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19 May 2017
Fed: Americans' overall financial well-being in 2016 continued on a modest upward path
Key quotes from the Federal Reserve Board's latest Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households:
- Americans' overall financial well-being in 2016 continued on a modest upward path, although the improvement was less pronounced for those with less education
- The survey findings remind us that many American households are struggling financially, including fully 40 percent of those with a high school diploma or less
- Twenty-three percent of adults did not expect to be able to pay all of their current month's bills in full; 25 percent reported skipping medical treatments due to cost in the prior year
- Seventeen percent of workers, including 24 percent of those with a high-school education or less, report that their schedule varies from week to week based on employers' needs
- Fifty-three percent of adults with self-directed retirement accounts were either "not comfortable" or only "slightly comfortable" in their ability to make the right investment decisions about those accounts