55% of Americans feel positive about their financial security: Survey

Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Troy Frerichs, VP of Investment Services at COUNTRY Financial, discuss the latest survey on financial security.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted people's financial security? Well, Country Financial is giving us some insights with its just released Financial Security Index. And here to break it down for us is Troy Frerichs. He is VP of Investment Services at Country Financial.

Troy, good to have you here. So I was going through these numbers, and I have to say, I was a little surprised. 55% of Americans rated their financial security positively during this pandemic. I mean, you see where the economy is. You see the number of job losses continuing to climb. Were you surprised by that number?

TROY FRERICHS: Yeah, Alexis. Thanks for having us. We've been doing this survey since 2007. And, you know, with this one, it's about the same as it was a year ago. So I think a lot of people are kind of reacting like you are and saying, hey, wait a minute. All of this is happening, and we're just as financially secure now as we were last year. But I think, you know, as you really get into it, when we did this was right after the election. So obviously, we've had a big third quarter in the economy, and the stock market's at all-time highs. Those things weigh in.

But the people who are financially secure tend to be the ones who have already done the things to put themselves in a position to be financially secure. They put a plan together. They save for retirement, or they've got an emergency fund. And they're really handling the things that are in their control, where a lot of us are running around, talking about the things that really aren't in our control. And I think that's probably why it's about the same as it was the prior year.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: You also asked folks about their biggest financial regrets. I like this one. 20% said they didn't-- they regretted spending too much during this year. And 17% said they didn't put enough into their emergency fund. But look at that. 61% say they had no financial regrets. Again, I'm scratching my head there. I think that's a lot of people feeling pretty good about what they did with their money this year.

TROY FRERICHS: Yeah, that is a great call out. And I think it's really an interesting thing, probably more in behaviors than anything else. And when you're looking at 55 saying they're financially secure, but 61% saying I've got no financial regrets this year at all, I think there might be a bit of a victim mentality in there a little bit. Hey, this year was so out of my control, I just-- I did the best I could with the situation. I'm like everybody else. They are all struggling. I'm struggling. And I think that's probably what's weighing in on why so many people saying, I couldn't have done a better job this year because it was just so crazy.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: What about when you look ahead to next year? Are people feeling pretty positive about their financial situation heading into the new year?

TROY FRERICHS: Yeah, you know, I think, again, this survey was done right before some of the vaccine news. But I think there was already a mentality that a vaccine would hopefully be here in 2021, and hope springs eternal. But when you look at over 70% of people saying it's going to be at least the same, if not better, I think that's pretty positive.

And I think the types of behaviors that they exhibit during 2020-- I cut back on spending, I paid my bills on time, I did what I needed to do-- hopefully sets the groundwork for when 2021 gets here. And hopefully, we're in a much more normal environment at some point in 2021 that those financial habits stick. And many more people are going to put themselves in the position for long-term success from a financial security standpoint.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, we're going to leave it there. Tory Frerichs, VP of Investment Services at Country Financial, thanks for being with us.

TROY FRERICHS: Thank you.