Financial Health Pulse® 2024 U.S. Trends Report

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Overview

Diverging Financial Health Indicators for American Households

In the seventh edition of the annual U.S. Trends Report, we find that key financial health indicators trended in opposite directions, while overall financial health held steady. Day-to-day financial health indicators reflecting households’ ability to manage their immediate financial concerns – such as short-term savings, debt manageability, spending relative to income, and ability to pay bills on time – showed signs of further weakening. In contrast, forward-looking indicators reflecting households’ future expectations strengthened, including their confidence in long-term goals and ability to plan ahead.

American households weathered economic forces that pushed financial health indicators in opposite directions, depending on whether the indicator captured day-to-day financial concerns or future financial expectations. These findings may seem contradictory, but we find evidence that some households were more acutely affected by the past year’s economic forces than others, depending on their debts and assets held.

Key Findings

Indicators of day-to-day financial health decreased, while forward-looking indicators increased.

Households with outstanding credit card debt increasingly struggled with day-to-day financial health indicators.

Households with investments experienced increased levels of confidence in their financial futures.

Middle-income households experienced an increase in financial vulnerability.

Key Finding 1

Day-to-Day Financial Health Indicators Flag

Indicators of immediate financial concerns weakened.

Table 1. 2023-2024 trends in day-to-day financial health indicators

Table - 2023-2024 trends in day-to-day financial health indicators

Notes: Percentage point changes may not exactly match differences in percentages due to rounding.
* Statistically significant at p < .05.

- The share who reported spending less than their income decreased from 49% to 47%.
- Two more indicators decreased from 2023 to 2024: on-time bill payment and debt manageability.
- The change in the proportion of households who had three or more months of liquid savings was not statistically significant. However, the percentage reporting less than one week in savings did increase.

Key Finding 2

Forward-Looking Indicators Rise

More households reported confidence in their long-term goals, and more households reported planning ahead.

Table 2. 2023-2024 trends in forward-looking financial health indicators

Table - 2023-2024 trends in forward-looking financial health indicators

Notes: Percentage point changes may not exactly match differences in percentages due to rounding.
* Statistically significant at p < .05.

- The number of American households that felt confident they were on track to meet long-term financial goals increased by 3 percentage points from 2023 to 2024.
- Nearly two-thirds of American households (62%) agreed they were planning ahead financially, up from 60% a year ago.

Key Finding 3

Rough Waters for Households With Interest-Variable Debt

Households with credit card debt reported struggling more frequently with immediate financial concerns in 2024 than 2023.

Table 3. 2023-2024 trends in day-to-day financial health indicators, by credit card debt ownership

Table - 2023-2024 trends in day-to-day financial health indicators, by credit card debt ownership

Notes: In 2023, 108 respondents reported not knowing whether their household had outstanding credit card debt and three skipped the question. In 2024, 152 respondents reported not knowing whether their household had outstanding credit card debt and seven skipped the question.
* Statistically significant relative to 2023 at p < .05.

- Between 2023 and 2024, the percentage of households with credit card debt that were paying all their bills on time, had at least three months of living expenses saved, or had a manageable amount of debt all decreased.
- For households without credit card debt, day-to-day indicators remained steady, while confidence in long-term goals increased.

Key Finding 4

Tailwinds for Households With Investments

Households with investments saw increases in forward-looking indicators

Table 4. 2023-2024 trends in forward-looking financial health indicators, by investment ownership

Table - 2023-2024 trends in forward-looking financial health indicators, by investment ownership

Notes: A household is classified as having investments if they report having at least one of the following: employer-provided retirement account, individual retirement account, or a non-retirement investment account. One respondent in 2024 and three respondents in 2023 had a missing investor status.
* Statistically significant relative to 2023 at p < 0.05.

- The share of households with investments who were confident they were on track to meet long-term financial goals increased from 48% to 53%.
- The share who reported planning ahead financially increased from 71% to 75%.
- Forward-looking indicators did not increase for households without investments.

Key Finding 5

Middle-Income Households Become More Vulnerable

A sharp decrease in debt manageability contributed to an increase in financial vulnerability.

Figure 1. Percentage in each financial health tier, by household income and year

Bar chart comparing the financial health of households by income level in 2023 and 2024. Summary below.

Notes: AMI is defined as the median household income for that respondent’s Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), or county if the respondent does not live in an MSA. In 2023, there were three respondents with missing income or geographic information needed to calculate AMI, and in 2024, there were 161 respondents with missing information. Percentage points may not sum to 100% due to rounding.
* Statistically significant relative to 2023 at p < .05

- Between 2023 and 2024, the proportion of middle-income households that were Financially Vulnerable rose from 11% to 14%.
- Middle-income households increasingly struggled to manage their debt, which may be related to the fact that this income group most frequently holds revolving credit card debt.^{1, 2}
- Other day-to-day financial health indicators decreased for middle-income households as well, including spending less than income, paying bills on time, and short-term savings.

