Santander US CEO examines the state of Americans' savings

According to a survey from Santander Bank, about 80% of Americans have less than $25,000 in their savings accounts. As inflation concerns grow, worries about how much Americans think they need to save for retirement are also increasing.

Santander (SAN) US CEO Tim Wennes joins Wealth! to give insight into how Americans are putting away money for savings and key tips for savings management.

Wennes says Americans must start by checking in with themselves on several key questions: "Assess where you're at. How much do you have in savings? What interest rate are you earning, and what are some of the other options? For some people, if you haven't started saving or you're not accumulating as much savings as you would like, make sure you're setting the appropriate goals and make it easy for yourself to save. Pay yourself first. Set up that automated transfer into your savings account right when your paycheck comes in, to help you start to accumulate those savings."

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This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video transcript

Are Americans doing a good job managing their savings.

That's the big question.

And according to a new survey from Santander Bank, the answer is somewhat mixed with only about 20% of Americans saying they have more than $25,000 in their savings to help break down this survey as well as giving us more tips on how to save.

We've got Tim Weiss, who is the Santander us CEO.

Thanks so much for taking the time here with us.

Tim.

We'll get to the tips here in a hot second.

We just gotta dive into these findings though and, and really kind of get a sense of where you're seeing this from the Santander side as well.

Right.

Thank you for having me on.

Uh I'd say the positive take away from our survey is the majority of Americans were building savings adding to their savings in the first quarter.

This is against the narrative where we're hearing that people are spending down uh excess savings coming out of the pandemic.

So, uh that was a positive uh finding and I think uh showing that three quarters of individuals do have savings goals and the majority are meeting those savings goals.

So I take that as a positive on the flip side, uh we're finding that people are not necessarily doing all the planning that they need and that many people don't have good awareness.

They don't have financial confidence in terms of their knowledge and aren't taking the actions necessary uh to get to achieve those savings goals or paying attention to what interest rate they're earning on that money.

they've worked so hard for.

How has the confidence kind of moderated of people of savers to continue adding to an account where they're building up the nest egg.

What's interesting some other research that we do, we're finding that three and four Americans are uh uh they're optimistic that they're on the path to uh financial prosperity.

Uh And the big obstacles to that have been inflation for the past year and some of those are starting to come down.

But what we're still saying is seeing is far too many people are not taking action.

Uh And only one in five have taken the opportunity to move to a higher rate savings account or certificate of deposit in the past 12 months.

Uh And still 60% of savers are earning less than 3% on their savings.

And with market rates in the 4 to 5% range, they're leaving real money on the table.

What is the, the benchmark figure right now, on average that you're seeing people move over to a savings account on a, on a monthly basis perhaps.

Well, we've got the, the majority of Americans are kind in that middle, uh, tier federal reserve data says about $8000 is the median savings account.

And if you think that we've got the majority of people earning less than 3% market rates would be closer to five.

They're leaving as much as $20 a month on the table, uh, in terms of foregone interest.

Ok.

So let's get to some actionable tips for people who are trying to, you know, turn the tide or, or kind of turn the corner here and their own savings habits.

I was taking a look at some of your own GPS tracker data as well here and, and the report that was the impetus for this conversation.

Where are you seeing people employ the, the necessary kind of tricks in order to just change the mindset around savings.

The, the first thing is assess where you're at.

How much do you have in savings?

What interest rate are you earning and what are some of the other options for some people if you haven't started savings, uh, or you're not accumulating as much savings as you would like, make sure you're setting the appropriate goals and make it easy for yourself to save.

Pay yourself first, set up that automated transfer into your savings account.

Right?

When your paycheck comes in to help you start to accumulate those savings the majority of Americans have a savings goal of less than $300 a month.

So it doesn't matter how much you start with the, the, what matters the most is you start now, uh, and that you're doing it on a consistent and regular basis.

Tim, great to see you.

Thanks so much for taking the time and, and breaking down some of the findings here from Santander Tim Weiss, who is the Santander Us CEO?

Appreciate it, Brad.

Thank you so much.

Have a great day.

You too.