Seeking Stability in Changing TimesA Summary Report from Artemis Strategy Group’s Motivations Assessment ProgramTM
September 2016
1© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016 2
THE MOTIVATION ASSESSMENT PROGRAMTM MAPTM applies the Artemis Motivation Research approach to probe deeply into the goals, actions, barriers and motivations associated with Americans’ individual health and financial decisions, as well as the interactions between health and financial decisions. Measuring over 200 activities and attitudes through a large quantitative study (n=3041) we use this information to map the rational-to-emotional forces that underlie health and financial decision motivations.
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
2016 Artemis Motivation Assessment ProgramTM
(MAP):
THE QUESTIONS What forces drive Americans’ financial decisions, and what are the key elements of those decisions?
THE APPROACHMAPTM applies our Motivation Research approach through a large quantitative study (n=3041) with respondents representing a diverse cross-section of America.
THE OUTCOMESInsights into the landscape of financial decisions of Americans. Opportunities to probe specific questions that might have audience, communications, product or policy implications.
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4© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
Seeking stability in changing times
Americans’ changed financial circumstances alter their goals and how they achieve them, including their financial decision making. Key points:
1. The new prominence of the search for stability
2. The dynamics of anxiety in financial decision making
3. Staying on top of it: the antidote to anxiety
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
Financial Goals: A common destination
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Regardless of contexts, financial stability is the new upward mobility. Caution is the watchword. Steady progress is the hope. But slipping backward is the fear.
The search for stability emerges as a huge determining factor in aspirations and actions, with a stark dividing line between stability/instability among Americans.
Barely one-third frame their goals in terms of growth; protection is the dominant theme.
A surprisingly large one in five acknowledge they are making up for problems in the past.
Context: different starting points
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Growing your assets for the future18%
Extending your current level of financial well-being in the future
16%
Protecting yourself from potential threats to your financial well-being
26%
Stabilizing your finances in order to make monthly ends meet
18%
Overcoming the consequences of unwise financial decisions in the
past9%
Recovering from setbacks that negatively affected your finances
12%
Proportion of Americans focused most heavily on each goal:
Americans’ perspective on their personal finances changes based upon where they start their journey.
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
Total
Growing
Extending
Protecting
Stabilizing
Overcoming
Recovering
45%
58%
51%
53%
28%
37%
26%
Achieving stability is key to satisfaction with one’s financial life
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Satisfied with Financial Situation by Goal Groups
The divide between “Stabilizing finances” and “Protecting against threats” is the point of transition between mostly negative and mostly positive emotions.
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
39%
26%
36%
31%
54%
50%
58%
Total
Growing your assets for the future
Extending your current level of financial well-being in the future
Protecting yourself from potential threats to your financial well-being
Stabilizing your finances in order to make monthly ends meet
Overcoming the consequences of unwise fi-nancial decisions in the past
Recovering from setbacks that negatively af -fected your finances
35%
44%
37%
45%
22%
25%
19%
Positive overall financial assessments happen when focus is on protecting stability rather than gaining stability
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Doing better financially than others
Q29: In comparison to other people your age, how would you say you are doing financially?
Doing worse financially than others
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
Financial Action: Anxiety drives assessment and action Anxiety is a significant presence in financial decisions.
Personal circumstances and the financial decision process itself can overwhelms many people with anxiety about financial decisions.
Even among those in better circumstances and focused on building equity, anxiety continues to play an outsized role for many.
Anxiety from efforts to regain/maintain financial stability originates both from events one can control (impulse spending) and barriers outside of individual control (economic downturn).
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© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
Several sources of financial anxiety; some within one’s control and others not
Sources of Financial AnxietyLiving in a struggling economy 47%Feeling financially insecure 45%Living paycheck to paycheck 43%Unable to afford things you used to 36%Health issues and related costs 33%Lower than ideal credit score 28%
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The challenge is whether people are paralyzed or catalyzed by their anxieties.
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Life(style) barriers to reaching financial goals
Three “barriers to financial success” create high anxiety for a majority of Americans: Balancing/negotiating conflicting financial obligations Drowning in debt and too high expenses Impulse spending and other bad habits
One “barrier” creates outright fear: Job loss
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
Staying on top of it: the antidote to anxiety
People react to their financial anxieties with an array of actions to achieve their financial goals AND the lives they yearn for.
Motivation Research analysis reveals rational-emotional “pathways of thought” with three critical dimensions Staying on top of financial activities through
learning and organizing Feeling smart and competent about financial
decisions The dominant personal value people seek is to
achieve a sense of financial stability
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A dramatic shift in the financial landscape: from reducing stress and remaining in control ….
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Benefits
Emotions
Personal Values
Maintain standard of living / have money available
Less Stress/Less Worry
Financial Security
Investing / Growing money
Feeling in Control
Sense of Accomplishment
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
…To staying on top of finances, which leads to feeling smart and responsible and achieving financial stability
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Benefits
Emotions
Personal Values
Maintain standard of living / have money
available
Less Stress/Less Worry
Financial Security
Investing / Growing money
Feeling in Control
Sense of Accomplishment
Staying on Top of it
Smart/Competent
Financial Stability
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
Unpacking the need to “stay on top of it”
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Staying on top of it has many components beginning with the basic need to engage, to understand and to monitor financial activities and gain knowledge. This reflects our shift from a more paternal defined benefits to a more individually-responsible defined contributions society.
Staying on top of it
Building knowledge
Keeping track
Tuning in
Customizing info
Developing personal network
Understand-ing
processes
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
Policy, product and marketing implications of the Search for Stability
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The financial anxiety many Americans feel and the associated search for financial stability create a different context for both the public and private financial sectors. The changed outlook and decision drivers suggest the need for new structures and approaches to giving people greater confidence about their financial decisions.
The following page briefly outlines three general ideas that come out of this research.
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
Policy, product and marketing implications of the Search for Stability
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1. Meet people where they are. Staying on top of it takes many forms and people create their own financial ecosystems. How can tools be customized to individual needs?
2. Support for staying on top of financial affairs. Financial decision making is work, one reason it is often avoided. Financial educators struggle with this problem. What mechanisms can help people tune in, learn, understand and evaluate their financial actions?
3. Support structure. Our Defined Contributions culture places more burden on individuals to manage their own affairs. There is a strong correlation between quality of support structure and financial stability. What approaches would help people recognize and build strong support networks?
© Artemis Strategy Group 2016
Want more?
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MAPTM is an information resource designed to develop insights on important health and financial issues using the Artemis Motivation Research approach.
Seeking Stability in Changing Times is one of several current reports including The link between Health and Wealth, and The Landscape of Americans’ Financial Decision making (a research methods paper). Other planned analyses include:
Millennials and financial anxiety;
The impact of technology tools on financial decisions.
We use MAPTM insights to enrich our other assignments. Ask us.