Financial Stress Slips, But Advisors Gain Ground

While finances aren’t topping their New Year’s resolutions lists, Americans are more likely to say they’ll seek the advice of a financial professional in 2015 than they were a year ago.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents to the sixth annual New Year’s Resolution Survey from Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America said they are more likely to seek the advice of a financial professional in 2015, up from 19% in 2013. More Americans (36%) also selected “financial professional” as their top choice if they had free access to assistance from a top professional, ahead of nutritionist/dietician (28%), personal trainer (23%) and career counselor (13%).

Nearly half (49%) of respondents said that health/wellness is the most important focus area for the upcoming year, up from 43% in 2013. Similarly, exercise/diet was highlighted as the top New Year’s resolution that most people said they would most likely make and keep (42%), ahead of managing money better (40%) spending more time with family/friends (32%) — and financial stability, which was named by just 30%. Only 15% said they planned to include financial planning in their New Year’s resolutions for the upcoming year, less than half the 33% who said so in 2009.

That doesn’t mean Americans aren’t feeling stress. Four in 10 respondents said they are “more stressed” compared with how they felt at the end of 2013, with a similar number (39%) saying that their level of stress was “about the same.” Fewer than a quarter (21%) said they were “less stressed” than they were going into 2014.   

As for the causes, more than a third of respondents (38%) said that “market uncertainty so I cannot confidently grow my retirement savings” was among their top two concerns. However, that concern was overshadowed by the 45% who identified “data breaches by big retailers that could trigger identity theft” as either their top or second ranked concern in 2014. This was followed by “ISIS and other terrorism threats that make me worry about safety and security” (43%) and “stagnant wages that prevent me from getting ahead financially” (42%). 

Obstacles standing in the way of achieving financial goals remained relatively consistent with prior years; “not saving any money” (28%), “spending too much on things not needed” (27%) and “saving some money, but not as much as I could” (24%) topped the list. Asked about the one thing they could do to improve their finances in 2015, most respondents said “pay off credit cards” (19%), followed by “build up my emergency savings” (17%) and “increase my retirement savings” (14%).