Survey Results Showed Overall Personal Financial Optimism Among Operation HOPE Clients Year-Over-Year Despite Consistent Concerns Over the Direction of the Broader Economy & Impact of Cost of Everyday Goods
Operation HOPE, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping low- and moderate-income Americans thrive in an ever-changing economy, released the 2024 Annual Report of its comprehensive nationwide client survey - The HOPE Insider - commemorating the first full year since the quarterly survey was launched in November 2023. With the newest data from the fourth quarter of 2024, The HOPE Insider’s Annual Report offers for the first time a whole-year snapshot of how thousands of Operation HOPE clients view their overall personal financial wellbeing, the state of the economy and the impact of housing and business trends.
Key insights from the 2024 Annual Report include:
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HOPE: Respondents were asked each quarter how hopeful they were about each of the following over the next year – their work/career, personal financial wellbeing, small business growth in their community, and housing prices in their community | |||||
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Overall, 77% or more respondents each quarter said they were “very hopeful” or “somewhat hopeful” that their work/career would improve and that their financial wellbeing would increase over the next year | |||||
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A smaller percentage (between 42% and 68% overall) were as hopeful about small business growth and housing prices that would allow for greater homeownership over the next year | |||||
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EVERYDAY LIFE: Respondents were asked each quarter which factor has most impacted their life in the preceding three months – rising debt levels, cost of everyday goods, cost of housing, or work/job dissatisfaction | |||||
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Starting in the second quarter of 2024, cost of everyday goods jumped to the top as the factor most impacting respondents’ lives as well as the most worrisome in the future – rising above previous top concerns about rising debt levels and cost of housing | |||||
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DEBT & INCOME: Respondents were asked each quarter which type of debt is the most financially stressful or burdensome – credit cards, auto loans, medical debt, student loans, personal loans, small business debt, mortgage, tax debt or payday loans | |||||
a. |
Credit card debt remained consistently the most stressful of any type of debt for between 35% and 36% of respondents | |||||
b. |
A significant percentage of respondents said they are living paycheck-to-paycheck – including those with six-figure incomes: | |||||
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84% of respondents making less than $50,000/year are living paycheck-to-paycheck |
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73% of respondents making between $50,000 and $99,000/year are living paycheck-to-paycheck |
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47% of respondents making $100,000 or more are living paycheck-to-paycheck |
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BUSINESS: Respondents were asked each quarter how satisfied they are with their current employment | |||||
a. |
A majority of participants have been consistently satisfied with their employment, though we did see a decline in overall satisfaction from the fourth quarter of 2023 vs. the fourth quarter of 2024, from 74% to 62% | |||||
b. |
As for the small business landscape, over half of respondents said it is a difficult economy to start or grow as an entrepreneur | |||||
About The HOPE Insider
The HOPE Insider survey has been conducted quarterly by Operation HOPE’s research team since November 2023. The survey is sent to Operation HOPE’s client base of adults, small business owners, and entrepreneurs who have sought the organization’s financial wellness services. The survey has collected more than 11,500 responses over the last five quarters from Operation HOPE clients on topics including housing, debt, small business ownership, work and general economic optimism. The survey features a diverse representative set with respondents from all adult age ranges, ethnicities, genders, and household incomes across the U.S. The quarterly survey tracks overall trends, with additional questions to reflect timely issues. Its goal is to gather a broad-based understanding of the sentiment of Operation HOPE clients on a regular basis to better support their needs and to serve as an indicator of the real-time financial and economic concerns of the American public.
About Operation HOPE, Inc.
Since 1992, Operation HOPE has been moving America from civil rights to "silver rights" with the mission of making free enterprise and capitalism work for the underserved—disrupting poverty for millions of low and moderate-income youth and adults across the nation. Through its community uplift model, HOPE Inside, which received the 2016 Innovator of the Year recognition by American Banker magazine, Operation HOPE has served more than 4 million individuals and directed more than $3.2 billion in economic activity into disenfranchised communities—turning check-cashing customers into banking customers, renters into homeowners, small business dreamers into small business owners, minimum wage workers into living wage consumers, and uncertain disaster victims into financially empowered disaster survivors. For more information: OperationHOPE.org. Follow the HOPE conversation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
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Contacts
Operation HOPE Contact:
Bill Mendel, Mendel Communications
(917) 664-1796
