21% of working Americans aren’t saving anything at all

Study conducted for Bankrate via telephone by SSRS on its Omnibus survey platform.

On the list of issues we struggle with as a nation, saving money is near the top.
More than 1 in 5 working Americans aren’t saving any money for retirement, emergencies or other financial goals, according to Bankrate’s March Financial Security Index survey. The survey was conducted for Bankrate by SSRS, who interviewed 1,003 respondents via telephone.

To most experts, that’s not a surprise. And over time, we’ve made little progress toward addressing this problem.

“This result has shown little change over the past few years, consistently coming in at 20 percent or 21 percent since 2016,” says Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate chief financial analyst. “Unfortunately, this means it hasn’t improved.”

Nearly half of working adults (48 percent) are saving something, but no more than 10 percent of their annual incomes. Only 1 in 6 employees (16 percent) report saving more than 15 percent of their yearly earnings.