Americans’ optimism on personal finances hits record high: Gallup

Americans’ views of their personal finances are improving and stand at record highs, according to a new Gallup poll.

In the survey released Wednesday, 59 percent of Americans surveyed, nearly 6 in 10, say they are better off from a financial standpoint than they were one year ago. Just 20 percent of respondents said the opposite.

That confidence level is slightly higher than at the beginning of 1999, when 58 percent told Gallup pollsters that their personal finances were looking up that year.

Roughly 3 in 4 respondents — 74 percent — also predicted in the new survey that they would be better off next year. Gallup noted that that percentage is the highest recorded since 1977.

The survey, taken Jan. 2-15, comes as President Trump has made the economy a key part of his reelection strategy. Trump has hammered an economic message and warned that Democratic policies, especially those pushed by progressive members of the party, would bring socialism to the U.S.

The results also come after a Gallup survey released Tuesday found Trump with the highest approval rating of his presidency, a significant advantage for the president as his impeachment trial in the Senate comes to an end with his expected acquittal.

The new Gallup poll surveyed 1,014 U.S. adults in all 50 states and Washington D.C., and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.