Next Avenue, Nov 26, 2019: Finally: A Push to Help Americans Save For Emergencies
For six years running, the Federal Reserve has found that roughly 40% of U.S. households would have difficulty coping with a $400 unexpected expense. A financial emergency would hit people 50 and older especially hard; AARP recently found that 51% of Americans age 50 and older say they have no emergency savings account. But help may be on the way.
BlackRock, the world’s largest financial asset manager, has launched a $50 million, five-year Emergency Savings Initiative, working with notable consumer finance nonprofits and companies ranging from Mastercard to UPS to the e-commerce site Etsy. “We think the scale of this problem requires that level of financial commitment,” said Deborah Winshel, BlackRock’s global head of social impact.
