Caring for Kids and Elders, Middle-Aged Americans Fall Short on Retirement Savings

If you're helping pay the expenses of your child and possibly your parent too, you may not have much cushion left for yourself. Nearly four in 10 middle-aged Americans have no emergency savings fund and a third have less than $25,000 socked away for retirement as many grapple with the financial strain of helping support children, aging parents or both, according to a survey by PNC Financial Services provided to USA Today . The results of the online survey of 36- to 60-year-olds, conducted in August, are broadly consistent with Federal Reserve findings earlier this year that 40 percent of adults can't cover a $400 emergency expense, or would have to borrow or sell something to do so. While 38 percent of those surveyed have no emergency fund, another 31 percent have a reserve that would last less than six months in case they lost a job or faced a similar unforeseen loss of income, according to the survey.