Survey:
Financial Stress

In June 2024, we surveyed more than 1,100 technology employees across the country to find out how people are feeling about their finances right now. Our survey asked two groups—people who work in technology and IT and people employed in other fields—several questions about their finances. The results paint a largely positive picture of current sentiment and reveal several interesting differences and similarities between the two groups.

People working in tech worry less about finances

Feeling stressed about your finances? You’re not alone. Never stressed? You most likely work in tech and are younger.

In our survey, 78% of non-tech workers reported feeling stressed about finances sometimes or all the time. Among tech workers, however, 41% say they never stress about their finances at all.

Credit card debt causes the most stress

The top three sources of financial stress for both groups are:

There is little that individuals can do to control inflation, but you can take control of your credit card debt and savings. The key actions for getting credit card debt under control are to stop making purchases with them (use a debit card or cash) and to increase your monthly payments. Check out the credit card debt calculator below to see how much interest you’ll avoid and how much quicker you can pay down your balance with even a slightly larger monthly payment.

As for building up savings, a simple step you can take is to set up automatic deposits into your savings account directly from your pay on the day you get paid. If you never see that money in the account you use for spending, you’ll be far less tempted to spend it, and your savings will steadily grow with every pay period. You can find more tips and advice on saving for an emergency fund here.

Most people use proven approaches to cope with financial stress
The number one technique for coping with money stress reported by both groups is the tried-and-true method of creating a budget. Making a plan for how you will spend your money and sticking to it remains one of the best ways to reduce this kind of anxiety. Need help getting started? Check out our budgeting basics webinar. 

Our survey also found that tech workers are 14% more likely to seek the advice of a financial professional than non-tech workers. No matter what you do in your job, all First Tech members are encouraged to set up a no-cost consultation to talk about their personal financial situation and goals.

However, the survey also found that a frighteningly high percentage of both groups (33% for tech workers and 28% non-tech) cope with financial stress by avoiding thinking about it. A better way to alleviate anxiety about money is to take a comprehensive look at your financial picture by creating a personal financial statement. A financial statement will allow you to see all your assets, income, liabilities, and expenses in one place and give you a clearer idea of how you are doing financially—and what you can work on to improve on it.

Positive feelings about current and future finances abound
Some really good news is that far more people feel much or somewhat better about their finances now compared to a year ago than feel worse about them.

Confidence is also very high as we look toward the future. Only a very small percentage of people overall lack confidence that they will be in better shape in three years.

Financial goals (mostly) align with sentiment

The top priority for tech workers is growing their investments (46%). For the others, building an emergency fund leads the list of financial goals. Both groups also place home improvement and remodeling as a high-priority goal for the next year.

Among the most puzzling findings is that even though credit card debt is the top cause of financial stress, paying down credit card debt is only a middle-of-the-pack priority. For both groups, that goal falls below saving for travel.

Older workers feel vastly different about their finances

The survey reveals several other interesting insights when looking at the answers from all respondents sorted by age group. Through this lens, it’s clear that people in the oldest age group, age 50 to 64, feel distinctly different about their finances than younger respondents. 

A mere 6% of the older cohort say they never stress about their finances, and 38% say they are constantly stressed. Younger groups were 16-25% more likely to report that they never feel money stress at all.

Meanwhile, among the oldest group, only 4% feel better and 27% feel worse about their finances than a year ago. Sentiment is the polar opposite (25% better and only 2% worse) within the 25-34 age group.

Many more workers in the 50-64 age group also feel less confident in their financial future.

Looking at the survey data by age suggests that older workers are feeling the pressure of time as the number of years they have until retirement grows smaller. On the other hand, it appears that younger workers in all fields are feeling pretty good about their finances right now and have a positive outlook about their financial futures.

Wherever you are in your career, a financial advisor can help you get an accurate picture of your financial situation and develop investment strategies that can reduce the level of stress and uncertainty in your financial life.

About the survey

The findings of our Financial Stress survey are based on an online survey of 1,134 technology and non-technology employees across the country conducted in June 2024. Participants ranged in age from 21 to 59 years old. 550 of survey participants were identified as working in technology or IT and 584 work in other fields.