Despite Cloudy Economic Picture Consumers Feeling More Financially Secure
This entry was posted on 10/17/2007 11:43 AM and is filed under Psychology.
BLOOMINGTON, Ill., October
16, 2007 /PRNewswire/ — The COUNTRY Financial Security Index continued it's
upward swing in October, rising 1.3 points to 69.9, as Americans felt more
confident in nearly all aspects of their financial security. The latest boost
took the Index to its second highest reading of the year, just short of the
70.2 recorded in February.
The COUNTRY Index records
the perceived financial security of respondents on a scale of 0-100 with 100
indicating the highest level of security. It is based upon responses to a
series of baseline survey questions asked in a national survey of at least
3,000 randomly selected American adults every other month.
"Americans aren't
letting recent news about a credit crunch, changing interest rates and
predictions of a recession drive how they feel about their own financial
security," says Keith Brannan, director of the financial security office
at COUNTRY. "Instead, the news may be prompting people to pay closer
attention to their family's financial situation. Some may have discovered
they're in good financial shape, while others may have been spurred to save
more for the future."
Americans Upbeat about Finances in October
— Fifty-one% of Americans rated their personal level of financial security favorably, up three points from August. Further, 17% rated their financial security as excellent, marking the most Americans to feel this way since the COUNTRY Index began this year.
— The number of people able to set aside money for savings or investments increased two points to 55%.
— Debt concerns continued to subside in October, as the number confident in their ability to pay all their debts as they come due rose another two points to 81%.
Retirement and College Funding Prospects Spike
— Those confident in their ability to send their children to college (70%) and to have enough money to enjoy a comfortable retirement (65%) both rose two points in October to the highest they have been since the COUNTRY Index launched early this year.
The COUNTRY Financial
Security Index is a bi-monthly measure of Americans' sentiments toward their
overall financial security. It is an aggregate of various factors comprising
financial security including savings and investments, financial planning,
retirement, education and asset protection. The next COUNTRY Financial Security
Index will be released on December 11, 2007 and subsequently every other month.
The COUNTRY Index was
created by COUNTRY Insurance & Financial Services and is compiled by
Rasmussen Reports, LLC, an independent research firm, based on a national
telephone survey of at least 3,000 Americans. The margin of sampling error for a survey
based on this many interviews is approximately +/- 3 percentage points with a
95 percent level of confidence.
