. |
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2012-01-23 1:14 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Master 2083 Houston, TX | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings more than our great nation has. |
2012-01-23 1:38 PM in reply to: #4006213 |
Champion 7347 SRQ, FL | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings coredump - 2012-01-23 2:09 PM What counts as "savings"? With stupidly low interest rates on pure "savings" accounts, I keep more in various types of short term investments, so that I gain a slightly higher interest rate than the pathetic 0.01% or whatever it currently is. That is separate from my retirement savings ( 401k, whole life ) and from my "play" investments ( which I can stand to lose entirely ). Yeah, I consider "savings" things you can get to quickly and w/o great penalty (e.g. short term Money Market or CDs). But stuff like 401K, IRA etc.. that's not savings IMO. |
2012-01-23 1:41 PM in reply to: #4006213 |
Master 2802 Minnetonka, Minnesota | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings coredump - 2012-01-23 1:09 PM What counts as "savings"? With stupidly low interest rates on pure "savings" accounts, I keep more in various types of short term investments, so that I gain a slightly higher interest rate than the pathetic 0.01% or whatever it currently is. That is separate from my retirement savings ( 401k, whole life ) and from my "play" investments ( which I can stand to lose entirely ). x2 for me... I answered the poll including just our "cash" savings - bank and money market amounts - but we have much more non-retirement money in fairly liquid investments like high grade corporate and government bonds and some fixed income funds. |
2012-01-23 1:42 PM in reply to: #4006129 |
Resident Curmudgeon 25290 The Road Back | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings TriRSquared - 2012-01-23 12:37 PMI question the $200k+ response. If you've got that much in "savings" you're doing a really poor job at making your money work for you Depends on how finely you're defining "savings." I do not have a designated "emergency fund" accountbut rather have brokerage accounts (apart from 401k accounts & IRAs) that are a mixture of cash, fixed income and equity investments. And it is working well for me.BTW I have not yet responded to the poll. |
2012-01-23 1:44 PM in reply to: #4006304 |
Master 2802 Minnetonka, Minnesota | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings TriRSquared - 2012-01-23 1:38 PM coredump - 2012-01-23 2:09 PM What counts as "savings"? With stupidly low interest rates on pure "savings" accounts, I keep more in various types of short term investments, so that I gain a slightly higher interest rate than the pathetic 0.01% or whatever it currently is. That is separate from my retirement savings ( 401k, whole life ) and from my "play" investments ( which I can stand to lose entirely ). Yeah, I consider "savings" things you can get to quickly and w/o great penalty (e.g. short term Money Market or CDs). But stuff like 401K, IRA etc.. that's not savings IMO. CDs are not liquid at all. They have fixed maturity horizons with early withdrawal pentalites, the exact definition of NOT liquid. |
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2012-01-23 1:49 PM in reply to: #4006324 |
Resident Curmudgeon 25290 The Road Back | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings ejshowers - 2012-01-23 1:44 PM I disagree. CDs are highly liquid within the parameters of those maturity dates, and early withdrawal penalties are generally just a portion of the interest you would have earned. In addition, most banks would be glad to lend you money against a CD, with the principal payable when the CD matures.TriRSquared - 2012-01-23 1:38 PM coredump - 2012-01-23 2:09 PM What counts as "savings"? With stupidly low interest rates on pure "savings" accounts, I keep more in various types of short term investments, so that I gain a slightly higher interest rate than the pathetic 0.01% or whatever it currently is. That is separate from my retirement savings ( 401k, whole life ) and from my "play" investments ( which I can stand to lose entirely ). Yeah, I consider "savings" things you can get to quickly and w/o great penalty (e.g. short term Money Market or CDs). But stuff like 401K, IRA etc.. that's not savings IMO. CDs are not liquid at all. They have fixed maturity horizons with early withdrawal pentalites, the exact definition of NOT liquid. |
2012-01-23 2:25 PM in reply to: #4006129 |
Veteran 485 Elmira, ON | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings TriRSquared - 2012-01-22 1:37 PM I question the $200k+ response. If you've got that much in "savings" you're doing a really poor job at making your money work for you
ETF's....learn about them...and quick!
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2012-01-23 2:39 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Subject: ... This user's post has been ignored. |
2012-01-23 2:40 PM in reply to: #4006320 |
Champion 7347 SRQ, FL | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings the bear - 2012-01-23 2:42 PM TriRSquared - 2012-01-23 12:37 PMI question the $200k+ response. If you've got that much in "savings" you're doing a really poor job at making your money work for you Depends on how finely you're defining "savings." I do not have a designated "emergency fund" accountbut rather have brokerage accounts (apart from 401k accounts & IRAs) that are a mixture of cash, fixed income and equity investments. And it is working well for me.BTW I have not yet responded to the poll. Yes I do need to define it better... |
2012-01-23 2:41 PM in reply to: #4006324 |
Champion 7347 SRQ, FL | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings ejshowers - 2012-01-23 2:44 PM TriRSquared - 2012-01-23 1:38 PM coredump - 2012-01-23 2:09 PM What counts as "savings"? With stupidly low interest rates on pure "savings" accounts, I keep more in various types of short term investments, so that I gain a slightly higher interest rate than the pathetic 0.01% or whatever it currently is. That is separate from my retirement savings ( 401k, whole life ) and from my "play" investments ( which I can stand to lose entirely ). Yeah, I consider "savings" things you can get to quickly and w/o great penalty (e.g. short term Money Market or CDs). But stuff like 401K, IRA etc.. that's not savings IMO. CDs are not liquid at all. They have fixed maturity horizons with early withdrawal pentalites, the exact definition of NOT liquid. What Bear said above. They are very liquid. |
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2012-01-23 2:46 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Master 1585 Folsom (Sacramento), CA | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings Ummm...well... i have 6 bikes in my garage... does that count? |
2012-01-23 2:59 PM in reply to: #4006087 |
Champion 15211 Southern Chicago Suburbs, IL | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings I have a decent non-liquid foundation that continues to grow. We had a pretty decent Savings account too but that got depleted pretty quickly when I was unemployed about 2 years ago. We have just now gotten it back into, what I would call, ok range. We are working on building it back up. But about 1 1/2 years ago, it was <$1k. I have been nervous up until this last Fall. |
2012-01-23 3:05 PM in reply to: #4006555 |
Resident Curmudgeon 25290 The Road Back | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings crowny2 - 2012-01-23 2:59 PMI have a decent non-liquid foundation that continues to grow. We had a pretty decent Savings account too but that got depleted pretty quickly when I was unemployed about 2 years ago. We have just now gotten it back into, what I would call, ok range. We are working on building it back up. But about 1 1/2 years ago, it was <$1k. I have been nervous up until this last Fall. Non-liquid foundation? As in "six bikes in my garage"? |
2012-01-23 3:27 PM in reply to: #4006129 |
Champion 8540 the colony texas | Subject: RE: How much do you have in savings TriRSquared - 2012-01-23 12:37 PM I question the $200k+ response. If you've got that much in "savings" you're doing a really poor job at making your money work for you or they define savings differently than you do.
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