Inflation is making financial lives WORSE for 2/3 of Americans

It's a fact that inflation decreased in 2023, but it's also a fact that inflation has made the financial situations of almost two thirds of Americans worse. That's according to the 11th annual economic wellbeing report released today by the federal reserve. This report has a ton of interesting details, which I'm going to tell you all about in this video. So first you need to understand the numbers I'm about to share with you are for last year, 2023, the fed surveyed 11,000 households in October of that year. Those numbers produce this 82 page report that describes the financial wellbeing of Americans in lots of different categories. It's a snapshot of American life that the fed and the government will use when making economic decisions. So I'm just going to rattle off some of the key findings in the report. The report says inflation made the financial lives worse for 65% of us households when compared to 2022 among that group, 19% said it was much worse. Sky-high housing costs were reflected in this report with 19% of renters reporting that they were behind on their rent. At some point in 2023, that's up two percentage points from 2022. The report also found the median monthly rent payment was up 10% compared to 2022, 19% of those surveyed said they were just getting by financially and 9% said they were finding it difficult to get by financially on the flip side, 72% of adults surveyed said they were doing at least okay financially in 2023. That means they reported either doing okay or were living comfortably. That is a similar number to 2022 and 73% said the same. Now, believe it or not, in the last 10 years of this report, the highest number of Americans reporting that they were at least doing okay financially was in 2021 when 78% said that. Now, if we take that number and that year in context, remember, that was right around the time when Americans were receiving those stimulus payments. One third of those surveyed in the 2023 report said inflation was the biggest cause of financial stress. The second biggest was living expenses and the third was housing. 31% of those surveyed said they did not have any financial challenges or concerns. Inflation was also the main stressor in 2022. When it comes to income, 34% of adults said their family's monthly income increased in 2023 when compared to 2022. But at the same time, 38% said their monthly expenses also increased. That means fewer adults had any wiggle room in their monthly budget. In fact, 17% of the adults surveyed said they did not pay all their bills in full the month before the survey. The most common bills that were not paid in full water, gas, and electric people, by the way, were more likely to pay their phone, internet, or cable bill. The report also studied a brand new category this year, food stability. It found 21% of adults with a family income of less than $25,000 a year said members of their household sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the past month. 10% of those with a family income between 25 and $50,000 said the same. So when you take this report in totality, most of the main results are very similar to 2022. Some are slightly better. Some are slightly worse, but there's nothing really dramatic about it. But if you want to read this report for yourself, I will email it out to you tonight in my news girl news roundup email. So make sure you sign yourself up.