Sarah Foster | (TNS) Bankrate.com
From stubborn inflation to rising interest rates, it’s exceptionally expensive to have a shaky personal financial situation in 2023 — but in today’s era, it costs a lot to be financially comfortable, too.
Americans feel they’d need to earn approximately $233,000 a year on average to be secure or comfortable with their finances, a new Bankrate survey finds. To be rich and achieve financial freedom, Americans say they’d need to make about two times more: roughly $483,000 on average, according to the poll. Both numbers are significantly larger than the average earnings full-time, year-round workers made in 2021 ($75,203), according to Census Bureau data.
Americans’ income needs highlight mounting affordability challenges that households are facing when it comes to growing their wealth — a problem many were navigating long before inflation skyrocketed in the aftermath of the pandemic. More money seems like it may beget more financial success at a time when college tuition has more than doubled and the median home price when adjusted for inflation has climbed 40% over the past 20 years. On the flip side, Americans’ buying power judged by their personal income has climbed a smaller 21% pace since 2003, according to the Department of Commerce’s per-person measures.
Bankrate’s key takeaways on Americans’ path to financial freedom
—Americans are more than two times more likely to feel financially insecure than secure. Slightly more than 1 in 4 (28%) Americans say they are completely financially secure. That compares with the majority (72%) who say they are not, which includes 26% who expect they’ll never be completely financially secure.
—U.S. economic factors are overwhelmingly keeping Americans from feeling financially secure. More than 3 in 5 financially insecure Americans (or 63%) say high inflation is keeping them from being financially comfortable or secure, along with 48% who blamed the economic…
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