Came across a headline today that struck me:
“N.J. residents among most fiscally responsible in nation, study says”
Naturally, I wondered what this story would entail. What exactly makes myself and my fellow New Jerseyans ‘fiscally responsible?’
It’s our rainy-day funds. The survey asked residents across the nation if they had emergency funds equal to 3 months of expenses — which I consider the bare minimum of being prepared for an emergency.
So percentage of people in NJ who have three months of expenses saved up? 47.5 percent.
This puts our state FIRST in the nation. Pretty paltry, if you ask me.
— New York is second, with 45.1% of folks having 3 months of expenses set aside in savings.
— Lowest? Oklahoma, at 28.1%
— The national average? 35.1%
We “only” have about six months of expenses set aside in liquid assets, and I’m not feeling totally secure about it. With a mortgage and a baby on the way, it looks a lot less comforting than, say, 12 months of expenses!
Still, 40% isn’t that bad
I do wonder if they did their estimates on bare bones living for 3 months or “normal” living for 3 months.
I usually calculate mine on normal living for 3 months but no extraneous spending or impulse spending.
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Welcome to the Garden State! 47.5% is not that much, but it is not that bad, either. We will probably never have 100% or even 90%. That’s why I think that almost 50% is actually pretty good. Now, if the rest of the US would have as many people with sufficient emergency savings, I think our economy would be a lot more stable and would look a lot better right now.