To find out what people are willing do to improve their financial stability in 2017, GOBankingRates.com asked 3,000 adults to name their top financial resolution for the upcoming year.
They were given nine options:
- Create a budget and stick to it
- Build an emergency fund
- Improve my credit score
- Save more, spend less
- Increase my income
- Pay down debt
- Save more for retirement
- Have more spending freedom
- Make a large purchase (home, car, etc.)
The findings identified the most popular financial resolutions overall, as well as the most popular financial resolutions among income brackets, age and gender.
The most popular choice? “Save more, spend less.”
You can view the research breakdown and insights HERE.
‘Pay Down Debt’ Resolution More Popular for Baby Boomers Than Millennials
Despite the fact that many millennials are burdened with student loan debt, baby boomers are the ones more likely to vow to pay down debt in the new year. The GOBankingRates survey found slightly more than 26 percent of adults ages 55 to 64 are resolving to pay off debt in 2017 versus about 9 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds and almost 20 percent of 25 to 34-year-olds.
Other interesting findings by age group include the following:
- “Pay down debt” is the most popular resolution among adults ages 25-44.
- “Save more, spend less” is the most popular resolution for adults ages 18-24, 45-54 and 65 and older.
- “Increase my income” is a more popular resolution among younger respondents than older ones — likely because millennials earn less, on average, than older workers.
- “Save more for retirement” is an unpopular New Year’s resolution among millennials. This resolution grows in popularity as the sample size gets older.
- “Create a budget and stick to it” decreases in popularity, for the most part, as the sample size increases in age.
“It’s great to see that ‘save more, spend less’ is the most popular resolution, considering that a 2016 GOBankingRates’ survey found that nearly 70 percent of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings,” said GOBankingRates’ Life and Money Columnist, Cameron Huddleston.
“If people want to make this resolution stick, the first step they need to take is to automate savings by setting up monthly transfers from a checking account to savings account. Better yet, open a savings account for each one of your savings goals such as an emergency fund, vacation fund or down payment on a house and name the account based on the goal to motivate yourself.”
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