Nearly 1 in 4 Americans Have No Emergency Fund

A Harris Poll survey found that 25% of women have no savings compared to 17% of men, a gap that becomes especially consequential for the more than 20 million single women who now own their homes.

Zachary Mineur, CFA, CFP® was quoted in Realtor.com noting a concerning dynamic: women are entering homeownership with smaller emergency funds and, on average, lower incomes than their male counterparts.

On what homeowners should be saving, Zach offered a concrete framework:

“I generally advise that homeowners hold a separate line item of 1% to 3% of home value annually for maintenance, on top of their living-expense emergency fund. For a $400,000 home, for example, that’s $4,000 to $12,000 a year more that should be in that savings fund.”