Conclusion

A Call for Systems-Level Change

Moving forward, special attention to customers and employees struggling to repay debt may help prevent further damage to their financial health.³ This year’s results also emphasize the need to make investing more accessible to traditionally excluded populations. Employers can have an impact by expanding access to retirement plans to their part-time and gig-workers, and financial institutions can develop solutions that demystify investment decisions, build trust, and increase the accessibility of investment advice.^{4, 5}

Our findings are a call to action for financial service providers, employers, policymakers, and researchers. We urge these stakeholders not to accept the stubborn numbers in this report as a default status quo. Instead, we invite them to respond with the conviction that they can refashion that status quo into financial health for all.

About the 2024 U.S. Trends Report

Since 2018, the Financial Health Network has conducted the Financial Health Pulse® research initiative. The Financial Health Pulse combines probability-based, longitudinal survey data with administrative data to provide regular updates and actionable insights about the financial lives of Americans. Using our annual Pulse survey data, the U.S. Trends Report documents year-over-year changes in financial health and disparities in financial health across different consumer groups living in the United States.

In 2024, we shifted our focus to examine the financial health of American households versus individuals. Our analysis provides insights on two dozen household characteristics, including:

Student loan debt
Outstanding credit card debt
Investment status
Veteran status

Urbanicity
Net worth
Non-traditional employment

Entrepreneurship
Access to employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)

Financial Health Pulse^® 2024 U.S. Trends Report

Explore the trends. Discover new insights. Build stronger strategies.

Download the Full Report

Methodology

The Financial Health Pulse survey was fielded between April 16, 2024, and May 30, 2024, to panelists of the University of Southern California’s Understanding America Study (UAS), which is a nationally representative, probability-based internet panel. The UAS identifies respondents for its panel via address-based sampling. The 2023 and 2024 Financial Health Pulse surveys were fielded online to a random sample of panelists with only one self-identified financial decision-maker sampled per household.

An important note about our 2023 sample is that the shift to household-level data and the restriction of the sample to financial decision-makers are newly applied in the 2024 U.S. Trends Report. As such, our estimates of financial health from 2023 in this year’s report differ slightly from what we reported on in our 2023 report.

For additional methodological details and notes on terminology and data limitations, please download the full report.

Endnotes

The lowest-income households are less likely to have credit card debt in part because they are less likely to have credit cards.
Yu-Ting Chiang & Mick Dueholm, “Which U.S. Households Have Credit Card Debt?” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, May 2024.
Heidi Johnson, Hannah Gdalman, and Zaan Pirani, “Behavioral Design Guide: A Financial Health Approach to Credit Cards,” Financial Health Network, May 2023.
Riya Patil, Tanya Ladha, and Matt Bahl, “The State of Retirement Security in America,” Financial Health Network, June 2024.
Maria Lajewski, “These Black Founders Are Paving the Way Toward Equity in Financial Health,” Financial Health Network, February 2024.

Acknowledgments

The Financial Health Network is grateful to the members of the Financial Health Pulse Advisory Council for their thoughtful reviews and strategic guidance.

The Financial Health Network is collaborating with USC’s Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research to field the study to its online panel, the Understanding America Study. We thank them for their partnership.

The Financial Health Pulse is supported by the Principal Foundation. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this piece are those of the Financial Health Network and do not necessarily represent those of our funders or partners.

Financial Health Pulse^® 2024 U.S. Trends Report

Explore the trends. Discover new insights. Build stronger strategies.

Download the Full Report

Overview

Diverging Financial Health Indicators for American Households

Key Findings

Indicators of immediate financial concerns weakened.

More households reported confidence in their long-term goals, and more households reported planning ahead.

Households with credit card debt reported struggling more frequently with immediate financial concerns in 2024 than 2023.

Households with investments saw increases in forward-looking indicators

A sharp decrease in debt manageability contributed to an increase in financial vulnerability.

Conclusion

A Call for Systems-Level Change

About the 2024 U.S. Trends Report

Financial Health Pulse® 2024 U.S. Trends Report

Methodology

Acknowledgments

Financial Health Pulse® 2024 U.S. Trends Report

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Financial Health Pulse^® 2024 U.S. Trends Report

Financial Health Pulse^® 2024 U.S. Trends Report