Household cash cushion
Whose readily available financial resources have grown?
MacroRoom·Measure by MacroRoom, from Federal Reserve DFA and SHED; BEA
A household can keep spending while drawing down its savings. Deposits per household show how that cushion is changing; the separate emergency-savings survey shows how many adults report a buffer for unexpected expenses.
2017 dollars / household · Q2 2026
Change in the group mean’s purchasing power.
DataPrimary measure through Q2 2026
Cash and deposit cushion
Deposits divided by the source's household count, deflated with the quarterly average PCE price index.
Fed income percentiles; the upper quintile is split at the 99th percentile.
Deposits include checkable deposits, currency, time deposits and short-term investments. Some have withdrawal restrictions. Group means are not median account balances.
Loading history…
| Group | Through | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottom 20% | Q2 2026 | $13,400 | −3.9% |
| 20th–40th percentiles | Q2 2026 | $25,900 | −2.0% |
| Middle 20% | Q2 2026 | $38,400 | −0.9% |
| 60th–80th percentiles | Q2 2026 | $58,700 | −1.9% |
| 80th–99th percentiles | Q2 2026 | $191,700 | −0.9% |
| Top 1% | Q2 2026 | $1,630,000 | −0.6% |
Component data
Accessible chart data
Historical values load with the chart.
Methodology
Real deposits per household
The Fed’s detailed Distributional Financial Accounts report deposits in millions of dollars and matching household counts. Divide deposits by the count, multiply by one million, and deflate with the quarter’s average PCE price index (2017 = 100). Only complete three-month price averages are used.
Deposits include checkable deposits, currency, time deposits and short-term investments. Some deposits have withdrawal restrictions. Equities, retirement claims and housing are excluded from this measure. An increase in the group mean does not show that every household built savings, nor identify whether the money came from income, borrowing or asset sales.
Emergency savings
The supporting SHED table is the Fed’s published share of adults with savings for three months of expenses. It is a separate annual cross-section by family income. It is not a household-count rate and is not converted to the Fed’s income percentiles. A single published year has no fabricated historical trend.
Dates, changes and limits
Every group retains its actual latest observation period. Comparisons use calendar dates; missing reference dates remain unavailable. Dollar and index changes are percentages, while rates and survey balances change in percentage points. Percent changes from a nonpositive base are unavailable. Annual observations stay annual.
The indexed view sets all selected groups to 100 at their first common positive observation within the visible window. Changing the group selection or history can change that baseline. The table always shows the underlying levels. A rising index describes improvement relative to that baseline, not an absolute standard of financial health.
Source releases can revise earlier observations. Retrieval dates, source hashes and cached-source flags are retained in the data manifest. A failed request retains the last available source with a visible note; a refreshed page does not imply that every underlying source was newly published.
Inputs and sources
Retrieved 2026-09-23
Retrieved 2026-09-23
Retrieved 2026-09-23
Each chart names its measure’s source. Group definitions and dates can differ across the supporting panels.
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Download MacroRoom’s constructed measure (CSV)
Institutional supporting series are available from the original publishers above. The CSV preserves the period, population, units, estimation status and source links.