Datahead: The Reality of Today’s Financial Consumer
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39% say the economy is getting better. 35% say the worst is yet to come.
55% of the American public that paid little or no attention to the bank stress tests.
– KRC Research
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60% of Americans feel optimistic about the future of their finances
87% have changed their daily routine in an effort to save money
91% feel a sense of pride when they save money
36% envy those whose finances are stable
— SunTrust Bank’s “Solid Index”
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22% Percentage of the U.S. population that is considered Active Savers.
57% of Active Savers learned to save started at a young age.
— HSBC
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32% say that spending less will become their “new normal.”
— Gallup
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26% admit to not paying all of their bills on time.
32% say they have no savings.
— Washington Post
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$10,679 – Average household credit card debt in 2008.
13 million adults have been contacted by debt collectors, are seriously considering filing for bankruptcy, or have recently done so.
– Allstate-National Journal Heartland Monitor
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2,900 families lose their home each day.
– Washington Post
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54% said that they do not have a good relationship with any specific individual at their primary financial institution.
— 2006 IBT/MCA Market Pulse Survey
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This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.
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A couple of reactions to your data points:
– 32% say reduced spending is the “new normal’? Yeah, we’ll see. Lots of people start each saying they’re going to stop smoking, lose weight, etc. That doesn’t stick either. Let’s see what happens when the economy comes back and this 32% has more money in their pockets.
–2900 families lose their home every day. Would like to get more info about that stat. Does that include losing home to fires? Let’s keep in mind that w/ roughly 115 million households in the country, we’re still talking about less than 1% of all HH.
The perpetual problem with predictive market research like this — indeed the problem with people themselves — is that people don’t always do what they say. What these people are probably really saying is something more like, “I really mean to spend less in the future, but we’ll see.”
Also, if you ever want to look at the source of these data points, you can just click on the image.
I think reduced spending will be considered the norm. A lot of folks haven’t experience this type of economy in their lifetimes. Emotion is one of the greatest factors in decision-making. Fear is the emotion that a lot of people are feeling right now. This emotion is something that is not easy to forget. The fear of uncertainty will remain for years as this recession continues. A lot of hope has been deflated from the United States and outside the U.S. I think changed behavior is here to stay.