Way to go, Des Moines! The 10 most 'financially responsible' cities across America
Minneapolis has a strikingly low share of consumers with maxed-out credit cards. Madisonians use an admirably low quotient of their available credit. Des Moines residents don't spend too much of their income on housing.
LendingTree, the personal finance site, ranked the 100 largest metropolitan areas on five metrics of financial health, focusing on the ideal of living within one's means. The July 7 report draws from Federal Reserve and Census data, and from a sample of 260,000 anonymized LendingTree users.
Here are the 10 most 'financially responsible' cities
According to LendingTree, these are the 10 most financially responsible cities in America:
Several other midwestern cities rank in LendingTree's top 20 for financial responsibility, including Kansas City, Missouri (13), Cincinnati (14), Columbus, Ohio (18) and St. Louis (20). Other financially healthy metros include Knoxville, Tennessee (12th on the list), in the South, and Rochester, New York (16), in the Northeast.
According to LendingTree analysts, the cities near the top of the ranking tend to have solid household incomes and reasonable living costs. Those qualities go hand in hand with good credit.
'So much of this whole report gets down to income and credit scores,' said Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree. 'While income doesn't go into your ability to get a credit card, for example, it plays a major role in setting how much of a credit limit you get once you do get the card.'
Five cities where consumers live within their means
Here are snapshots of the top 5 metros for financial health:
If the most 'financially responsible' metros have anything in common, apart from geography, it might be cost of living. Some of the nation's most notoriously costly cities, including New York, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle, sit further down the list. (San Jose is a notable exception.)
'There's not much substitute for having a low cost of living,' Schulz said. 'It impacts everything you do financially.'
Five ways to improve your credit score
Three of the five metrics in the LendingTree analysis concern credit. Maxed-out cards and excessive credit inquiries tend to hurt a consumer's credit score. A lower credit score can mean higher interest rates on loans and lower limits on credit cards.
Here, then, are five expert tips for building a better credit score.
Pay bills on time
The biggest component of a FICO credit score, 35%, is 'payment history.' It means, quite simply, paying your bills on time.
That means 'not missing any of your payments, especially more than 30 days,' said Sara Rathner, credit cards expert at NerdWallet, speaking to USA TODAY in June. 'All of the hard work you've been doing can be undone with one missed payment.'
Credit cards, mortgages, rent, utilities: Just about anything can show up on a credit report as delinquent, if the creditor takes the time to report it.
Try to make payments on time, Rathner said. If you miss a payment, correct the oversight quickly.
Don't use too much credit
The second-largest factor in a credit report, accounting for 30%, is 'amounts owed.' That metric refers to credit utilization: how much of your available credit you actually use.
The goal is to use as little of your available credit as possible. Having a higher credit limit – and more credit cards − can help keep your utilization rate low, provided you use credit carefully.
Pay off your cards every month, if you can, experts say. Try not to use too much of your available credit.
'I think the best practice here is to try to keep your utilization under 30%,' said Joel O'Leary, personal finance writer at Motley Fool Money, speaking to USA TODAY in June. 'But I think the sweet spot is 10%, or even less than 10%.'
Build a credit history
Length of credit history accounts for 15% of a credit score. This metric is all about time: How long your credit accounts have been open, their average age, and how often you use them.
It's smart to keep old, zero-balance credit card accounts open, experts say, especially if they carry no annual fee. Keeping them active will boost your available credit, while also documenting your credit history.
Monitor your credit report
Nearly half of all credit reports may contain errors, according to research by the consumer groups Consumer Reports and WorkMoney. Some errors can lower your credit score.
Consumers should review their credit reports at least once a year, experts say. You can access your reports at no cost on the website AnnualCreditReport.com.
If you find an error, report it to the credit bureau. If the error is on a specific account, you can also contact the company directly.
Beware of 'hard' credit inquiries
Any time you apply for new credit and the creditor pulls your file, it can affect your credit score. These are called 'hard inquiries,' and they can influence your score for 12 months, according to Experian.
