There's something Peter Tafano wants to know about you.

If you had to, could you come up with $2,000 in 30 days?

That's the question he asked a whole bunch of people in 13 countries, including the US.

Why $2,000?

Because an auto transmission is about 1,500.

Most estimates of what everyday emergencies are about are in that order of magnitude.

If you were to have a sick or ailing relative on the other side of the country, you had to buy full price, plane tickets, it could easily be dead amount.

Then why this language come up with, as opposed to save?

Because what we wanted to see if people had access to resources between savings and credit and friends and family.

About half of Americans are not able to come up with $2,000 in 30 days.

Which means that they stand only one emergency or crisis away from really quite dire circumstances.

Tafano has spent more than three decades in academia, first at Harvard and now at Oxford Cyan Business School.

Trying to figure out why consumers do what they do.

He wants to know how many checks you write and for what?

How much you borrow and why?

And especially this.

Why Americans are so bad at saving money?

Our personal savings rate has been plunging for more than 20 years, actually went negative in 2006.

The great recession shocked it back into the positive.

It's been at about 5% since 2008.

But now it started to fall again.

Think about what Tafano just said.

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