Money Matters - States With the Best & Worst Budgeters in 2024

 With the cost of living having increased significantly over the past few years, proper budgeting is more essential now than ever. In light of this, WalletHub today released its report on the States With the Best and Worst Budgeters in 2024, to show where Americans are being the most responsible with their finances and where they need to improve.

WalletHub compared the 50 states across 12 key metrics, ranging from the average credit score to debt-to-income ratios to foreclosure rates.
 

States With Best Budgeters		States With Worst Budgeters
1. Hawaii		41. Nevada
2. Washington		42. New Mexico
3. Massachusetts		43. Tennessee
4. Rhode Island		44. South Carolina
5. Wisconsin		45. Arkansas
6. Minnesota		46. Alabama
7. New Hampshire		47. Oklahoma
8. California		48. Georgia
9. Vermont		49. Louisiana
10. Connecticut		50. Mississippi

To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit: 
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-best-worst-budgeters/138069

 

“Not having a budget sets you up for financial failure. If you don’t carefully plan out and track how much of your income you can dedicate toward each of your expenses and other financial priorities each month, it’s easy for frivolous spending to get out of hand and prevent you from saving money, investing or even keeping up with your bills. Unfortunately, many people were never taught how to budget, so states should strongly consider requiring instruction on budgeting in schools.”
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“Hawaii is the state with the best budgeters, and it boasts the largest percentage of residents who set aside money for emergency/rainy day funds, at over 64%. In addition to showing that people are being responsible by planning for unexpected situations, this also indicates that people are not living paycheck to paycheck and are not spending all their excess money frivolously. Hawaii also has the smallest share of people who only pay the minimum on their credit cards, at just nearly 26%, which helps reduce or eliminate interest while improving people’s credit scores.”

- Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst  

 
More From WalletHub

• 2024 Budgeting Survey
• Cities With the Best & Worst Budgeters
• Most & Least Financially Literate States
• Cities Where People Have the Best Money Management Skills
• States With the Most People in Financial Distress
• Cities With the Most People in Financial Distress