Friday, October 30th, 2009
Along with the nation’s many blue-collar Hispanics, there’s a significant number of affluent Hispanics in the U.S.
The Census Bureau defines affluent households as those with a median annual income of $100,000 or more. As of 2006, there were more than 1.3 million affluent Hispanic households in the U.S., about 10 percent of all Hispanic households in the country. The affluent class makes up about 3.7 million people nationwide, with a purchasing power over $1 trillion.
Hispanics are outpacing the general population when it comes to the growth of wealth. Between 1991 and 2000, the number of affluent Hispanic households grew 126%, while the number of affluent households in the general population only grew 77%.
Hispanics control more personal disposable income than any other minority group in the United States. The Selig Center of the University of Georgia estimated Hispanic buying power at $951 billion in 2008, a 349 percent growth from 1990. During that time, non-Hispanic buying power had grown at less than half that rate.
(more…)
Tags: Acculturation, Affluent, Assimilation, Buying power, culture, finances, growth, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, Population, Spanish, spending, Wealth
Posted in Acculturation, Affluent, Assimilation, Buying power, Hispanic, Hispanic 101, HispanicPR, Population, Spanish, Wealth, culture, finances, growth, saving, spending | 26 Comments »
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
When it comes to personal finance, the Hispanic population has some unique characteristics which have distinguished their experience of the recession from that of other groups.
Overall, Hispanics are less connected to banks and credit cards than the general population. Thus, they haven’t been as affected in losses to their 401(k)s and investments, nor have they incurred as much credit card debt. However, the other side of being disconnected from banks is that Hispanics typically have less money saved for retirement, which has many elderly Hispanics anxious about their future.
A study by Synovate found that only 77% of Hispanics have bank accounts, compared to 98% of the general population. One theory is that Hispanics use banks less because they don’t trust them as much as the rest of the population. Many Hispanic immigrants come from countries where banks were unstable due to fluctuating economies, and that history leads them to rely on cash.
(more…)
Tags: banking, Buying power, Credit cards, finances, Hispanic, HispanicPR, recession, retirement, saving, spending
Posted in Buying power, Credit cards, Hispanic, HispanicPR, banking, finances, immigrant, recession, retirement, saving, spending | 12 Comments »