Are those who find it difficult to manage finances more likely to be distracted by those concerns at work, or are those more likely to be distracted at work more likely to find it difficult to manage their finances?
A new survey conducted by MassMutual finds that roughly 1 in 20 find it very difficult to manage their finances and selecting benefits, another third (32%) find it “somewhat difficult” and roughly equal numbers say that they are distracted by thoughts and concerns about their personal finances at work, though no causal link is established here.
Men are more likely to say they think it’s easy to manage their finances and claim to be less distracted by their finances than women, but among generations, Millennials who have difficulty managing finances (47%) and who are distracted at work by those finances (58%), far outnumber Boomers (28% and 24%, respectively) or Gen Xers (41% and 47%, respectively) in those categories.
Those who are distracted by their finances spend more time on their finances and their employer-provided benefits and find it much more difficult to manage their finances — and those who are distracted are also less satisfied with their benefits, according to the report.
Conversely, those who know more about their benefits are more satisfied with them, and those who are not distracted by their finances are also more satisfied with their benefits. However, only about a quarter (26%) are very satisfied with their benefits, with another 61% “somewhat” satisfied.
A whopping 8 in 10 are not currently using an online tool to help them manage their finances, and a third of those have no interest in doing so in the future (26% don’t know).
While respondents indicated that they were knowledgeable about which employer-sponsored benefits were important to them (89%), and how much they were spending on those benefits (81%), they were not nearly as knowledgeable as to whether they were on track to retire comfortably (58%), and how much they should be spending on those benefits (51%).
They were much more knowledgeable about here-and-now financial concerns like checking/savings account balances (92%), credit card and APR rates (69%) and credit score (61%) than retirement savings balance (55%) — which was still well above things like the current status of the stock market (23%), and who had won recent sports championship titles (33%).
However, asked why they haven’t learned more about their finances, a quarter (24%) said they had learned enough already. Another 22% said they know everything they need to know about their finances. Those that admit they don’t know everything cite difficulty in understanding (13%), not enough time (10%), a lack of information about where to go (9%), and not knowing who to trust (6%) as the reasons for not knowing more.
On the other hand, more than one in five (21%) find it not difficult at all, and another 42% say it is not very difficult.
KRC Research conducted this survey (which seems to have been done, at least in part, in support of a new offering from MassMutual) from July 17-24, 2015 via an online survey of 1,517 adults in the U.S., including an oversample of 501 hispanics, who are full-time employees at companies that provide benefits.
