Important

We defined cash savings as checking accounts that people consider savings, savings accounts, money market accounts, brokerage/investment accounts (nonretirement), certificates of deposit (CDs) and cash at home.

https://www.depositaccounts.com/blog/cash-savings-study.html

I believe cash savings refer to liquid assets. That is to say, a savings account is a cash savings account, whereas an IRA or 401k are not, because the cash is tied up in investments.

That's becoming my take, too. What surveys mean to ask is liquid assets, money people have immediate access to. But most Americans are too uneducated to understand what that means, so they ask about cash. But many people probably think that's a question about how much paper money they have.

Basically, they ask a question in a dumb way to get around how dumb Americans are, but the result is a dumb statistic.

Liquid fuckinv assets, you tedious derogatory noun.