Americans head into 2024 resolved to achieve two perennial financial goals: saving more money and paying down credit card debt. Yet they do so this year with a firm optimism about their personal finances despite high prices and interest rates.
The top four resolutions for Americans heading into 2024, according to a survey by USA TODAY Blueprint, are saving for: a rainy-day fund, retirement, their kids’ education and a big purchase. Paying down credit card debt rounds out the top five items on Amercians’ wish list.
Undergirding those resolutions is a more buoyant consumer than is often described in the popular press. To wit: 40% of Americans are very optimistic about their finances, while another four in ten are somewhat so.
Other key findings
- Almost 88% of all respondents say financial health impacts their overall happiness. This slants even harder for younger Americans; 97% of Gen Z and 90% of Millennials agree that financial health impacts their overall health.
- Americans rate financial health goals as more important than both physical and mental health ones.
- America’s biggest financial fears for 2024: an economic recession, inflation and higher interest rates.
The top priority for Americans (56% of respondents) heading into 2024 is to bolster their rainy-day fund, followed by saving for retirement (53%) and their child’s schooling (52%).
While these goals have always been something of a cliche, they’re especially salient in a world of high interest rates.
“Paying off a low interest-rate loan wouldn’t make sense right now,” said Paul Jones, a retired real estate agent and entrepreneur based in Okatie, S.C.
As the Federal Reserve raised interest rates from near zero to a range of 5.25% to 5.50% over the past 18 months to stymie inflation, many banks jacked up yields on savings accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs). However, interest on credit card balances also rose nearly five percentage points over the same period to 22.77%.
Saving up for expenses and earning a competitive yield rather than leveraging yourself makes sense and this is reflected in what Americans aim to do in 2024.
But there are strong generational differences in how Americans are taking advantage of this new terrain.
Financial goals by generation
Overall, saving cash ranks as a higher priority than paying off debt for the younger generations. And some debt may be smart to maintain nowadays.
Millennials mostly want to solidify their rainy-day fund.
“I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, so that’s why I want to save,” said Raquel Liburd, a self-identified Millennial and an engineer based in Philadelphia.
Gen Z has “all the goals” — over two thirds of the generation said they want to actively work on 16 of 17 financial goal posts, including ones that likely involve taking out loans, despite the higher price of doing so. Members of the other generations may already have vehicles, homes, budgets and investments.
The top goals of this generation, however, are to pay off their own schooling and to save for their child’s education, which could include everything from covering the cost of tuition to the price of crayons. Federal student loan payments restarted in October 2023.
Another priority is retirement, a constant source of tension for Americans — only 1-in-5 are confident that they’ll have enough funds to live out their retirement years comfortably, per the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2023 Retirement Confidence Survey.
About a third of Gen Z in our survey said they want to retire in 2024, but that may have to deal with the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement, which consist of financially conservative outliers — 67.57% of the generation say a new year’s resolution is to make a budget.
Yet the most popular 2024 goal for the older generations — Gen X, Boomers and the Silent Generation — is paying off credit card debt: Total credit card balances in the U.S. increased to $1.08 trillion, a 4.7%, in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the year prior.
With the holiday season upcoming, it is important to keep your gift giving impulse under control.
More than four in five Americans responded feeling some level of positivity about the U.S. economy going into 2024. That’s despite prices rising well above the Fed’s target, still high borrowing costs and wars in the Middle East and Europe.
Their cheerful spirit makes more sense when you look at the two of the most important economic indicators: gross domestic product and the unemployment rate.
The GDP grew at an annual rate of 4.9% in the third quarter, well above analysts’ expectations. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is hovering below 4%, indicating a relatively tight labor market.
At some point, the economy will slow thanks to the Fed’s dramatic increase in rates.
“Generally when interest rates go up, it slows the economy down,” said Heather Seay, a financial controller at Choice USA Beverage Inc., based near Charlotte.
In fact, the Atlanta Fed estimates, as of November 17, that economic growth will slow to 2% in the last three months of the year.
But that reality hasn’t shown up, yet.
More than four in five Americans feel positively about their personal finances, while just 4% feel negatively in any way.
“I’ve checked my 401(k)s and they’re both going up, which is nice,” said Liburd. “I don’t see as many dips as before. As long as it keeps a steady progression going up, I think I’ll feel optimistic.”
When asked about their personal finances, “very positively” was the most popular answer for Americans making fewer than six figures of annual income and “somewhat positively” was the most popular answer for those making more.
Households may have been sheltered from the negative economic headwinds by national policy moves, such as student loan payment pauses, stimulus payments and expanded subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, some of which only recently ran out of gas. And some households were also able to take advantage of interest rates when they hit what amounted to rock bottom.
“My mortgage is at 2%,” said Seay. “I would definitely consider saving money in a high-interest savings account rather than paying down my mortgage right now, as it can yield double that.”
Between financial, physical and mental health, most Americans rated money matters as top-of-mind for the new year. While physical and mental health weren’t far behind, over 86% of survey respondents said financial health rated as important in their books.
More than 90% of both Gen Z and Millennials marked financial soundness as vital and it was the most popular answer for Gen X-ers as well.
“How can you tackle [physical and mental health] except by being financially stable?” Liburd said, citing spotty insurance coverages and high copays as a common worry among her generation.
“If you’re not in good financial health, it’s going to weigh on you a lot,” she said.
Nearly 60% of people say a potential recession causes them the most concern going into 2024.
This holds true across most income levels. People who generate $50,000 to $200,000 annually consider an economic downturn to be the biggest financial threat, but those on the lowest and highest ends disagree.
“Inflation,” said Jones when asked about his biggest financial fear. “We’re not sure there’s going to be a recession, but we’re sure there’s going to be inflation.”
Thinking about the new year’s prospects? See our 2024 economic outlook.
People who make more than $200,000 a year point to climate change as their peak concern, which may taste like more of a long-distance perspective.
Compared to a potential recession, climate change and the 2024 elections worry only half the number of Americans, just over 30% of the U.S.
“The possible government shutdowns worry me a lot; a lot of the things I deal with are government contracts; even states use federal funding,” said Liburd.
Americans feel less fear when it comes to events more in their control, such as their job and the size of their family.
