In his inaugural address, President Obama talked about a country where even “a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else.” But in reality, that’s not always the case. A new report finds that one of the biggest obstacles for many Americans is that they don’t have the savings or assets they need to help them get ahead.
Nearly 44 percent of Americans don’t have enough savings or other liquid assets to stay out of poverty for more than three months if they lose their income, according to Wednesday’s report by the Corporation for Enterprise Development. Almost a third have no savings accounts at all.
The nonprofit tries to help low- and moderate-income families achieve the American dream. The group’s president, Andrea Levere, says that’s not easy when all your energy goes into paying the rent and buying food.
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