Women do not feel as comfortable about their financial situations as men, according to a study by the National Endowment for Financial Education released Thursday.
Nearly one-third (32 percent) of women feel the current quality of their financial lives are worse than they expected, while only one-quarter of men said the same, according to the endowment’s annual survey of consumer financial expectations.
In addition, 51 percent of women said they are living paycheck to paycheck, compared with 42 percent of men, according to the endowment, a nonprofit organization for financial education.
The good news from the survey of 2,030 American adults is that more people are resolving to make their financial lives better for 2019. Seventy-nine percent said they are making financial New Year’s resolutions, a 10 percent increase over the number who made the same vow for this year.
Slightly more than half of survey participants said that trying to save enough created their greatest financial stress in 2018. According to the survey, about two-thirds of U.S. adults said they experienced an unexpected financial setback in 2018 such as transportation costs, home repairs or medical expenses.
Twenty percent of those surveyed said they expect to pay less in income tax this year because of the tax law changes, while 38 percent expect to pay the same amount and 17 percent expect to pay more. The rest were unsure of the tax law impact.
Even though the market has experienced dramatic decreases lately, 38 percent of those surveyed in early December said they were not bothered by the volatility, while 26 percent said it adds to their stress level.