Americans are getting their finances back on track.
While enduring the global financial crisis and subsequent recession forced many workers to put off retirement and young people to put off buying homes and starting families, a recent survey from the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) suggests the trend of delaying major life events due to financial concerns is abating.
The number of Americans putting off a major life decision due to money worries has declined to 35 percent this year, down from 51 percent in AICPA’s 2015 survey.
In 2015, 18 percent of the survey’s respondents reported delaying retirement because of financial reasons, this year, just 10 percent said that money issues were causing them to push back their retirement plans. The number of Americans postponing a medical procedure due to their finances dropped from 19 percent in 2015 to 12 percent this year.
For Americans postponing major life decisions, the most commonly cited reason was a lack of savings, named by 60 percent of respondents experiencing delays – a result that remained consistent between this year’s survey and the 2015 survey.
This year, the second most commonly cited reason for delaying life events was concern about the U.S. economy, named by 38 percent of respondents, down from 50 percent in 2015.
More Americans are beginning to struggle with their medical costs, according to the survey, with 34 percent naming medical expenses as the reason for delaying a life goal this year compared to 29 percent in 2015. Additional reasons for delaying life events included monthly bills, credit card debt, caregiving for a lived one, concerns about job disruptions and difficulty making mortgage payments.
Life events faced by millennials and other young people are approximately half as likely to be delayed today than they were in 2015. For example, the number of Americans putting off marriage dropped to six percent from 12 percent in 2015. Similarly, the number of Americans putting off having children dropped to 7 percent compared to 13 percent in 2015.
In 2015, 24 percent of Americans reported delaying higher education due to financial concerns, but in AICPA’s recent survey that number had dropped to 13 percent.
Other areas of decision-making experienced less change since 2018. For example, in 2018, 14 percent of Americans said that they were delaying buying a home for financial reasons, down from 22 percent in 2015.