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Americans are increasingly viewing financial success as the ability to enjoy life, alongside traditional milestones such as homeownership and retirement, Bloomberg reports.
A SoFi Technologies survey of 4,090 U.S. adults finds that roughly six in 10 respondents consider enjoying life a sign of financial progress, compared with 27% who cite owning a home.
That does not mean Americans have abandoned traditional financial goals. Gen Z and millennials continue to value having money left at the end of the month, building emergency savings, owning a home, becoming debt-free and retiring comfortably.
However, high housing costs, persistent inflation and the decline of traditional pensions have made some of those goals feel less attainable. While 62% of Gen Z and millennials say a comfortable retirement is a goal, only 46% are confident they can achieve it.
At the same time, 72% of Americans say they are willing to make slower progress toward financial goals to spend time with family, travel and pursue meaningful experiences. That approach can carry financial trade-offs, with nearly one-third reporting debt tied to events or activities they could not comfortably afford and 70% saying they had opted out of something because of financial constraints.
Younger Americans are also changing how they build wealth, with greater interest in investing, cryptocurrency, entrepreneurship and financial advice from social media and artificial intelligence. About 75% of Americans say they have used at least one “finance-maxxing” strategy, such as sharing subscriptions, using buy-now-pay-later services or moving in with parents.
