A worrying percent of Americans, nearly half of them, are not interested in financial planning. Those who do have some plan are informal about it, but the same survey shows that they also want to keep improving.
The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co study shows that 38% of people describe themselves as being ‘informal’ when asked regarding the financial planning. This shows that they have some far goals they want to achieve, as well as a general idea about them, but they haven’t built any plan for achieving them yet. Another 7% say that they have no special plans and no goals for their financial future.
Greg Oberland, executive vice president of Northwestern Mutual says that the survey shows ‘that many Americans don’t know how to get to their financial goals’ even though they see value in them. He also says that it is important to both have a plan for developing the goal and to have the specific financial goal. This can be applied in the health sector, the career sector, as well as in the financial security.
Conducted by Ipsos, the study shows that most of Americans are very cautious with their finances. They are aware of the presence of risks, so the finances are on top of minds. ‘’…people are still risk-averse’’, said Oberland. He also says that having a financial plan helps people put risk in the right perspective and offers diverse, flexible options with time.
The survey also concluded that most Americans prefer the low risk, lower return but safe investments, as 40% of respondents prefer not to risk their savings. Only 25% of respondents prefer a higher return, even though the risk is also higher. 62% of Americans are doing something in order to pay off their debts, another 61% are trying to develop their budget, 58% fight to save a part of the paycheck on a regular basis, 58% are working to save up some emergency fund, while 56% of Americans maintain financial documents.
The study was sponsored by Northwestern Mutual in order to find the financial planning’s state in America. One of the study’s goals was to also evaluate the progress Americans have had in planning and achieving financial goals over a long term. The survey was conducted by Ipsos on 1,015 Americans, 25 years old or older starting with 2nd of Feb and finishing with 13th of Feb using a proper random sample of U.S. adults.
