Personal Finances Continue To Tread Water: 29% Say Finances Getting Better, 31% Say Worse

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• Twenty-nine percent (29%) of voters say their personal finances are getting better, 1 point up from 2 weeks ago.
  • Conversely, 31% say their finances are getting worse, 2 points higher than 2 weeks ago.
  • Over the last 6 months, these numbers have stayed close to breaking even, with the exception of the intense negativity during the government shutdown in 2025.
• From July 2021 until just before the 2024 election, more people were pessimistic than optimistic about their finances in every survey.
  • The current perceptions are among the least pessimistic in nearly 5 years.
  • However, as Scott Rasmussen noted recently, “People are feeling much better about their finances than they did under President Biden, but they were hoping for more under President Trump.”
• Forty-one percent (41%) of voters rate their personal finances as Good or Excellent, the same as 2 weeks ago and down 4 points from a month ago.
  • In early November, ratings on personal finances as Good or Excellent were at 37%, the lowest since President Trump took office.
  • A fifth (20%) of voters rate their finances as Poor, down 4 points from two weeks ago and down 1 point from the 21% in January.
  • When President Biden took office in 2021, 48% of voters rated their personal finances as Good or Excellent.
  • By the time President Trump took office in 2025, those rating their finances as Good or Excellent had fallen to 36%.
  • A majority of Republicans (53%) say their finances are Good or Excellent, but only 36% of Democrats say the same.
  • Likewise, a majority (61%) of voters who talk politics every or nearly every day rate their finances as Good or Excellent.

This data is from a Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 Registered Voters conducted online by Scott Rasmussen, March 2-3, 2026. RMG Research, Inc., conducted the field work for the survey. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1.