My home state, much derided as a haven of McMansions, malls, and obnoxious, tanning-booth-crazed reality TV stars, and a place regularly accused by its own residents of having one of the country’s most fiscally irresponsible governments in the land, actually boasts the country’s most financially capable and responsible people. Who says guidos aren’t good with money?
In a nationwide survey conducted by the Investor Education Foundation (hat tip to USA Today, Garden State residents had the top scores in three of the poll’s five key measures of financial capability. Jersey boys and Jersey girls had the highest percentage (47.8%) of residents to have “rainy day” funds that would cover expenses for at least three months in case of an emergency, and the lowest percentage (13.8%)—in this case, low is a good thing—of residents to have borrowed money through an inadvisable, non-bank method such as a payday loan.
The simplest means of revealing the fiscally responsibility (or irresponsibility) of an individual is to ask straight-up if they spend less than they earn. And in New Jersey, 48.7% of those surveyed said they spend less than their household income—meaning they’re saving money, not going into debt. In Vermont, South Dakota, Montana, and Idaho, 35% or less of residents surveyed spend less than they earn, putting these states at the bottom of the rankings.
Of course, it’s easier to spend less than you earn if you happen to earn a lot of money, like many people do in New Jersey, New York, Washington, Maryland, Massachusetts and other states that get high scores for the fiscal responsibility and literacy of their residents.
What’s interesting is that earning a high income and being fiscal responsible doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be happier than folks with less money, and with less knowledge about how to use their money wisely. In a happiness rankings survey, many of the wealthiest states—New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland—ranked among the bottom ten for happiness. These states, as noted above, also rank high for financial capability.
Perhaps their fiscal sense and awareness is one reason they’re not overjoyed with happiness all the time? Financially capable people are more aware of all the entities trying to take money from them—banks, local and federal government, pawn shops, payday loan operators, Cold Stone Creamery—and quite naturally, they’re not happy about it.