It certainly is higher than in 1946, but not as high as it should be relative to income or purchasing power, which I think is why the meme is effective. Assuming somebody else in this thread was correct when thy said $5k in 1946 is equivalent to $80k today that’s a sixteen-fold difference, but I’m extremely skeptical that the average American is able to save 16x what his great-grandfather did, whereas the price of everything (housing, food, whatever) has increased far more. It isn’t a healthy position for a developed society to be in, especially one without public healthcare. If I were an American and had only $5k in the bank I’d be terrified.
Doing this by savings brackets actually avoids this problem but I would agree in another scenario.
If we exclude the top two savings brackets we arrive at 46% of Americans having over $5,000 and under $250,000 in savings outside a 401k.
Im certain that is a higher percentage of Americans with $5,000 savings than in 1946!
It certainly is higher than in 1946, but not as high as it should be relative to income or purchasing power, which I think is why the meme is effective. Assuming somebody else in this thread was correct when thy said $5k in 1946 is equivalent to $80k today that’s a sixteen-fold difference, but I’m extremely skeptical that the average American is able to save 16x what his great-grandfather did, whereas the price of everything (housing, food, whatever) has increased far more. It isn’t a healthy position for a developed society to be in, especially one without public healthcare. If I were an American and had only $5k in the bank I’d be terrified.