Jonathan Clements, former columnist for the Wall Street Journal and now the Director of Financial Guidance at myFi.com, sent me a copy of the press release for a recent survey that was conducted for his firm.
Here are some of the findings:
If the current financial crisis were a baseball game, the typical American thinks we're at the end of the fifth inning, according to a recent survey of 5,000 people conducted for myFism, short for "my financial life," a new financial service from Citi. myFi is part of Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (member SIPC).
In the study, Americans seem to blame the crisis partly on excessive consumer spending—and many are looking to cut back:
• 63% say they'll spend less on holiday gifts this year.
• 61% plan to reduce spending on major purchases over the next 12 months.
• 56% are looking to spend less on travel and vacations.
• 61% say they will eat out less.
Who's to blame for the credit crisis?
This, too, is interesting:
Who's responsible for the current mess? There's plenty of blame to go around. Among those surveyed, 72% blame the financial crisis on excessive spending by American consumers, 64% blame Wall Street, 62% blame excessive borrowing by homeowners and 59% blame the federal government.
This must have been one of those "choose all that apply" types of questions. I am surprised that nearly 60% of those surveyed blame the government!
Finally, the last thing I want to point out is that only 32% of those surveyed thought now was a good time to buy stocks. This is surprising to me because stocks are down so much this year. How much further would they have to drop in order to be considered a good buy? I have a sneaky suspicion that in the minds of most people, the more stocks drop the less of a bargain they become—even though the opposite is true.
You can read the rest of the press release here. If you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll see if I can get Jonathan to answer them for you.
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