FORT WORTH, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Elevate’s Center for the New Middle Class released a series of reports on Millennials today that shed new light on the financial, employment and familial struggles faced by non-prime Millennials – defined as those with credit scores below 700 – as well as their remarkable optimism.
The Center’s Millennial series covers a variety of topics including savings, personal finance management and unexpected expenses. The series of corresponding reports are titled:
- Millennials and Work: The Non-Prime Experience
- Millennials’ Day-to-Day Finances: The Non-Prime Experience
- Financial Education & Attitudes: Non-Prime Millennials
- Getting By: How Non-Prime Millennials Overcome Financial Challenges
The first study of the series of four, “Millennials and Work,” notes that non-prime Millennials are 68 percent more likely to live in households with 4+ people, but much less likely to have two income-producing adults in the home, when compared to their prime counterparts. Job security is another matter of concern, with more non-prime Millennials seeing job status changes than their Baby Boomer and GenX counterparts.
“The households of non-prime Millennials experience a lot of strain. The number of people living in the households are larger coupled with more volatile employment, with 21 percent of them holding more than one job and 74 percent being paid by the hour, compared to 54 percent of prime consumers surveyed,” said Jonathan Walker, executive director of the Center.
Half of non-prime Millennials say that their finances cause them significant stress, with 58 percent living paycheck to paycheck and 41 percent running out of money every other month, or more often. The Center’s research found that this group is 55 percent less likely than their non-prime counterparts to say they can come up with $1,200 in an emergency. In fact, this group is 160 percent more likely to intentionally use overdraft to cover an expense when they didn’t have the money.
“In addition to difficulties in meeting day-to-day expenses, non-prime Millennials lack confidence in dealing with daily financial matters. This may be partly attributed to lack of instruction at home, with only one in five non-prime Millennials having received financial instruction from their parents,” continued Walker. “Through our research, we found that almost three-quarters of non-prime Millennials say they’ve learned to manage their finances through trial and error. A quarter of non-prime Millennials feel swept up in events outside their control, which can be seen in the difficulty in regularly making ends meet. Still, our research shows that this group is the most optimistic non-prime generation when they think of their long-term financial prospects, with 47 percent being confident that they can meet long-term goals to become financially secure.”
About the Research
The Center’s research compared the responses from the survey of 1,217 Americans, using interviews conducted December 6-14, 2016. For more details on the study, click here.
About Elevate’s Center for the New Middle Class
Elevate’s Center for the New Middle Class conducts research, engages in dialogue, and builds cooperation to generate understanding of the behaviors, attitudes, and challenges of America’s growing “New Middle Class.” For more information, visit: http://www.newmiddleclass.org/
About Elevate
Elevate (NYSE: ELVT) has originated $4 billion in credit to more than 1.6 million non-prime consumers to date. Its responsible, tech-enabled online credit solutions provide immediate relief to customers today and help them build a brighter financial future. The company is committed to rewarding borrowers’ good financial behavior with features like interest rates that can go down over time, free financial training and free credit monitoring. Elevate’s suite of groundbreaking credit products includes RISE, Elastic and Sunny. For more information, please visit http://www.elevate.com.
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