Most Americans aren’t financially ready for an emergency. A new study shows less than half of all Americans are prepared for a one-thousand-dollar emergency expense. The Bankrate survey shows only 44-percent of Americans have a thousand dollars set aside for an emergency. Among those who are unprepared, 21-percent said they would use credit cards to cover emergency expenses, 16-percent said they would cut spending elsewhere to pay for it and 10-percent said they would borrow money from a loved one. Only four-percent said they would take out a personal loan.