Results of the recently released Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) survey on the financial well-being of American consumers revealed more than 40 percent struggle to make ends meet.
CFPB officials said the National Financial Well-Being Survey was conducted in 2016, with participants responding to a series of questions, as well as a host of other measures related to individual, household, and family characteristics; income and employment; savings and safety nets; financial experiences; and money behaviors, skills and attitudes.
CFPB officials said that upon answering the 10 questions provided, consumers were given a score from 0-100, with the average consumer score being
54.
Of the nationally representative sample of consumers surveyed, 43 percent of consumers report struggling to pay bills and over one third of all consumers surveyed reported experiencing material hardships in the past year.
As a means of assisting consumers, CFPB officials said the agency is releasing an interactive online tool to enable people to evaluate their own financial well-being and explore ways to take control of their finances.
The tool allows consumers to use the financial well-being scale to gauge their resulting financial well-being score online, track their financial well-being score over time or see how they compare to other consumers nationally, including by income, age, and employment status.