Americans More Confident in Personal Finances, Savings

Sixty-four percent of respondents have some type of emergency savings – even if it’s less than three months’ expenses, found the latest results of Bankrate's Financial Security Index. The monthly survey also found measures how secure Americans feel about their personal finances compared with 12 months ago and is conducted via telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

The index, which increased to 101.5 from 98.7 in May, looked at emergency savings, debt, net worth, job security and overall financial situation. In general, the majority of respondents felt about the same or more confident and secure in each category, with 75 percent of Americans feeling their overall financial situation is about the same or better than it was 12 months ago, according to. Other highlights from the survey include:

• 40 percent of people identifying as black say they have no emergency savings, while only 21 percent of those identifying as white say they have no emergency savings.
• Retirees were more than twice as likely (36%) to have saved at least six months' of expenses as 18- to 29-year-olds (16%).
• 36% of people with a high school education or less said they had no emergency savings, compared with 10% of college grads.
• 18- to 29-year-olds were more likely to feel more secure in their job (32%) than people who were at least 65 years old (15%).
• 22 percent of people living in suburban communities were more comfortable with the amount of money they have in savings, compared with 15 percent of those living in urban communities.
• Women were more likely to feel less comfortable (37%) with the amount they had in savings than men (30%).
• 30 percent of those earning at least $75,000 a year said they felt more comfortable with the amount of debt they had compared with 17 percent of those earning under $30,000.
• 34 percent of men said their net worth was higher than it was last year, compared with 26 percent of women.
• Parents tended to view their net worth as higher (35%), compared to non-parents (27%).