Senior Advisor and Research Fellow, Consumer Finance Institute
March 2024
This report is the first in a quarterly series on key observations from the Labor, Income, Finances, and Expectations (LIFE) Survey. Data from the survey provide insight into consumers’ recent financial lives and their future expectations.
The data presented in the January 2024 LIFE Survey Report suggest that there are domains in which consumers express confidence and others in which they continue to express concern. We note several key observations about consumers’ financial lives over the past 12 months, including:
Respondents were more positive about their income prospects compared with one year earlier. One-third believed their income will increase, compared with 29 percent in January 2023.
Nearly 70 percent of respondents reported using a financial coping strategy in the last 12 months to help make monthly bill payments. Cutting discretionary expenses was the most common response.
About one in three employed respondents of working age were concerned in the next 30 days about exposure to illness at work.
Slightly more than one-third of respondents are concerned about making ends meet in the next six months, including nearly one-quarter of respondents who can currently pay all of their bills.
