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Savings and assets are a critical resource for weathering hard times -- but a large percentage of working families in America lack those resources, according to a recent report from the non-partisan
Urban Institute:
Nearly one quarter of low-income families do not have a checking or savings account, more than one-third do not own cars, 60 percent do not own a home, and 90 percent have no retirement account. In contrast, the typical middle-income family has checking or savings accounts, retirement accounts, owns a car and a home.
The report, based upon the 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances, focuses on the bottom 20 percent of families ranked by income level -- ie, those with annual incomes of less than $18,000.
As might be expected, those with low incomes have limited assets: 24 percent of low-income families lack a bank account and 35 percent lack a vehicle.
In comparison, the typical high-income family has 82 times as much net worth as the typical low-income family.
Read the full report
here (opens in PDF).
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