Released quarterly, the ACLI Financial Resilience Index measures the direction and magnitude of middle-class financial resilience by tracking 26 different variables that represent important middle-class cost pressures and financial resources.
The Headline Index is composed of a Cost Resilience Index and a Resource Resilience Index:
▶ The Cost Resilience Index measures the ability to afford modest luxuries without trading off the essentials and to afford life-stage appropriate care and education.
▶ The Resource Resilience Index measures the ability to handle unexpected expenses and sustain a quality of life, and the ability to save and live well in retirement.
This composition frames financial resilience as the interaction of cost pressures and financial resources and provides insight into the specific underlying factors that drive changes in middle-class financial resilience. Consumer survey findings (featured in the full index and analysis) offer a snapshot as to how middle-class households are feeling.
The Headline Index was 19.2 in Q4 2024, down 13 points from Q3 and down 8 points from a year ago. This indicates that, although middle-class financial resilience is still relatively strong, gains are moderating.
The Resource Resilience Index fell to its lowest level in four years due to softening wage growth, slower asset growth, and concerns around debt delinquencies.
The Cost Resilience Index remained largely unchanged in Q4 2024, still in negative territory.
The companion survey found that nearly a quarter of middle-class respondents are not confident they will have enough retirement savings to last throughout retirement and live comfortably.