Evidence

Would cover a $400 expense with cash or its equivalent

Last reviewed September 29, 2026 · Card EV-400-SHED-2025

Who this is for. Readers who want the definition behind the 63 percent figure.
Who should skip this. Readers looking for a personalized savings target. Use the Foundation instead.

Layer: Evidence · Last reviewed: September 29, 2026 · Card ID: EV-400-SHED-2025

Plain title

Share of U.S. adults who would cover a $400 emergency with cash or its equivalent

The number

63 percent

The complement is 37 percent who would borrow, sell something, carry a card balance, use a mix of those, or not pay. 12 percent of all adults said they would be unable to pay the expense by any means.

Date and source

Survey: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED)
Field period: October 17–28, 2025
Report: *Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025*, released May 13, 2026
Primary pages:

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2026-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2025-savings-investments.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2026-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2025-executive-summary.htm PDF: https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2025-report-economic-well-being-us-households-202605.pdf

Time series: FRED UNEXPECTEDEXPENSESALLADUL

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNEXPECTEDEXPENSESALLADUL

Table by year and group:

https://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerscommunities/sheddataviz/unexpectedexpenses-table.html

Exact definition

The Fed asked how an adult would pay a hypothetical $400 unexpected expense.

Cash or its equivalent means the person would cover it exclusively with:

cash,
savings, or
a credit card paid off at the next statement.

Putting the $400 on a card and carrying the balance is not cash or its equivalent.

Who is in the number, who is not

In the number: U.S. adults in the 2025 SHED (the report is based on a survey of nearly 13,000 adults).
The 63 percent are people who said the $400 would be handled with cash-equivalent means only.
The 37 percent is everyone else in that question, grouped together. It is not the same thing as “37 percent have zero dollars.”
The 12 percent is a subset: adults who said they could not pay the $400 by any means.
This is not Bankrate’s $1,000 question.
This is not a “paycheck to paycheck” poll.
This is not the separate SHED question about having three months of expenses set aside (55 percent in 2025).

What changed since the last release

Year	Would cover $400 with cash or its equivalent
2021	68%
2022	63%
2023	63%
2024	63%
2025	63%

The 2025 reading was unchanged from 2022–2024 and remains below the 2021 high.

Selected 2025 gaps from the Fed table (same definition):

Age 18–29: 45 percent · Age 60+: 78 percent
Black adults: 40 percent · Hispanic adults: 46 percent · White adults: 73 percent · Asian adults: 77 percent
Less than high school: 26 percent · Bachelor’s degree or more: 81 percent

Those gaps are context. They do not assign a score to one household.

What this does not prove

It does not prove that 37 percent of adults are “broke.” Many in that group would pay another way.
It does not prove that 63 percent are financially healthy. A person can cover $400 once and still miss rent.
It does not measure a full emergency fund. $400 is a small-shock test. In the same report, 59 percent of adults had at least one major unexpected expense in the prior 12 months — most often a vehicle repair or replacement (30 percent), a house or appliance repair (22 percent), or a major medical bill (21 percent). Those events are usually larger than $400.
It does not tell you what *you* should transfer today.