Financial stress varies based on age and income level, new survey says

SALT LAKE CITY — 2020 was a stressful year thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2021 has sadly continued a lot of that stress related to the ongoing effort to get back to whatever we remember as normal.

MoneyGeek, a personal finance website, asked 1,200 Americans in a recent study to be honest and gauge their stress over their monthly budget and family finances.

And it’s an interesting breakdown based on the generational concerns and income levels — basically the older you get and the more money you make, your stress doesn’t go away. it just changes.

Overall, it’s pretty spread out. Nearly one in five Americans (19%) said the greatest stress is saving for retirement, and a close second place was managing credit card debt.

Paying the mortgage or the rent came in third followed closely by student loan payments weighing heavily on the minds of many.

The rest had to do with health care, lack of stable income and day-to-day expenses.

But if you break it down by age, those in Generation Z and Millennials — those between the age of 18 and 34 — said student loan debt by far was their biggest concern.

The reason being is that student loan debt has ballooned to more than $1.5 trillion owed. The average family now owes $58,000 and since the Great Recession in 2010, the amount students and former students owe has doubled.

The second most stressful thing to the younger generations? Managing credit card debt.

Interesting to note the income level effect that once you make more than 75 thousand dollars a year, your number one concern has to do with saving for retirement.

Here’s something that might sound a little shocking — Generation X is looking to start retiring in about 10 years.