You'll typically incur a hard inquiry if you apply for a credit card, auto loan or mortgage, among other scenarios. The takeaway: Be careful about triggering too many credit inquiries.
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Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Millionaires multiply across the US, but most find it's not all mansions and champagne
NEW YORK (AP) — As a child, Heidi Barley watched her family pay for groceries with food stamps. As a college student, she dropped out because she couldn't afford tuition. In her twenties, already scraping by, she was forced to take a pay cut that shrunk her salary to just $34,000 a year. But this summer, the 41-year-old hit a milestone that long felt out of reach: She became a millionaire. A surging number of everyday Americans now boast a seven-figure net worth once the domain of celebrities and CEOs. But as the ranks of millionaires grow fatter, the significance of the status is shifting alongside perceptions of what it takes to be truly rich. 'Millionaire used to sound like Rich Uncle Pennybags in a top hat,' says Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, a wealth management firm in El Segundo, California. 'It's no longer a backstage pass to palatial estates and caviar bumps. It's the new mass-affluent middleweight class, financially secure but two zeros short of private-jet territory.' Inflation, ballooning home values and a decades-long push into stock markets by average investors have lifted millions into millionairehood. A June report from Swiss bank UBS found about one-tenth of American adults are members of the seven-digit club, with 1,000 freshly minted millionaires added daily last year. Thirty years ago, the IRS counted 1.6 million Americans with a net worth of $1 million or more. UBS — using data from the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks of countries around the globe — put the number at 23.8 million in the U.S. last year, a nearly 15-fold increase. The expanding ranks of millionaires come as the gulf between rich and poor widens. The richest 10% of Americans hold two-thirds of household wealth, according to the Federal Reserve, averaging $8.1 million each. The bottom 50% hold 3% of wealth, with an average of just $60,000 to their names. Federal Reserve data also shows there are differences by race. Asian people outpace white people in the U.S. in median wealth, while Black and Hispanic people trail in their net worth. Barley was working as a journalist when her newspaper ended its pension program and she got a lump-sum payout of about $5,000. A colleague convinced her to invest it in a retirement account, and ever since, she's stashed away whatever she could. The investments dipped at first during the Great Recession but eventually started growing. In time, she came to find catharsis in amassing savings, going home and checking her account balances when she had a tough day at work. Last month, after one such day, she realized the moment had come. 'Did you know that we're millionaires?' she asked her husband. 'Good job, honey,' Barley says he replied, unfazed. It brought no immediate change. Like many millionaires, much of her wealth is in long-term investments and her home, not easy-to-access cash. She still lives in her modest Orlando, Florida, house, socks away half her paycheck, fills the napkin holder with takeout napkins and lines trash cans with grocery bags. Still, Barley says it feels powerful to cross a threshold she never imagined reaching as a child. 'But it's not as glamorous as the ideas in your head,' she says. All wealth is relative. To thousandaires, $1 million is the stuff of dreams. To billionaires, it's a rounding error. Either way, it takes twice as much cash today to match the buying power of 30 years ago. A net worth of $1 million in 1995 is equivalent to about $2.1 million today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A seven-figure net worth is, to some, as outdated a yardstick as a six-figure salary. Nonetheless, 'millionaire' is peppered in everything from politics to popular music as shorthand for rich. 'It's a nice round number but it's a point in a longer journey,' says Dan Uden, a 41-year-old from Providence, Rhode Island, who works in information technology and who hit the million-dollar mark last month. 'It definitely gives you some room to breathe.' No other country comes close to the U.S. in the sheer number of millionaires, though relative to population, UBS found Switzerland and Luxembourg had higher rates. Kenneth Carow, a finance professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, says commonalities emerge among today's millionaires. The vast majority own stocks and a home. Most live below their means. They value education and teach financial responsibility to their children. 