UCI

Personal Finances

With a lack of income growth in Orange County being the norm in recent years, while consumer confidence has risen sharply, what are residents' perceptions of their finances? We repeated questions from previous Orange County Annual Surveys and a recent national survey to gain some perspectives on this issue. Even though Orange County residents today are showing no improvement in their standing compared to the early 1990s, they nonetheless feel better about their finances than the rest of the nation.

About a quarter of Orange County residents say they worry about money very often, while a third say they worry about their personal finances fairly often. Four in 10 say they seldom worry about money. Financial worries are unchanged from the 1992 survey, which was at a low point in the recession, even though the five-question Consumer Confidence Index has improved markedly in four years. Also, residents today worry much more often about their personal finances than they did 10 years ago. Graph

About a third of Orange County residents say they have enough money to save and buy extras, while half have just enough to pay the bills and one in six do not have enough to pay their bills. Graph

Compared to a 1996 New York Times Poll, Orange County residents are more likely than Americans nationwide to feel they have enough money to save and buy extras (32% to 24%) and less likely to report that they have just enough to pay the bills (51% to 57%). There is little difference from the nation, however, in the perception that there is not enough money to pay the bills (17% to 19%).

Perceptions of personal finances, of course, vary by household income. Significant differences by region, age and ethnicity largely mirror these powerful income trends. Thirty-five percent of those earning less than $36,000 say they worry about money very often, compared with 22 percent in the $36,000 to $79,999 group and 17 percent in the $80,000 or more income category. Also, 54 percent of those with incomes of $80,000 or more do not often worry about money, compared to 42 percent in the $50,001 to $79,999 bracket, and 36 percent in the $50,000 or under income category.

For those in households earning under $36,000 a year, 30 percent complain that they do not have enough money to pay the bills, compared to 15 percent of those in the $36,000 to $50,000 bracket and only 7 percent in the over-$50,000 bracket. Also, 57 percent of those in the $80,000 or more income group feel that have enough money to save and buy extras, compared to 40 percent in the $50,001 to $79,999 bracket, 27 perce nt in the $36,000 to $50,000 group and only 14 percent in the under $36,000 category.