Despite an uptick in the economy, only about half of Americans are feeling positive about their finances, a new Gallup poll has found.
While that may not seem like much, it’s actually an improvement over the past two years.
The poll conducted in January showed 49% of Americans feel “pretty good’’ about the money they have to spend, the highest percentage since the monthly poll began in January 2013 and slightly better than a year ago.
Gallup asked Americans two questions for the survey: “Are you feeling pretty good these days about the amount of money you have to spend?’’ and “Are you feeling better about your financial situation?’’
Positive responses to the second question were also up, hitting the 50% mark for the first time in two years. That was quite a bit better than last January when only 43% said they were feel better about their finances and January of 2013 when 45% gave positive responses.
The questions have generally elicited the same level of response over the past two years. The lowest percentage for either question was in October 2013 amid the partial federal government shutdown, when economic confidence was especially weak.
Only 41% said they felt pretty good about the amount of money they had to spend during that time, compared with 39% who said they were feeling better about their financial situation.
Compared with a year ago, Americans across income groups are feeling better about their financial situation, with higher-income people feeling more optimistic than lower-income people.
However, the vast majority of people earning less than $24,000 still don’t consider themselves in good financial shape.
Only 38% of respondents from that lower income bracket said they are feeling better about their financial situation, compared with 32% a year ago. Even fewer, 29%, said they are feeling good about the money they have to spend, which was actually down a bit.
It’s a different story for higher-income residents. Among households earning more than $90,000 a year, 59% said they were happy with their financial situation and 66% said they were happy with their spending money, further evidence that the wealthier are faring better in the economic recovery than the poor.
Results of the Gallup poll were based on telephone interviews of 3,590 randomly sampled adults conducted Jan. 2-31 nationwide. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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