'The dream of becoming a millionaire,' Carow says, 'has become more obtainable.' Jim Wang, 45, a software engineer-turned finance blogger from Fulton, Maryland, says even if hitting $1 million was essentially 'a non-event' for him and his wife, it still held weight for him as the son of immigrants who saved money by turning the heat off on winter nights. The private jets he envisioned as a kid may not have materialized at the million-dollar threshold, but he still sees it as a marker that brings a certain level of security. 'It's possible, even with a regular job,' he says. 'You just have to be diligent and consistent.' The resilience of financial markets and the ease of investing in broad-based, low-fee index funds has fueled the balances of many millionaires who don't earn massive salaries or inherit family fortunes. Among them is a burgeoning community of younger millionaires born out of the movement known as FIRE, for Financial Independence Retire Early. Jason Breck, 48, of Fishers, Indiana, embraced FIRE and reached the million-dollar mark nine years ago. He promptly quit his job in automotive marketing, where he generally earned around $60,000 a year but managed to stow away around 70% of his pay. Now, Breck and his wife spend several months a year traveling. Despite being retired, they continue to grow their balance by sticking to a tight budget and keeping expenses to $1,500 a month when they're in the U.S and a few hundred dollars more when they travel. Hitting their goal hasn't translated to luxury. There is no lawn crew to cut the grass, no Netflix or Amazon Prime, no Uber Eats. They fly economy. They drive a 2005 Toyota. 'It's not a golden ticket like it was in the past,' Breck says. 'For us, a million dollars buys us freedom and peace of mind. We're not yacht rich, but for us, we're time rich.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Who wants to be a millionaire? 1 in 10 Americans already is but the status loses its luster
NEW YORK (AP) — As a child, Heidi Barley watched her family pay for groceries with food stamps. As a college student, she dropped out because she couldn't afford tuition. In her twenties, already scraping by, she was forced to take a pay cut that shrunk her salary to just $34,000 a year. But this summer, the 41-year-old hit a milestone that long felt out of reach: She became a millionaire. A surging number of everyday Americans now boast a seven-figure net worth once the domain of celebrities and CEOs. But as the ranks of millionaires grow fatter, the significance of the status is shifting alongside perceptions of what it takes to be truly rich. 'Millionaire used to sound like Rich Uncle Pennybags in a top hat,' says Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, a wealth management firm in El Segundo, California. 'It's no longer a backstage pass to palatial estates and caviar bumps. It's the new mass-affluent middleweight class, financially secure but two zeros short of private-jet territory.' Inflation, ballooning home values and a decades-long push into stock markets by average investors have lifted millions into millionairehood. A June report from Swiss bank UBS found about one-tenth of American adults are members of the seven-digit club, with 1,000 freshly minted millionaires added daily last year. Thirty years ago, the IRS counted 1.6 million Americans with a net worth of $1 million or more. UBS — using data from the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks of countries around the globe — put the number at 23.8 million in the U.S. last year, a nearly 15-fold increase. The expanding ranks of millionaires come as the gulf between rich and poor widens. The richest 10% of Americans hold two-thirds of household wealth, according to the Federal Reserve, averaging $8.1 million each. The bottom 50% hold 3% of wealth, with an average of just $60,000 to their names. Federal Reserve data also shows there are differences by race. Asian people outpace white people in the U.S. in median wealth, while Black and Hispanic people trail in their net worth. Barley was working as a journalist when her newspaper ended its pension program and she got a lump-sum payout of about $5,000. A colleague convinced her to invest it in a retirement account, and ever since, she's stashed away whatever she could. The investments dipped at first during the Great Recession but eventually started growing. In time, she came to find catharsis in amassing savings, going home and checking her account balances when she had a tough day at work. Last month, after one such day, she realized the moment had come. 'Did you know that we're millionaires?' she asked her husband. 'Good job, honey,' Barley says he replied, unfazed. It brought no immediate change. Like many millionaires, much of her wealth is in long-term investments and her home, not easy-to-access cash. She still lives in her modest Orlando, Florida, house, socks away half her paycheck, fills the napkin holder with takeout napkins and lines trash cans with grocery bags. Still, Barley says it feels powerful to cross a threshold she never imagined reaching as a child. 