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News

Survey: Younger Americans Name Personal Finance as Top Goal for 2024

By:
S.J. Steinhardt
Published Date:
Jan 3, 2024

Many people make New Year’s resolutions, and Generations Y (otherwise known as millennials) and Z are no different. More than half of them said that their top personal goal for 2024 is personal finance, an American Express survey found.

Fifty-seven percent of those two cohorts named personal finance as their top goal, followed by wellness (50 percent), mental health (48 percent), family (44 percent) and work (43 percent), the poll of 1,824 people born between 1981 and 2012 found.

“Financial wellness is a huge part of your overall mental health,” certified financial planner Sue Gardiner told CNBC Make It. “Being in a strong financial position doesn’t mean you have everything to support your lifestyle right now, it means that you understand how you’re spending your money and understand your personal cash flow.”

Half of the members of Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1980, listed personal finance and wellness as their top personal goals for the year.

Increasing their savings was also on the minds of Gens Y and Z in 2024, with 59 percent naming that as a top financial goal. Paying off debt was named by 42 percent as a top financial goal, and sticking to a budget was cited by 41 percent. Other top financial goals included building an emergency fund (33 percent) and planning to invest more or grow investments (29 percent).

This poll was conducted between Sept. 15 and 18, 2023, among a sample of 4,017 adults with a household income of at least a $50,000-plus equivalent and travel by air at least once a year. Within this audience, American Express surveyed 1,824 GenZers and Millennials who are defined as respondents who were born between 1981 and 2012. The interviews were conducted online, and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on gender, age, race, educational attainment and region. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.