MX’s latest survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults, conducted in January 2026, outlines a financial reality defined by tension rather than extremes. Consumers are neither thriving nor failing. They are navigating trade-offs in the form of a hierarchy of financial needs — balancing stability, progress, and long-term aspiration amid ongoing economic uncertainty.
At the start of 2026, rising costs, economic unpredictability, and persistent financial pressure coexist with a surprising degree of optimism and resolve. Consumers feel strain, but they also feel agency. They experience stress, yet they continue to set goals.
MX’s research shows financial health is not a fixed state, but a hierarchy of needs building upon one another. And, much like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, consumers must satisfy their basic base-level financial needs before addressing higher level growth needs. The finance hierarchy places stability first, progress second, and long-term security last.
At the base is stability: covering bills and managing day-to-day obligations. Above that sits progress: improving credit, reducing debt, and building savings. At the top is security: investing in retirement, paying down major loans, and building long-term wealth. Rather than asking whether consumers are doing well, this report examines the data behind how Americans prioritize needs, manage stress, and define progress.
Key Finding #1: Stability Is the Foundation of Financial Health
For many consumers, financial health begins with maintaining equilibrium. Before wealth-building or long-term planning, the priority is staying afloat. Daily financial stability outweighs aspirational goals.
Key Finding #2: Optimism Remains High, Especially among Younger Generations
Seventy-two percent of consumers say they are optimistic or very optimistic about achieving their top financial goal in 2026.
Even amid stress, optimism persists. Gen Z (80%) and Millennials (76%) report the highest levels of confidence in achieving their financial goals, suggesting that belief in personal agency remains strong.
Key Finding #3: Financial Stress Is Widespread, but Not Universal
Financial anxiety shapes behavior and emotional well-being for many Americans. Yet one-third report that money is not a stressor at all, highlighting a polarized emotional landscape.
Key Finding #4: Intentions to Save Are Strong — but Fragile
Savings is a near-universal aspiration, yet execution remains inconsistent. Consumers want to build cushions, but meeting the usability needs at the base of the financial hierarchy often delay savings goals.
Key Finding #5: Consumers Want Clear Signals of Financial Health
While many track their finances in some way, consumers are looking for clarity about where they stand.
Optimism and Stress Coexist
Financial confidence is present — even when conditions are difficult.
Many consumers feel hopeful about their future while simultaneously feeling strained in the present.
When asked what category their 2026 New Year’s resolution fell in, more than 1 in 4 consumers (26%) said their goal was related to finance. In fact, financial goals were second only to health goals, and financial goals were more prevalent among younger generations.
Regardless of overall resolutions for the year ahead, most consumers report having a financial goal for 2026. And, these goals reflect the hierarchy of consumers' financial priorities. The most common answers were practical examples of maintaining a financial equilibrium — like paying bills and credit card debt. When those needs are met, consumers can focus on saving for future purchases — the next level in the finance hierarchy. The last tier is filled with those secure enough in their daily concerns and their savings to focus on paying off their larger loans on cars and homes.
Regardless of the goal, most consumers remain optimistic.
Nearly 3 in 4 (72%) consumers say they are either optimistic or very optimistic they can achieve their top financial goal in 2026.
Digging even further, different groups show even greater levels of optimism. For example, men (74%) report being more optimistic about their financial goals than women (68%). Additionally, younger generations hold significantly higher optimism than their older generation counterparts. Gen Z lead the way with 80% feeling optimistic about their goals, with Millennials close behind at 76%. On the flip side, only 64% of Gen X and 67% of Baby Boomers are optimistic about achieving their goals.
Of the consumers who are optimistic about reaching their financial goals in 2026, the most common reasons center on their personal agency rather than forces outside their control. The top reasons consumers feel optimistic are:
But optimism alone doesn’t define financial health — what matters is whether consumers can maintain stability.
Stability Comes Before Progress
Consumers measure financial health by whether they’re holding steady.
If optimism involves looking ahead to the future, stability reflects today’s reality. Looking back at 2025, most consumers describe mixed progress toward their financial goals.
When we asked consumers how they felt they did on achieving their financial goals in 2025, respondents said:
Similar to reports of optimism for goals in 2026, men reported higher levels of success for their goals in 2025 than women. In fact, 47% of men said they at least met most of their financial goals in 2025, compared to 36% of women saying the same.
Across generations, we see a slight change in the pattern from optimism in 2026, as the middle generations reported less success in achieving their 2025 goals than the youngest and the oldest generations. Gen Z (44%) and Baby Boomers (51%) reported meeting most of their financial goals in 2025. On the other hand, only 40% of Millennials and 28% of Gen X reported meeting most of their financial goals last year.
When we asked consumers what impacted their progress in their financial goals, the most cited factors impacting goal achievement were:
But, whatever the group, whatever the reason, the pattern is clear. Fully meeting financial goals is rare, but so is a failure to meet any of these goals. Partial progress is the norm, but should be approached as an opportunity for financial institutions to fill in the gaps and positively impact their customers’ financial lives.
When stability is fragile, stress becomes unavoidable.
Financial Anxiety Shapes Behavior
Money is the dominant stressor, but responses vary.
Financial stress remains widespread and deeply felt. More than half (51%) of U.S. adults agree that money is their main source of stress. Beyond that, 49% say thinking about their finances makes them anxious. This stress directly shapes behavior.
Many feeling the financial strain do so because their financial needs reside in the base of the hierarchy. In fact, 40% of consumers agree they struggle to make ends meet.
