Feeling sorry for yourself this holiday season? Overcome your angst by basking in the money maladies of others! Here's the official Holiday Rundown of Sad Sap Statistics That Make You Look Like Warren Buffett In Comparison. (Or, for easier reference, we'll use the handy acronym: HRSSSTMYLLWBIC.)
- Three-fourths of workers age 55 to 64 have less than $56,000 saved for retirement.
- Forty-two percent of workers cash out their 401(k)s rather than transfer (or "roll over") the assets to an IRA or a new employer's retirement plan.
- One-third of "millennials" (those born after 1979) do not contribute a single dollar to their work-sponsored retirement savings plan.
- Twenty percent of credit cards are maxed out.
- Last year the average household paid $1,000 in interest on the money it borrowed.
- Among these debt "revolvers," credit card debt averages over $11,000 per household.
- The U.S. personal savings rate has declined from nearly 8.5% in the early 1980s to less than zero today.
- One out of every 73 U.S. households files for bankruptcy.
See? Spending time with the relatives isn't looking so bad in comparison, is it?
After you're done feeling financially superior we know you'll want to do something to help the less fortunate. We've made it easy with our eighth annual Motley Fool charity drive: Foolanthropy. Fool readers nominated worthy charities and we picked five to support. Read more about them here.
Giving is easy -- you don't have to even leave your chair. Just go to the Foolanthropy Center ("FC" for acronym fans) and click on the link to any of the good works that catch your eye. Your donation can really make a difference. And it certainly won't hurt in the Karma department, either.
