Money. It's on everybody's mind. And to a quarter of Americans, it's the most important thing out there—more than jobs, health and fitness, or even love.
That's according to new survey data from personal finance website GOBankingRates.com. In addition to other questions, respondents were asked outright, "What do you think about most?"
Money came out on top, with 26.4 percent saying they thought about money more than anything else on a daily basis. (Work came in second, at 26.2 percent.)
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Responses varied by age, of course, with those aged 45–64 thinking more about work than money and young millennials being distracted by thoughts of love. But they're the only ones.
Women were more likely, at 28 percent, to think about money than men (26 percent), while—perhaps predictably—those with the least amount of money thought about it the most: 30.4 percent of low-income Americans, with incomes ranging from 0–$24,000 a year, said they thought about it daily more than anything else.
Oddly enough, 28.6 percent of those with incomes above $150,000 also thought about money daily.
Other interesting revelations from the survey were these: planning for retirement is five times more challenging for baby boomers than it is for young millennials (34 percent, compared with 7 percent), although men say it's more of a financial challenge for them (20 percent) than women do (17 percent).
In addition, baby boomers are almost three times more afraid of never being able to retire than young millennials (24 percent, compared with 9 percent), although those young millennials are twice as afraid of always living paycheck to paycheck as baby boomers. Go figure.
And 20 percent of Americans overall say planning for retirement is their primary financial focus.
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