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What are you Worried About Financially?
Two weeks ago, I ran three polls on the site around the topic, “What are you worried about financially?”. Around 250 of you voted on each of the three poll questions. Here are the results (my answers are highlighted in bold):
What is your Biggest Financial Concern at the Moment?
Since the majority of the readers of the site fall into the 25-34 demographic, it’s not too surprising that ‘Getting out of debt’ was the #1 selection here. This is an age group where a lot of people are paying off student and credit card debt. However, it’s promising to see that ‘having enough savings when I retire’ was a not too distant second. This was my personal choice. I have paid off all student debt, I’ve never carried credit card debt, and now I’m in the process of applying funds towards retirement and paying off my mortgage (but ultimately concerned that I won’t have enough to retire at the age that I want). Here are the results, with over 250 voters chiming in:
I know that debt and paying it off is a concern for a lot of people, but it’s something that I don’t write about too often here, and I will definitely focus on more – so thanks for the feedback. Look for some new polls on debt so that I can hone in on what people are struggling with the most and cater content around it.
Are you Better or Worse off than 2 Years Ago?
For most demographics, I wouldn’t expect the same results that we saw here. A whopping 80% of you indicated that you are better off than two years ago, 11% are about the same, and only 9% are worse off. I chose ’2 years ago’, because it preceded the stock market and financial collapse of 2008. With all the media coverage and discontent that you hear about, only 9% of over 230 voters indicated that you were worse off than before the financial collapse and the resulting stock market collapse, huge economic recession, and unemployment that followed. Amazing!!
How do you Feel Overall About your Finances?
In line with the last poll, 96% of all voters at least felt ‘stable’ at the moment. However, 49% of all voters were ‘worried’. Just 4% of voters indicated that they were struggling. A big step up from where I would have imagined most of us were at mentally about a year ago. Here are the results.
Poll Discussion:
What’s your take on these results?
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My name is G.E. Miller and 
For 20somethings, I’m surprised that their parents’ retirement wasn’t a cause for concern. Most people, in my age group, have parents whose retirement funds take a significant hit that won’t recuperate by the time they retire.
For me, this is my biggest cause of worry. My parents’ ability to work is going to severely decrease over the next 7-10 years, and their lack of retirement funds has me extremely concerned.
Since they have provided for me, I will do the same for them, but it is difficult to plan for and find a balance, given my own goals and financial obligations.
That’s an interesting point, RS. Maybe this blog’s demographic isn’t actually thinking about their parents that much. Yet.
Turns out a lot of us are pretty concerned about our finances here. I wouldn’t call that a bad thing. inaction in this economic climate could be lethal.
Personally, I’m still worried. But I’m worried about a more peculiar financial pattern; getting enough passive cash flow to cover my bare necessities in the future.