Importantly, 62% consider themselves to be living paycheck to paycheck. For many, that does not mean missing bills — it means being unable to build additional savings or wealth in a typical month. Others define it more precariously: 20% say it means being unable to pay monthly bills without the next paycheck.
When asked to rank sources of stress, foundational needs — or the base layer of the financial needs hierarchy — dominate. Paying bills and maintaining an emergency savings fund most frequently rank as the top stressors. Higher-order goals, like saving for retirement or understanding how to optimize finances, tend to rank as less immediately stressful.
The Intent to Save Is Strong — Execution Is Fragile
Consumers aspire to resilience, but trade-offs are constant.
Both optimism and anxiety drive the desire to save. So whether it is to achieve goals or stem fears, savings goals are the first place consumers allocate any extra dollars.
When consumers have extra money at the end of the month, many direct that money toward some kind of savings goal.
However, while the intention to save is strong, many consumers report having trouble with the execution. Nearly 1 in 5 (18%) consumers say they never have money left over at the end of the month.
And, it is not always bills and necessities that contribute to consumers not having any extra money to put towards savings. Consumers’ spending patterns can reinforce how small, recurring behaviors shape outcomes.
We asked consumers to identify any areas they allocate budget to non-essential spending. This is what they said:
Most consumers report budgeting modestly for non-essential spending, with 60% of consumers saying they allocate $100 or less per month. So, this indicates that the top 2 self-identified worst financial habits might not be as detrimental to consumers' financial goals as they sound. On the flip side, coming in a close third for worst financial habits at 24% was not saving for the future.
In the end, more consumers identify as a saver (32%) than a spender (20%), but most (46%) say they land somewhere between the two. While goals and intentions guide many toward savings, the reality of managing personal finances often leave people a little short of that ideal.
Even engaged consumers struggle to translate awareness into action.
Awareness Without Clarity
Consumers are engaged — but still lack direction.
Across all levels of the financial hierarchy, consumers are engaged, but engagement isn’t translating into control. They are checking balances, reviewing transactions, and in many cases — actively trying to manage their money. But, awareness alone is not leading to better outcomes
Money management behaviors reflect a wide spectrum of engagement.
We asked consumers to reflect on how they manage their money today, and they said:
Even among those who do engage, approaches often vary. Some rely on budgeting tools and apps (16%), others on spreadsheets or manual processes (21%), while the majority default to checking individual accounts (37%). While more than 1 in 5 (22%) consumers say they don’t track their finances, most consumers are putting in the effort to understand where their money is going.
But, these efforts are up against more obstacles than just budgeting. Consumers have to contend with a multifaceted view of their finances, as most hold multiple accounts across multiple providers. The average consumer holds between 3 and 4 (3.6) financial accounts across multiple financial institutions.
While 76% identify a primary financial institution, only 25% say they keep all of their accounts there. Instead, finances are distributed across providers, products, and platforms — making it difficult to form a complete picture.
As a result, the deck is stacked against even the most financially engaged consumers, leaving them to often operate without clarity. Consumers can see pieces of their financial life, but not how those pieces connect or the context of the whole picture.
This signals a gap between access and understanding. Consumers do not necessarily need more data. They need tools that bring their financial lives into focus, connect fragmented information, and translate activity into meaningful insight.
Consumers don’t need more data, they need help making sense of it.
The Search for Guidance and a Trusted Signal
Consumers are looking for direction, not just information.
If awareness highlights the problem, the demand for guidance points to the solution.
Consumers aren’t looking for more information — they’re looking for direction, that feels actionable, not evaluative. Consumer interest in a financial health score is strong, with 64% saying they would want to know their score. But, that interest comes with hesitation.
The appeal of a score lies in simplification. Consumers want a single, understandable signal that helps them make sense of their financial position.
The primary reasons that consumers want a financial wellness score are:
At the same time, those who do not want to know their score cite reasons of usefulness and potential bad news.
These concerns point to a deeper truth. Consumers don’t want judgment, they want guidance.
What they expect from that guidance is grounded in fundamentals. If a financial health score existed, consumers would want it to bring together the variety of aspects of their financial lives. Consumers on average identified more than 4 factors they would want to be considered in their financial health score.
This expectation extends beyond scores to the broader role of financial providers. Most consumers still anchor their financial lives around one or two primary institutions, driven by everyday behaviors like direct deposit, bill pay, and frequent account access. These daily interactions create an opportunity — and an expectation — for providers to do more than facilitate transactions.
Consumers are not asking for more products. They are asking for help making sense of what they already have. They want tools that translate financial data into direction, that surface what matters most, and that help them move from stability toward progress.
Closing the Gap Between Effort and Outcome
Financial health in 2026 is defined less by extremes and more by tension — between optimism and stress, intention and execution, and access and clarity. Most consumers have financial goals and nearly 3 in 4 are optimistic about achieving them, driven by a belief in their own agency. Yet many remain focused on the base of the financial hierarchy: covering bills, managing daily expenses, and preparing for the unexpected.
Financial health is not a fixed state but a balancing act between stability and progress. Consumers are trying to move forward, but not as consistently as they would like. The gap isn’t intent — it’s support. Competing priorities, fragmented finances, and limited clarity make it difficult to turn good intentions into outcomes.
This creates a clear opportunity. The most effective solutions will prioritize stability first, then enable progress — reducing friction, increasing clarity, and helping consumers move forward with confidence.
Survey Methodology
This survey of 1,001 American adults was conducted by MX in January 2026 using an online survey platform. Results included an even split in responses across each generation, as well as gender (male and female) and White and non-White (Asian, Black, Hispanic, or Other) respondents.