Cash or Credit: The answer might surprise you. A staggering 78 percent of Americans carry less than $50 cash on their person on a daily basis. According to Bankrate.com’s chief financial analyst, Greg McBride, moving to a cashless society would not affect the vast majority of Americans because these numbers indicate that people have no desire to pay for their purchases with cash. Furthermore, 49 percent of Americans carry $20 or less, 9 percent carry no cash at all and only 7 percent admit to carrying more than $100 cash on a regular basis.
The numbers continue to show that women carry cash less often than men, and that there is no real difference in the amount of cash carried – or not – across the age groups, income levels or level of education. In addition to making this announcement, Bankrate also announced that its Financial Security Index fell yet again this month, making it the second month in a row to do so. At 98.7 this month compared to 100.5 last month, the results shows that there is lower financial security now than there was in the recent past.
Using savings, debt, net worth, job security and a person’s overall financial situation to determine the Financial Security Index, Bankrate found that American’s feelings on job security are negative for the first time since November of last year and that the number of people who feel secure in their jobs has fallen from 24 percent to 18 percent in the past month.
The findings also show that for only the fourth time in the past year – the second in the past two months – Americans are less comfortable with their debt and their savings. This outnumbers those who are comfortable by two-to-one. The good news, however, is that only one in six Americans report their net worth is lower than it was a year ago. The financial feelings Americans have are neutral; 50 percent say they are the same as they were a year ago in terms of finances, whereas 25 percent are worse off and 25 percent are more comfortable.
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