Key points
- Approximately 56% of respondents don’t find it easy to meet regular expenses.
- Only 48% of U.S. adults have an emergency fund.
- Generation Z is most likely to have taken a personal finance class.
If you ask Americans, most think they manage their money well. According to a recent survey commissioned by USA TODAY Blueprint, more than two-thirds of U.S. adults say they make well-informed financial decisions.
Despite that confidence, more than half of the respondents say that meeting regular expenses isn’t easy, 40% aren’t confident about retiring and nearly half don’t have an emergency fund.
Are Americans overconfident with their finances?
Among the 2,000 polled, 68% are confident they make well-informed financial decisions. That breaks down to 24% of respondents who are very confident and 44% who are somewhat confident. About 19% are neutral on the question. A mere 13% say they lack confidence.
How confident or unconfident are you that you make well-informed financial decisions?
These numbers break down differently across the generations.
Older adults are more confident
With age usually comes wisdom. Nearly three in four baby boomers are somewhat or very confident that they make well-informed choices regarding their wallets.
Meanwhile, younger generations have less faith in their financial chops. However, less is relative. Even among the youngest polled, 66% of Gen Z report feeling good about…
