Americans are stressed about their financial futures.
Although the U.S. unemployment rate continues to hold at a 50-year low of 3.5% and, by most measures, the economy is performing well, a new JD Power survey finds that 75.4% of Americans are experiencing some level of stress over their current financial situation: 53.6% say they are somewhat stressed and 21.8% say they are very stressed.
That stress is manifesting itself in a wide range of concerning behaviors, from overdrawn checking accounts to missed loan payments to delayed medical care. Moreover, a significant portion of Americans rate their financial knowledge as “weak” and many do not understand basic financial functions such as interest rates, inflation or investment diversification.
JD Power explores the current state of financial health and literacy in the U.S., digging into the biggest financial challenges affecting Americans. The Disenchanted Majority One fact that is unavoidable in the survey results is that Americans are not happy with their finances. When asked to rank on a scale of 1-to-10 (1 being not at all satisfied, 10 being extremely satisfied) how content they were with the current personal financial situation, 55% of respondents answered with a ranking of 5 or less, and 16.2% of respondents answered with a 1.
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