ACLI Financial Resilience Index

The ACLI Financial Resilience Index measures the middle-class’ ability to manage life’s challenges and plan for a stable financial future.

Released quarterly, the 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.

Latest Results: October 2024 Index (Released October 24)

-- From the OCTOBER 2024 INDEX --

Middle-class financial resilience improved in Q2 but by less than previous quarters, as slower resource growth partially offset improving costs.

The Headline Index was 24.8 in Q2 2024, down 7 points from Q1 but up 34 points from a year ago, suggesting that improvements in middle-class financial resilience are slowing. After several steady quarters, the Resource Resilience Index fell in Q2, but still indicates that financial resources are strong relative to historical standards. The Cost Resilience Index improved again in Q2 as inflation continued to ease, though cost pressures remain a challenge. The companion survey found that middle-class households are most concerned about affording the essentials, like groceries and electricity.