." >> reporter: according to bankrate, less than 25% of americans have an adequate emergency savings cushion - defined as six months of living expenses. this may sound like a meaningless factoid. to me it's eerily reminiscent of iceberg sightings and the titanic. from the late 1950s to the early 1980s our national savings rate averaged in the low double digits. importantly, these were decades in which retiremenand alth care were costs typically picked up by employers during both our working and our golden years. today, these twin burdens are on our shoulders. thus, you'd think our national savings rate would be higher. yet lower it is. so the next time you hear a "yet another" stat about emergency funds, consider using it as a gentle warning signal to take a look at your personal financial ship and make sure there are no economic icebergs floating in your midst. i'm, manisha thakor. >> susie: and speaking of your personal finances, don't expect much of a raise in your paycheck next year. a new forecast says salary increases will run about 3% in 2013. that's way down from the average

the bankrate survey shows only 60% of americans track their spending, which is a key to boosting savings and lowering debt. erika miller, "n.b.r.," new york. >> tom: the slow economic growth like what the u.s. has seen this year should not turn into no growth. that's the outlook from tonight's market monitor. marshall front is the chairman and chief investment officer at front barnett associates. he joins us from the c.m.e. group in chicago. >> what gives you optimism that the slower growth the first half of the year in the u.s. isn't going to continue to slow down in the second half? >> we look at it two ways. >> top down, bottoms up. from a top down standpoint, we see earnings continuing to be reonab good. we see consumer spending at two percent in the second half of the year. we see exports a little weaker as a result of europe's continuing slowdown, but overall, we see the economy chugging along at one and a half to two percent for the rest of the year from a bottoms up standpoint our analytical model which has never failed to call a recession or recovery within six months continues