57% of Americans feel their finances are ‘excellent or good,’ survey says
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More Americans feel their finances are in a better place this year than they did at the start of the pandemic, a new Gallup survey reveals.
As of April 2021, 57% of Americans would say they consider their finances to be "excellent or good," according to the analytics firm’s findings.
This percentage is eight points higher than what Americans reported they felt in April 2020 and four points higher than June 2020.
The last time Americans were this optimistic about their finances was in 2019, which has 56% of U.S. adults saying they were in the green. Another close second was 2007 with 55% of Americans saying the same, according to Gallup’s data – which dates back to 2003.
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If these findings are correct, then currently Americans are the most optimistic they’ve ever been about their personal finances in the last 18 years.
Similarly, 52% of the survey’s respondents reported they’ve seen improvement in their financial situations this year. At the start of the pandemic, only 35% of Americans said they had seen improvements with money.
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Gallup’s survey comes at a time when the U.S. is getting closer to being fully reopened with more than 235 million coronavirus vaccines administered, according to data from the CDC and U.S. Census. Approximately 98 million Americans are fully vaccinated.
Earlier in the month, the CDC reported that 1 in 4 American adults were fully vaccinated, which equated to roughly 64.2 million people who are age 18 or older.
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While finances for more than half of American adults are in better shape than last year, there are some groups that don’t feel the same way.
According to Gallup, 25% of its respondents indicated that they felt negatively about their financial situations. Twenty-eight percent reported having money sentiments that were a mix of good and bad.
Gallup’s survey noted that young adults and people who are a part of the American middle class were two demographics that had pessimistic views about their current and future finances.
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As of April 2021, 57% of Americans would say they consider their finances to be "excellent or good," according to a new Gallup survey. (iStock)
For example, only 36% of U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 34 thought of their finances positively versus the 50% of U.S. adults between the ages of 35 and 54. Even half of Americans older than 55 viewed their finances favorably.
Similarly, wealthy Americans who made $100,000 or more per year viewed their finances positively (74%) versus Americans who made $40,000 to $99,999 per year (43%). Only a quarter of Americans who made less than $40,000 per year felt the same.
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Across political affiliations, Gallup found that a higher share of Americans who are Democrats or lean Democratic were optimistic about their current and future finances at 55%. A little more than one-third of Americans who are Republican or lean Republican reported feeling the same about their finances (37%).