https://cfsinnovation.org/u-s-financial-health-pulse/
Some highlights from a survey:
28% financially healthy
55% financially coping
17% financially vulnerable
47% spending more than or equal to income
45% do not have enough savings to cover three months of living expenses
40% do not plan ahead financially
37% are not on track to meet their long term financial goals
36% are unable to pay all of their bills on time
30% have more debt than they can manage
Ok, the results are disturbing but sadly not surprising. The question is what will be done with them. There are so many studies and reports and data collected but it often feels like Indiana Jones where they are just archived in some musty, dusty warehouse and not used to improve things. 
And with our aging population, this is and will be increasingly, a social issue. I my opinion, fixing our health care issues would go a long way to help give folks a chance to catch up with their finances.
My daughter took a consumer financial elective for a semester in high school. They covered everything from making a budget to leasing cars, mortgages, savings, etc. It’s really a shame basic finances aren’t taught in schools regularly. A lot of parents aren’t equipped to teach their own kids.
Of course based on these same stats you could also say that the majority of people are
spending less than or equal to income
have enough savings to cover three months of living expenses
plan ahead financially
on track to meet their long term financial goals
able to pay all of their bills on time
don’t have more debt than they can manage
Not financially vulnerable
^The problem is that those should be the defaults for all Americans.
The first could be skewed by retirees living at least partially off of savings, but the idea of people not having enough to pay 3 months of bills or having more debt than they can manage is scary to me.
When the median household income hovers around 60K in most areas, I honestly don’t see the stats changing much or easily. Half are earning less than the median, yet still need $$ to pay rent, buy food, and assorted other things. It’s tough planning ahead long term while you’re still wondering how to make ends meet that month.
Fixing healthcare would certainly help many as often that’s a “luxury” rather than a “need,” even if what’s wrong is a need.
Healthcare costs are killing us this year. Two wisdom teeth removal surgeries, two kidney stone removal surgeries, and one leg injury. Total of over $11,000. And two kids in college. We’re in the “struggling” category right now.
Dental bills often don’t even come into the national conversation on health care. Honestly, I don’t understand how any could think that dental care isn’t health care. Those bills are insane for our family.
These, to me, are the most troubling statistics. The others might be able to be corrected with sound financial planning, but a large amount of debt is difficult to overcome. If you can’t pay all of current your bills or manage your debt, then you obviously can’t plan adequately for the future.
We are struggling, but at least we’re able to pay bills on time and manage debt (for the time being any way).
Oh - and if I hear one more time about the great “tax cut” that I received as a middle-income American, I’m going to scream. My lousy extra $40/month comes nowhere near to covering the rise in prices of everything else in my life.
^^^ I agree about dental (& vision!) being basic health care.
I’m in my late 20s and am in a much better financial position than the vast majority of our friends. We have 6 months worth of savings but are still in massive debt from school and medical bills. I’ve never been late on a bill in my life but more than once, I had to make a $5 little caesars pizza last several days because it’s all I could afford.
If I didn’t have student loans and medical bills to pay, we’d outright own our home by the time we were 30.
It has been suggested before that high schools require this type of course (though perhaps with a test-out option so that students who already know it do not have to take it). However, sometimes knowing that one should live below one’s means in order to save for future expenses is different from actually taking action to live below one’s means.
A fried of mine has for years contended that along with civics being required a financial class should be as well to graduate. He has said it should include basic finance, how a mortgage works, how the various forms of insurance work (car, home, liability, life, health, etc.), balancing a check book, credit card debt, etc. I used to laugh but the more I hear from my kids and their friends I think he may be on to something.
True, @ucbalumnus - but actually teaching kids about compound interest would be eye-opening for many a teenager tempted by easy credit. Financial literacy is crucial in today’s complex, expensive world. And it should be taught in schools just like reading and writing is.
All around, sadly even among my relatives, what I see are too many folks with financial illiteracy and total lack of fiscal discipline. Too many grasshoppers living it up on borrowed money like there’s no tomorrow and not enough ants with fiscal discipline. I agree with @katliamom that financial literacy should be taught in schools from early on. Start with Aesop’s fable of The Ants and the Grasshopper the way I’ve done with my own kids when they were barely reading age. Worked wonders.
I work with grad students, and I talk to them about interest right from the start. I want them to understand so they make smart choices. Unfortunately, the vast majority do not look at their loans to see the effect of accumulating interest until the very end (when I make them confront their beasts prior to graduation). I have had many an adult student crying in my office after they saw that the loans they borrowed had grown much more than they realized. I have also spoken to a number of borrowers who are panicking because they have still not even put a dent in their loan totals a few years after graduation.
A lot of people would rather not face reality when it comes to things they want. Not just the choice of keeping their smartphone vs upgrading to the latest & greatest model … but also choices like borrowing for school, car, home. There is a desire to have a certain experience or thing, and I think some people just turn a blind eye to what it really means in the long term.
Living beneath your means is not a poplar sentiment in the US. The key is to find happiness in what you have already finding ways to minimize financial outlays, and putting more $$ away for a rainy day.
Our schools now require a financial literacy course for graduation. DD’s main take-away from the class is that the teacher was strongly opposed to credit cards. It at least started some conversations at home. We love our credit cards and pay them off every month.
Education can help the people that can be helped. There will always be some that can’t and won’t be helped. No amount of living wage, monthly stipend, or work incentives will help them. They’ll spend everything they can spend with no thought to consequences. It’s just part of the human condition. For the rest of us incentives work pretty well.
That’s really sad. I remember dd taking a nutrition class where the teacher said that the only fish she ate was salmon, because it’s good for you. Now, I love salmon, but it most definitely is not the only fish that is good for one.
( I think the teacher was mostly vegetarian…)