ANZ Bank has today released a survey of 12,000 Australians, which revealed that nearly 40% of respondents are “stressed-out” over money, with women typically more worried then men.
39% agree “even when things are going well for me financially, thinking about money stresses me out”.
Women tend to worry more than men, with 51% of female respondents saying they find dealing with money stressful and overwhelming, compared to 37% of men.
One third of respondents say worrying about finances causes sleepless nights (33%) and 39% feel anxious.
Most respondents say they have some form of financial fear; with the most common financial fears being not having enough money to live comfortably in the future (48%), and not being able to maintain their current lifestyle in the future (28%).
As part of the research, ANZ developed a Money Confidence Index which provides insights into the way different groups think and feel about money. The index score is out of 100, where:
0-33 = low money confidence
34-66 = medium money confidence
67-100 = high money confidence.
While the average index score for all people aged 18 years and over is 48.9, women score below average (45.8), and are more likely to have a low money confidence score than men:
The most common financial fears are not having enough money to live comfortably in the future (48%) and not being able to maintain their current lifestyle in the future (28%).A third of people say their financial situation has improved over the past 12 months, 22% say it has worsened.
79% of respondents who say their current financial situation is worse than 12 months ago are insecure and stressed about money matters (compared to 50% of overall respondents).
60% of people consider themselves financially secure, less than half agree: “If I had a major loss of income I could manage for 12 months”.
A quarter are not confident about their future financial security, tending to live pay-to-pay with little savings.
The top sources of financial stress are increased cost of living (61%), utility/electricity bills (42%) and petrol prices (30%).
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
