A new survey finds that millennials have had a slow start to building an emergency fund, or savings of any sort.
About 52 percent of millennials have less than $1,000 saved up, according to a survey commissioned by Howmuch.net, a “cost information website.”
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Another 18 percent of millennials have between $1,000 and $5,000 saved, 7 percent have $5,000 to $10,000, 6 percent have $10,000 to $20,000, and 17 percent have more than $20,000 saved.
Unsurprisingly, savings increase with income. Age correlates as well; younger millennials have less in savings than older millennials.
Apart from a weak job market and high levels of student debt, millennials’ bad savings patterns have come from a likely source: their parents. The average American saves about 5 percent of their disposable income. The savings rate has been on decline since the 1970s, and the average savings rate from 1950 to 2000 was almost twice as high at 9.8 percent, according to data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank.
As millennials turn to their parents more than financial advisers for financial advice, and with interest rates low, it could be years before savings rates start to trend upward again.
