Why so stressed?

Despite the agreement among generations that personal finances impact mental health, the stressors' drivers differed. For example, Gen X is worried about saving for retirement  (52.5 percent), while Gen Z can’t save enough to buy a home. All the generations were worried about debt, with Boomers and Gen X more likely to worry about credit card debt, while about one-third of Millennials and Gen Z said they have too much non-credit card debt. 

‍

Gen X (23.9 percent) and Millennials (26.1 percent) were much more worried about losing their jobs than other generations.

We asked those who cited personal finances as a sort of stress about why they worry about finances. These are the top-cited reasons, by generation:

Homeowners are carrying an additional burden, and surprisingly only roughly half of people across generations said they could easily pay their mortgage each month —  hovering only around 54 across all generations.

‍

Nonetheless, homeowners overall were less likely to say personal finances had “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of an impact on their mental health, with 37.9 percent saying personal finances impacted their mental health “a great deal” or “quite a bit.” More than half (51.5 percent) of non-homeowners said the same.

‍

We asked homeowners which of these were true. They were able to select multiple answers.

The impact of financial stress

Well over one-third of people said they were losing sleep because of financial stress, and every generation reported strained relationships with family and friends or arguments with spouses/partners. Gen Z is the most likely to neglect their health with more than one-quarter saying they ignore health concerns and self-care activities, as well as foregoing healthy food to save money.

‍

Generations’ Solutions to Financial Stress

‍

Cutting out non-essential spending was the solution for everyone concerned about finances, with almost half of all respondents saying they’ve done that. While younger generations were most likely to seek a side hustle, more than a quarter (26.1%) of Baby Boomers cited that as a solution. 

‍

Overall, only 6.4 percent of all respondents said they sought financial advice on TikTok
—  but among Gen Zers, 15.8% have.

‍

Of course, the road to financial well-being is long, so we asked people what they do to manage that stress. Working out is the most popular way to alleviate stress. A surprising percentage of people got a pet to help manage that stress —  16.2 percent overall.

For this survey, we asked 1,085 people ages 21-80 who were working full- or part-time, or looking for work, about the impact different stressors had on their mental health. We defined the generations according to Pew Research’s definitions, and used Survey Monkey’s online panel. The survey was conducted from April 28, 2023-April 30, 2023.