The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s Investor Education Foundation published the sixth wave of the National Financial Capability Study, reporting an overall decline in U.S. adults’ ability to make ends meet and build emergency savings after improvements observed from 2009 through 2021. The findings attribute the deterioration mainly to increased costs rather than broad income declines and highlight a “struggle of the middle,” with many indicators showing households in the USD 25,000 to USD 75,000 income range sharing challenges typically associated with lower-income cohorts. On making ends meet, more adults reported spending more than their income, fewer said they were satisfied with their overall financial condition, and two-thirds said higher food costs forced cutbacks elsewhere. On planning ahead, the share reporting they had set aside enough to cover three months of expenses fell to 46% from 53% in 2021, and retirement saving differed sharply by education level, with 80% of college graduates reporting a retirement account versus 37% of those with no college experience. On managing financial products, 81% used mobile devices to access checking or savings accounts, the share who always paid credit cards in full each month fell to 53% (down six percentage points from 2021), and 23% reported using Buy Now, Pay Later in the past 12 months. Financial knowledge results were broadly steady versus 2021, including a five percentage point improvement in correctly answering the inflation question, and a new question found 20% of adults were interested in receiving financial advice from artificial intelligence. The FINRA Foundation scheduled a virtual press conference on the sixth-wave findings for 11 a.m. Eastern Time.

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