Many Car Dependent Americans Can’t Afford Car Repairs
You live in a city and you take public transportation to work. You have to stand for your hour-long commute giving up all sense of personal space you once held dear. You are wearing your winter coat because it’s zero degrees outside, but it feels like a sauna on the train. You look out the now foggy windows and now think that no one must drive a car to work.
Well, you’re just wrong.
According to the 2009 United States Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS), 86 percent of responders said they drove their car, truck, or van to work, while only 5 percent said they took public transportation.
From 1960 to 2009, the number of Americans commuting to work via car has continued to gradually increase, as has the number of working Americans.
This isn’t only for the suburban workers. The 2009 ACS reported that 81.5 percent of workers from the suburbs drove alone to work at and 72.1 percent of those city workers drove alone.
Okay, so Americans seem to still be driving to work, therefore are still fairly dependent on their cars. But do they have the money to fix the car if something happens? Probably not, according to a recent report by Bankrate.com.
Bankrate’s report, which looked at data from the Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI), found that three out of five Americans do not have enough savings to pay for expenses that are unexpected, such as a $1000 hospital visit or a $500 car repair.
Maybe not too shockingly, according to Bankrate’s report, the younger people are less likely to have the money saved up.
The survey found 44 percent of American senior citizens have enough savings to cover these expenses, while only 33 percent of millennials do.
Bankrate also found that college graduates were more likely to have savings to cover unexpected funds than those who did not attend college.
“A solid majority of Americans say they have a household budget, which is a good thing,’’ said Claes Bell, CFA, Bankrate.com banking analyst. “But too few have the ability to cover expenses outside their budget without going into debt or turning to family and friends for help.’’
Bankrate reported that people without the savings use a variety of ways to help pay for the expense: 26 percent of those surveyed reduce spending elsewhere, 16 percent borrow from family or friends, and 12 percent use credit cards.
If you don’t want to borrow from your parents this year (or be out of a much needed car), maybe reevaluate your budget find some room for a savings account.
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