'But it's not as glamorous as the ideas in your head,' she says. All wealth is relative. To thousandaires, $1 million is the stuff of dreams. To billionaires, it's a rounding error. Either way, it takes twice as much cash today to match the buying power of 30 years ago. A net worth of $1 million in 1995 is equivalent to about $2.1 million today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A seven-figure net worth is, to some, as outdated a yardstick as a six-figure salary. Nonetheless, 'millionaire' is peppered in everything from politics to popular music as shorthand for rich. 'It's a nice round number but it's a point in a longer journey,' says Dan Uden, a 41-year-old from Providence, Rhode Island, who works in information technology and who hit the million-dollar mark last month. 'It definitely gives you some room to breathe.' No other country comes close to the U.S. in the sheer number of millionaires, though relative to population, UBS found Switzerland and Luxembourg had higher rates. Kenneth Carow, a finance professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, says commonalities emerge among today's millionaires. The vast majority own stocks and a home. Most live below their means. They value education and teach financial responsibility to their children. 'The dream of becoming a millionaire,' Carow says, 'has become more obtainable.' Jim Wang, 45, a software engineer-turned finance blogger from Fulton, Maryland, says even if hitting $1 million was essentially 'a non-event' for him and his wife, it still held weight for him as the son of immigrants who saved money by turning the heat off on winter nights. The private jets he envisioned as a kid may not have materialized at the million-dollar threshold, but he still sees it as a marker that brings a certain level of security. 'It's possible, even with a regular job,' he says. 'You just have to be diligent and consistent.' The resilience of financial markets and the ease of investing in broad-based, low-fee index funds has fueled the balances of many millionaires who don't earn massive salaries or inherit family fortunes. Among them is a burgeoning community of younger millionaires born out of the movement known as FIRE, for Financial Independence Retire Early. Jason Breck, 48, of Fishers, Indiana, embraced FIRE and reached the million-dollar mark nine years ago. He promptly quit his job in automotive marketing, where he generally earned around $60,000 a year but managed to stow away around 70% of his pay. Now, Breck and his wife spend several months a year traveling. Despite being retired, they continue to grow their balance by sticking to a tight budget and keeping expenses to $1,500 a month when they're in the U.S and a few hundred dollars more when they travel. Hitting their goal hasn't translated to luxury. There is no lawn crew to cut the grass, no Netflix or Amazon Prime, no Uber Eats. They fly economy. They drive a 2005 Toyota. 'It's not a golden ticket like it was in the past,' Breck says. 'For us, a million dollars buys us freedom and peace of mind. We're not yacht rich, but for us, we're time rich.' ___ Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ and Sign in to access your portfolio
Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Washington Post
US job openings fell to 7.4 million last month as job market continues to cool
WASHINGTON — Employers posted 7.4 million job vacancies last month, a sign that the American job market continues to cool. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job openings in June were down from 7.7 million in May. Layoffs were little changed. But the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects elsewhere — dropped last month. The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 and partly because President Donald Trump's trade wars have created uncertainty that is paralyzing managers making hiring decisions. On Friday, the Labor Department will put out unemployment and hiring numbers for July. They are expected to show that the unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.2% in July from 4.1% in June. Businesses, government agencies and nonprofits are expected to have added 115,000 jobs in July, down from 147,000 in June, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet. The seemingly decent June hiring numbers were weaker than they appeared. Private payrolls rose just 74,000 in June, fewest since last October when hurricanes disrupted job sites. And state and local governments added nearly 64,000 education jobs in June – a total that economists suspect was inflated by seasonal quirks around the end of the school year. So far this year, the economy has been generating 130,000 jobs a month, down from 168,000 last year and an average 400,000 a month from 2021 through 2023 during the recovery from COVID-19 lockdowns.
