Most Americans don’t feel secure in their finances, and about a quarter don’t think they will ever achieve financially security.
That’s according to a new survey from Bankrate.com, which found that 72% of those surveyed said they are not “completely financially secure,” and 26% expect they never will be.
When asked what it would take to feel financially secure, the respondents on average said that they would need to earn around $ 233,000. To feel “rich,” the respondents on average said that they’d need to make around $ 483,000, the survey found.
Americans have a long way to go to meet either of those goals. Full-time workers earned on average $ 75,203 in 2021. The median salary — the midpoint between the highest and lowest — was $ 53,888, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Workers’ salaries have to cover an ever-mounting list of financial strains. Most Americans are feeling the pinch of inflation as their cost of living — from groceries to home prices — has been inching steadily up. Most survey respondents (63%) said high inflation prevents them from feeling financial secure, and 36% put the blame on rising interests.
This was the first time Bankrate has surveyed people about financial security, so there’s no historical data on the amounts of money people said they needed to feel secure or rich in past years. But other surveys have suggested Americans’ view of how much money makes someone “rich” has changed in recent years. Charles Schwab’s 2023 Modern Wealth survey found that Americans think it takes $ 2.2 million to qualify as “wealthy” in the U.S. — that’s up from $ 1.9 million in 2021.
The Bankrate survey results revealed that women cited a higher salary required to feel financially secure as well as rich. Women said that they would need to earn $ 237,400 a year to feel secure, while men cited $ 229,100. Women also said they would need to make $ 502,400 to feel “rich,” while men said $ 465,300.
Housing costs are holding people back from financial security
To be sure, people aren’t necessarily feeling all doom and gloom — consumer sentiment in June reached a four-month high as Americans feel more confident about the U.S. economy. But there is still a layer of anxiety over their financial health.
In addition to high inflation and interest rates, the Bankrate survey respondents also cited housing costs as a reason for feeling financially insecure. Women were more likely to cite housing costs as a hurdle. Overall, nearly 22 million U.S. households spend more than they can afford on rent.
Bankrate respondents also said they were financially insecure because they didn’t have enough in emergency savings or retirement funds and had high levels of debt.
As Anthony Noto, CEO of a fintech firm SoFi, recently put it, “in many ways, someone today that’s making $ 100,000-plus really struggles to live the American Dream for a variety of different reasons.”
State of the U.S. worker and their biggest expenses today
- Median salary in the U.S.: $ 53,888 per year
- Price of a typical mortgage: $ 2,165 per month
- Price of a typical two-bedroom rental: $ 1,891 per month
- Price of healthcare expenses for a typical family: $ 22,463 per year
- Price of car payment: $ 730 per month
- Typical cost of childcare: $ 10,853 per year
Sources: Census Bureau (2021), Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Applications Payments May 2023, Zumper National Rent Report June 2023, KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey 2022, Edmunds Q1 report, Child Care Aware Of America Annual Price of Care 2022
Emma Ockerman and Zoe Han contributed.