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Financial Prospects Gain Optimism for Future, Fed Survey says

FedIndividuals' optimism regarding future financial prospects increased substantially from 2013 to 2014, while perceptions of current financial well-being improved only modestly, according to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve released Wednesday.

The Fed's 2014 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, which was completed by about 5,800 individuals last fall to provide insight into various aspects of Americans' personal finances such as economic security, banking, credit access and usage, housing, household debt (including education and student loan debt), savings, and preparedness for retirement.

The survey found that 65 percent of adult respondents said they were either "doing okay" or "living comfortably" as far as their personal finance situation, which represented an increase of 3 percentage points from the survey the previous year. Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents who said they expect their income to be higher in the next year jumped from 21 percent in 2013 to 29 percent in the 2014 survey.

"In general, the majority of the population is continuing to recover from the financial crisis and the effects it had on their personal finances and financial well-being," the Fed wrote in the report.

Despite the reasons for optimism, however, the Fed said the survey's findings "highlight that economic challenges remain for a significant portion of the population." The survey indicated that many Americans are not prepared for economic emergencies or for the future. Just more than half of survey respondents, 53 percent, said they would be able to cover an emergency expense costing $400 without borrowing money or selling something. Nearly one-third of respondents said they have done without some type of medical care they needed in the last year because they could not afford it. Also, 49 percent of part-time workers surveyed and 36 percent of all workers surveyed said they prefer to work more hours at the same rate of pay if they could.

Further indicating a lack of financial preparedness, the survey found that 31 percent of non-retirees (almost a quarter of them over age 45) had no retirement savings or pension. Less than half of adults who said they were saving for retirement said they were "mostly" or "very" confident they could make the right investment decisions to manage the money they saved. Thirty-eight percent of respondents who were not retired said they had no plans to retire, and among households with an income of less than $40,000 per year, 55 percent of respondents said they have no plans to retire or plan to keep working as long as possible.

Homeowners generally remained positive in their attitudes toward housing; 43 percent of respondents said they believe the value of their house increased in the last year, while 39 percent said they expect home values to rise in their neighborhood in the coming year. Many of the respondents who rent said they wanted to buy a home but could not due to financial barriers; about half said the inability to afford a down payment was the biggest barrier to homeownership, while about 31 percent said the inability to qualify for a mortgage was their main reason for renting.

Also according to the survey, 23 percent of adult respondents said they had some form of education debt, though it was not exclusively student loan debt; 14 percent of those with education debt said that some of the debt was on credit cards.

For complete survey results, click here.

About Author: Seth Welborn

Seth Welborn is a Harding University graduate with a degree in English and a minor in writing. He is a contributing writer for MReport. An East Texas Native, he has studied abroad in Athens, Greece and works part-time as a photographer.
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