According to the nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development, the state ranks 33rd in the U.S. for financial security, which determines if people have enough savings to handle a job loss, a medical emergency or a similar money-draining crisis.
CFED’s 2012 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard found that nearly 27 percent of Oklahomans are “asset poor.” More troubling, it estimated that 48 percent are “liquid asset poor,” which excludes assets that cannot easily be converted to cash, such as a home or car.
So what can we do about it? The study’s recommendations include increasing education funding, providing incentives for college tuition savings and bolstering health insurance
coverage. That’s all well and good, but who needs financial help when
we’ve got a shoebox full of lottery tickets?
This article appears in Feb 1-7, 2012.