Financial Warnings Everywhere

I am not an alarmist nor do I dramatize or share bad news. However, when it comes to finances I have always paid attention. At this time, I believe it is vital you pay serious attention to what is happening economically. In 2008, most of my friends lost everything because they refused to confront and respond to obvious signs of trouble. 

Here we are with a full eight years since the worst recession since the Great Depression and there is a growing list of disturbing facts which cause me to be on especially high alert at this time.

1. 76 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.  
2. 62 percent of Americans have less than 1,000 dollars in their savings.
3. 65 percent of those 65 and older have less than $25,000 in retirement.
4. 21 percent of all Americans have no savings account at all.
5. 43 percent of American households spend more money than they earn.
6. The defined Middle-class Americans now make up a minority of the population reaching lowest levels since Great Depression.
7.  The median income of middle-class of households (adjusted for inflation) has been in decline for 27 years. 
8. Median wealth for middle-class households dropped an astounding 28 percent between 2001 and 2013.  (Pew Research).
9. Middle-class take home pay before expenses has plummeted to 43 percent of gross pay compared to 1970 when the middle class take-home was 62 percent .
10. There are still 900,000 fewer middle class jobs in America than there were when the last recession began.
11. 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year.
12. 48% of all adults under the age of 30 believe  “the American Dream is dead”.
13. The rate of homeownership in the US has been steadily declining, at 63%.
14. US. ranks 19th in the world when it comes to median wealth per adult.  
15. The level of entrepreneurship in this country is at an all-time low.  
16. For each of the past six years, more businesses have closed than opened.  This had never happened before in all of U.S. history.
17. The 20 wealthiest people in the US have more money than the poorest 152,000,000 millions combined.
18. The top 0.1 percent of all American families have as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent combined.
19. If you have no debt and ten dollars in your pocket, you have a greater net worth than 1 out of 4 Americans. 
20. The number of Americans living in concentrated areas of high poverty has doubled since 2000.
21. 48% of all 25-year-old Americans still live at home with their parents.
22. One out of five people live in poverty
23. 46 million Americans use food banks each year.
24. According to Poverty USA, 1.6 million American children slept in a homeless shelter or some other form of emergency housing last year.
25. The United States ranks 36th out of the 41 “wealthy nations” in child poverty. 
26. 41 percent of all children in the United States raised by a single parent are living in poverty.
27. The “officially unemployed” plus those “not in the labor force” equal three million.
28. 70% of all Americans believe that “debt is a necessity in their lives”.
29. 53 percent of all Americans don’t have even a minimum three-day supply of nonperishable food and water stored.
30. According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, the unemployment rate in this nation is really 22.9%.
31. The percent of men working in America has gone from more than 80 percent in 1980 to 65 percent.
32. The labor force participation rate for men has plunged to the lowest level ever recorded.
33. The inventory to sales ratio has risen to the highest level since the last recession.  A lot of unsold inventory that is just sitting around out there.
34. Manufacturing index has fallen for five months in a row.
35. Orders for “core” durable goods have fallen for ten months in a row.
36. Since March, the amount of stuff being shipped by truck, rail and air inside the United States has been falling every single month on a year over year basis.
37. Corporate debt in the U.S. has approximately doubled.
38. While Japan continues to print money, Japan's 10-year treasury has gone from 8% to less than .1% over the last thirty years.
39. Despite the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates 10-year treasury has continued to drop hitting new lows of 1.57% this week.
40. Health insurance premiums have increased by a total of $4,865 since 2008.
41. The average U.S. household that has, at least, one credit card and approximately $15,950 in credit card debt.
42. The number of auto loans that exceed 72 months has hit at an all-time high.
43. According to Dr. Housing Bubble, there have been “nearly 8 million homes lost to foreclosure since the homeownership rate peaked in 2004″.
44. Approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either currently have medical bill problems or are paying off medical debt.  
45. The total amount of student loan debt in the US has risen to 1.2 trillion dollars more than all credit card debt.
46. There are approximately 40 million Americans paying off student loan debt.
47. In just the last eight years the US added 16 trillion dollars.
48. The U.S. national debt is an admitted $19 trillion.  

I hope you use the facts above as a conversation starter with your spouse, kids, extended family and employees. This is not business as usual and you will benefit from understanding the reality of the current economic situation. 

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People ask me why I work so hard and with such urgency. I assure you much of the list above is why I am constantly out there trying to do all I can to take care of my family and business. I have been saying for five years now; 

"MAKE FINANCES A PRIORITY or you will pay a price going forward."   

Your friend in sales, business and finances, 

Grant Cardone
310-777-0255

Grant Cardone is a New York Times bestselling author, executive producer / host of multiple business shows, owner of five small businesses and the world's top sales training expert with the most viewed online sales training site in the world today. His training platforms, Cardone University and Cardone On-Demand, have over 2000 segments of content used by companies like Ashley Furniture, Aflac, AllState, Google, MIT, InsideSales, Udemy, Chrysler, Toyota, Morgan Stanley, TMobile, ATT, Sprint, Fran Tarkenton Companies and thousands more with approximately seventeen million user logins.