ACLI Financial Resilience Index

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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 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.

JANUARY 2025 INDEX

The middle class became more financially resilient in Q3 2024 due to strong resource growth and easing cost pressures.

The Headline Index was 31.8 in Q3 2024, up 7 points from Q2 and up 18 points from a year ago, indicating that overall middle-class financial resilience is improving more quickly.

The Resource Resilience Index inched up for the first time in five quarters and continues to show that middle-class resource growth is strong by historical standards.

The Cost Resilience Index improved for the seventh consecutive quarter as cost pressures return to historical norms.

The companion survey found that just over half of middle-class households are confident they could bounce back from an unexpected expense.