Poll: Many Americans Admit to Be Financially Worse Off Now

A new Gallup U.S. poll indicated that 50% of respondents feel financially worse off than they did a year ago, the greatest percentage since the Great Recession era in 2008 and 2009.

Nonetheless, the U.S. poll still lends credence to an unexpectedly optimistic sentiment in the United States, according to GOBankingRates. The poll showed that 35% of those surveyed feel their financial situation had improved in the past year.

By contrast, 59% of Americans said the same before the COVID-10 pandemic began in January 2020, while 20% said they were worse off.

The poll, published Wednesday, also showed that 14% feel their finances were "the same" as at the start of 2022. The poll comes as many people fear the country is heading toward a recession due to high inflation and soaring consumer prices.

The new Gallup U.S. poll was conducted from January 2 to 22, with 1,011 respondents participating in the survey. The margin of error was 4%.

Gallup U.S. Poll: Lower-Income Americans Say They Are Losing Ground

The latest Gallup U.S. poll also showed that 61% of respondents in the lower-income bracket said their financial condition has worsened over the past year, while 26% said it has improved.

Forty-nine percent of respondents in the middle-income shared they are financially worse off, as 37 percent of those surveyed noted that their financial situation had improved.

In the middle-income bracket, 49% of respondents said they were financially worse off, while 37% noted that their financial situation had improved. In the upper-income group, 43% of respondents felt things had gotten worse, while 39% said their situation had improved.

Among political party lines, the new Gallup U.S. poll showed that 61% of Republican respondents, 51% of independents, and 37% of Democrats said they are financially worse off than they were a year ago.

However, more Democrats, or 47%, said they felt better off. Financial confidence among Democrats is higher when a Democratic president like Joe Biden is in office and vice versa when a Republican is in the presidential office.

Gallup U.S. Poll: Most Americans Are Still Looking for a Brighter Future

Although this may be the case, Americans show remarkable resilience, with most of Gallup's respondents believing in better times ahead. Sixty percent of respondents in the latest Gallup U.S. poll have a positive outlook for the future.

They said they expect to be financially better off in the coming year. Only 28% said they expect to be worse off. According to Gallup, Americans from various economic backgrounds are equally optimistic about their finances over the next 12 months.

Gallup noted that 62% of lower-income Americans, 60% from the middle-income group, and 59% in the upper-income bracket expect to be better off a year from now.

Eric Bailey, a certified financial planner at Bailey Wealth Advisors, told Yahoo Finance that based on what they are hearing and seeing, "those folks that are above the middle-income group are still doing well."

"Their confidence factor is maybe not as high as it would've been a year and a half ago, but they're not concerned about running out of money," Bailey noted. He added that their cash positions remain big, and they have yet to run up credit card debt.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

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