Personal Finance

Survey Finds Finances More Stressful Than Politics, Work

It probably comes as no surprise that many America adults feel at least some anxiety about money. But how does financial stress compare to other anxiety-inducing categories? According to a new survey conducted by Capital One’s CreditWise service, money tops the list of stresses for nearly three-quarters of consumers.

With 73% of the survey’s 2,202 adult respondents reporting that their finances were a source of stress for them, easily beating out the second-place response of “politics” (59%). Moreover less than half of those surveyed said that their work was a source of stress. As you might expect, younger consumers are more likely to feel stressed out by finances, with 81% of Millennials and 82% of Gen Zers stating as much. Also interesting is that 61% of Millennial women surveyed reported finding finances “very stressful” compared to only 47% of their male counterparts.

On the bright side, several of the consumers surveyed showed optimism for the future. 42% of respondents told CreditWise that they expected to be financially better off next year than they are today. Meanwhile only 10% anticipated taking a turn for the worse. As for Millennials, the two outcomes were even more diverging, with 53% expressing optimism and just 6% bracing for the downside.

Of course, with CreditWise being a credit monitoring service, the survey also asked respondents about their credit-checking habits and more. The good news is that more than half (51%) report regularly checking their credit. Additionally 25% say they check it when a bank or monitoring services advises them to. In terms of when consumers take the greatest amount of interest in their credit, the top response was when they’re looking at buying a home (62%) followed closely by “buying a car” (60%).

Unfortunately 29% of respondents acknowledge that they wouldn’t know what to do if they did find an error or fraudulent account on their reports. Plus only 16% were familiar with ways they could improve their credit scores. However the majority (59%) stated that there were interested in learning more about how to improve their credit.

Obviously money is always going to be a source of stress for many consumers — even those who might identify as being “well off.” That said it is notable that financial anxiety was more common than some other often talked about stressors. Regardless, it is encouraging to see that so many adults and even a majority of young people expect a better financial future is on the horizon. With an impressive number of these respondents already showing an interest in improving their credit and finances overall, these consumers are definitely on the right path.

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