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The Cure for Money Stress? Earning (at Least) $100,000 a Year
By Adam Hardy MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
For reference, median earnings in the U.S. for 2024 are about $60,000.
Even though wages are growing and inflation is cooling, more Americans are getting anxious about their money, new research shows.
Half of Americans now report that the overall state of the economy as well as their own personal finances are their biggest sources of stress, according to a wealth report released Monday by the investment and financial planning firm Edelman Financial Engines.
“There’s no question that the economic and social pressures Americans have faced in recent years continued to mount in 2024,” the authors wrote. “Money issues still loom large as a top source of stress.”
Specifically, 48% of respondents told Edelman that their personal financial situation was their biggest source of stress, an increase from recent years. In 2023, 46% rated that as a top stressor, and in 2022 — the first year of Edelman’s survey — 43% said the same. The latest report was based on responses from over 3,000 Americans at least 30 years old.
No money worries: How much income would it take?
This year, Edelman asked respondents how much they would need to earn to not worry about everyday living expenses.
About 6 in 10 Americans reported that they would need a salary of at least $100,000 to stop stressing so much about money. For a quarter of respondents, it would take more than $200,000.
Most Americans earn nowhere near those amounts. For reference, median earnings in the U.S. for 2024 are about $60,000.
In particular, younger Americans were far more likely than older ones to say they would need a six-figure salary to calm their money anxieties. For example, 71% of 30-somethings said they’d require at least $100,000, and a third of respondents in that age group cited $200,000 or more.
Aside from basic peace of mind, Edelman also asked about how much money it would take to “feel wealthy.” Some 65% said at least $1 million, and 19% said at least $5 million. Only 12% of respondents said they consider themselves wealthy right now — a dip of 2 percentage points from last year.
The public’s souring mood on their finances runs counter to many headlines about the state of the economy.
Over the past few years, inflation dropped from its 9.1% peak in June 2022 down to 2.5% last month. So far this year, wage growth has comfortably outpaced inflation, averaging about 5% each month. The Federal Reserve just delivered its first long-awaited interest rate cut, making borrowing money a little more affordable for consumers and sending a clear signal that the nation’s central bankers believe inflation is subsiding.
Still, people’s financial anxiety is persisting — and even growing. That’s likely due to the cumulative effect of inflation, or in other words, the totality of price hikes since the start of COVID-19 crisis.
“For consumers, 2%, 3%, 4% don’t really mean anything,” Sofia Baig, an economist at Morning Consult, recently told Money. “What they’ve experienced is actually around like a 20% increase in prices since the pandemic, which is kind of shocking.”
To her point, Labor Department data shows that the overall cost of living has skyrocketed nearly 22% since March 2020. The cost of housing — one of Americans’ biggest monthly expenses — has run even hotter, at about 24%.
“Inflation has been the dominant concern across America,” the Edelman report states. “Even in 2024, it remains at the forefront of Americans’ minds.”
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Adam Hardy is Money's lead data journalist. He writes news and feature stories aimed at helping everyday people manage their finances. He joined Money full-time in 2021 but has covered personal finance and economic topics since 2018. Previously, he worked for Forbes Advisor, The Penny Hoarder and Creative Loafing. In addition to those outlets, Adam’s work has been featured in a variety of local, national and international publications, including the Asia Times, Business Insider, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Yahoo! Finance, Nasdaq and several others. Adam graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Florida, where he studied magazine journalism and sociology. As a first-generation college graduate from a low-income, single-parent household, Adam understands firsthand the financial barriers that plague low-income Americans. His reporting aims to illuminate these issues. Since joining Money, Adam has already written over 300 articles, including a cover story on financial surveillance, a profile of Director Rohit Chopra of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and an investigation into flexible spending accounts, which found that workers forfeit billions of dollars annually through the workplace plans. He has also led data analysis on some of Money’s marquee rankings, including Best Places to Live, Best Places to Travel and Best Hospitals. He regularly contributes data reporting for Best Colleges, Best Banks and other lists as well. Adam also holds a multimedia storytelling certificate from Poynter’s News University and a data journalism certificate from the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) at the University of Missouri. In 2017, he received an English teaching certification from the University of Cambridge, which he utilized during his time in Seoul, South Korea. There, he taught students of all ages, from 5 to 65, and worked with North Korean refugees who were resettling in the area. Now, Adam lives in Saint Petersburg, Florida, with his pup Bambi. He is a card-carrying shuffleboard club member.