Since October 2021, the price of goods and services in America, including housing, utilities, and groceries, has gradually increased as a result of soaring inflation.
This impacted many households and their ability to put money aside at the end of each month. To find out more about people’s perception of the current financial crisis, Saxo surveyed 2000 American citizens asking about their ability to save money.
The key findings are:
- 78% of Americans admitted saving less money since the start of the financial crisis
- 1 in 3 Americans aged 55 and over can no longer put money into savings at the end of the month
- Americans citizens living in the West are less impacted by the price surge of necessities
Figure 1: The Impact of the price surge on household’s ability to save money
The results show that nearly 4 out 5 American citizens are putting less money aside than they used to. 25.3% of which can no longer afford to save money at the end of the month.
The majority of the respondents (28.2%) also reported putting considerably less money aside than before, with just under a quarter (24.1%) putting slightly less money aside than before the financial crisis. While 13.2% have not changed their saving habits, 9.3% admitted not putting money aside before the surge in prices.
Nearly a third of women can no longer put money aside
Table 1: How does the impact of the price surge differ between sexes?
| Multiple Choice Answers | Female | Male |
| I can no longer put any money aside | 29% | 20% |
| I am putting considerably less money aside | 26% | 32% |
| I am putting slightly less money aside | 23% | 26% |
| It hasn’t made a difference, I am still putting the amount of money aside that I want to | 12% | 16% |
| N/A – I didn’t put money aside beforehand | 11% | 6% |
29% of women admitted to no longer being able to put any money aside. This value is 9% higher than their male counterparts. However, a higher percentage of men admitted putting considerably less money aside (32%) compared to women (26%).
The theme that 4 out 5 Americans have had to cut down on their savings is spread evenly between sexes, however, women are more drastically impacted when it comes to no longer being able to save. Interestingly, only 6% of male Americans didn’t put money aside before the price surged, compared to nearly double (11%) for women.
Retired Americans fear for their savings as price surge keeps growing
Figure 2: The impact of the price surge on different age categories
The data also shows that American citizens aged 55 to 64 (36%) and 65 and over (35%) were the most impacted by the price surge, with over 1 in 3 no longer able to put money aside. This is worrying for the retired population as they have to live from these savings.
This theme is less pronounced in the other age categories. However, over 30% of Americans aged 18 to 44 have admitted putting considerably less money aside since the start of the financial crisis (18 to 24 = 34%, 25 to 34 = 30%, 35 to 44 = 32%), hinting that they expect times to get tougher.
Despite this, 1 in 5 young Americans aged 18 to 24 (21%) claim that the price surge hasn’t made a difference in how much they put aside monthly.
The West is less impacted by the price surge
Figure 3: How different regions are affected by the price surge
The data shows that most residents in each of the 5 regions have seen their ability to save money negatively impacted by the price surge in everyday necessities such as gas/electricity and groceries. In fact, the Midwest (79%), Northeast (77%), Southeast (79%), Southwest (79%), and West (72%) all show worrying figures.
However, the situation seems less concerning in the West, with “only” 15% of the respondents admitting they can no longer put any money aside, against 25-30% in the other regions.
The West scored highest (31%) in the number of respondents saying they were forced to put considerably less money aside than prior, yet this theme is relatively similar in other regions (Midwest = 25%; Northeast = 30%; Southeast = 28%; Southwest = 29%).
On average, 12.5% of the respondents claimed that the financial crisis has not affected their ability to put money aside at the end of the month.