Wealth does not necessarily mean financial fulfillment, which most Americans say they lack

Just one in six Americans can be considered financially fulfilled, while roughly 216 million adults (83% of the US population aged 21 and older) live with some degree of financial stress, strain or uncertainty.

That’s the key finding of a new report from Edward Jones which draws from a Gallup survey of 5,705 adults and also introduces a Financial Fulfillment Scale built on 37 validated indicators. The research finds that half of Americans occupy a middle ground the researchers call "financially conflicted," experiencing a mixture of stability and ongoing pressure simultaneously. Just 16% qualify as financially fulfilled, while 32% fall into the financially stressed category.

"Financial stress isn't limited to people in crisis — it's affecting millions who appear stable but don't feel secure or fulfilled," said Penny Pennington, managing partner at Edward Jones. "That gap between money and meaning is where real progress can be made. Helping people close it is essential to building long-term confidence, resilience and opportunity."

Financial fulfillment vs. wealth

The research draws a deliberate distinction between financial fulfillment and wealth.

Where conventional financial health measures tend to focus on income, savings rates and debt levels, the Edward Jones-Gallup scale captures four dimensions, namely alignment between finances and personal values, the presence of positive emotions related to money, the absence of negative ones, and overall financial confidence.

The researchers argue that two people with identical incomes and debt loads can experience their finances in fundamentally different ways depending on whether they have a clear plan, feel in control and trust the guidance they receive.

Gratitude is the most commonly reported financial emotion among all respondents, with 63% saying they have felt it often or always in the past 30 days, nearly double the rate for joy, peace or contentment.

When asked what they do with their money that brings them joy, Americans pointed overwhelmingly to experiences and relationships rather than possessions or financial milestones. Travel, hobbies and experiences ranked first at 41%, followed by togetherness and shared meals at 26%, and giving or helping others at 19%.

Professional guidance

Among the study's sharper findings is the role professional guidance plays in separating the fulfilled from the stressed.

Financially fulfilled adults were far more likely to have consulted a professional financial advisor in the past year (60% versus just 14% of those in the financially stressed group). In a controlled analysis adjusting for age, gender, net worth and household income, professional financial advisors showed the strongest positive association with financial fulfillment of any guidance source tested, outperforming personal internet research, friends, relatives, financial media and artificial intelligence.

Trust in financial advisors similarly showed the strongest link to fulfillment in a separate adjusted analysis, while confidence in financial social media influencers and AI had no measurable impact.

"What our financial advisors see and hear from our clients every day is reflected clearly in this research: millions of people feel stuck in the middle, not in crisis, but not fully confident either," Pennington said. "That's where personalized advice matters most. By listening closely, building clear plans and focusing on trusted relationships, our advisors play a critical role in turning uncertainty into action and progress."

Beyond finances

The research also examined what financial fulfillment predicts beyond finances themselves.

Among those classified as financially fulfilled, 83% were thriving (meaning they rated both their present and future lives positively) compared with 52% of the financially conflicted and just 18% of the financially stressed.

The fulfilled group was nearly six times more likely to rate their mental health as very good or excellent relative to the stressed group (74% vs. 13%), and four times more likely to say the same about their physical health (52% vs. 13%). Stronger community ties and relationship quality followed similar patterns, and these associations held after controlling for net worth, age, income and self-reported credit worthiness.

Income and age remain significant predictors of where someone lands on the fulfillment spectrum.

Among households earning $175,000 or more annually, 37% qualify as financially fulfilled, compared with just 3% of those earning under $20,000. Among Traditionalists aged 81 and older, 43% are fulfilled, dropping to 5% among Gen Z adults aged 21 to 29. But the researchers are explicit that demographics do not tell the whole story, and that planning behaviors and access to guidance retain their connection to fulfillment even after those factors are accounted for.

Unexpected expense

Financially stressed adults are more than twice as likely as their fulfilled counterparts to have faced a large, unexpected expense in the prior year (53% versus 21%) and far more likely to have seen their net worth decline significantly (44% vs. 4%).

Those realities shape what each group prioritizes: reducing debt and raising household income rank as the top financial goals for the stressed, while fulfilled adults are more likely to identify charitable giving as a priority.

Planning behaviors also diverge sharply. Among the financially fulfilled, 98% hold emergency savings, 91% have a retirement plan and 88% have savings set aside for a major expense or life event. Among the financially stressed, those figures fall to 45%, 35% and 24% respectively.

Less than half of Americans overall said they have someone they could rely on for financial support, a figure that ranges from 35% among the stressed to 59% among the fulfilled.