Eight out of 10 Americans fail on some (or all) of their financial New Year’s resolutions

January 2, 2026 - By 4idiotz

Why Most Americans Fail Their Financial New Year’s Resolutions

Summary:

A Beyond Finance study reveals 83% of Americans failed some or all financial resolutions in 2025, with 38% abandoning goals within three months. Chief Financial Wellness Advisor Dr. Erika Rasure attributes this misalignment between goals and personal values rather than willpower deficits. Despite high failure rates, 48% plan 2026 resolutions focused on debt reduction (43%), emergency funds (14%), and budgeting (9%). Early financial socialization – including childhood allowances and parental modeling – emerges as a critical predictor of adult money management success.

What This Means for You:

Value-aligned goal setting: Conduct a financial values audit before establishing targets using tools like the National Endowment for Financial Education’s LIFEValues Quiz
Micro-habit implementation: Break “pay down debt” resolutions into bi-weekly automatic payments increased by 1% monthly
Behavioral finance safeguards: Freeze credit cards in opaque containers (behavioral cooling-off tactic) if self-trust issues exist
Q2 checkpoint warning: April tax refunds create prime debt-attack opportunities before summer spending derails progress

Original Post:

There’s no other way to say it; Americans struggle with financial New Year’s resolutions.

A study of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, from debt consolidation firm Beyond Finance, found that a staggering 83 percent of people failed some or all of their financial-related goals in 2025, with 38 percent of them ditching their resolutions within three months.

“January may still feel like a reset, but Americans have stopped believing it leads to lasting financial change,” Beyond Finance Chief Financial Wellness Advisor Dr. Erika Rasure said in a press release. “People aren’t failing at resolutions because they’re bad at sticking to them, but because goals don’t tend to stick around if they aren’t aligned with a person’s values from the get-go.”

The study also found that only 19 percent of those who set financial goals stuck with them for the entire year.

Americans stay resilient

The vast majority of U.S. adults fail on some or all of their financial resolutions, often abandoning all of them within three months (Getty Images)

Beyond Finance’s survey found that, even though resolution failure rates were high in 2025, that hasn’t stopped people from setting financial goals for 2026. Nearly half are either making their 2026 financial resolutions or have already made them, according to the survey.

“Despite widespread frustration with setting traditional resolutions, Americans remain intent on improving their current financial footing,” Beyond Finance noted.

The top resolutions this year are paying down debt (43 percent), building an emergency fund (14 percent), and cutting back on spending or sticking to a budget (9 percent).

Start early

As for why the majority of Americans failed on all or part of their financial resolutions, Beyond Finance found that what consumers learn about money as children has profound long-term consequences.

“Early financial habits are often formed at home, and those lessons tend to last,” Beyond Finance said.

Early encouragement to save money or budget wisely, family members setting a good financial example, and embracing money management lessons through an allowance were all cited as a big influence on how adults manage their money today.

Feeding the financial fears

The survey also found that around half of consumers are suffering from a critical lack of trust in their ability to make good financial decisions.

“At a personal level, consumers aren’t just stressed about finances,” the firm noted. “They lack confidence in their own judgment.”

In fact, the survey found that almost half of respondents “‘somewhat’ trust themselves to make and follow through on financial decisions,” and more than 25 percent of consumers don’t trust themselves with a credit card.

Is there a possible solution? Maybe, Rasure said.

“Real progress happens when money goals are revisited throughout the year, grounded in self-awareness and a spirit of learning rather than self-criticism,” she said. “When people understand their financial values first, goals become supportive, sustainable, and far more likely to stick.”

Extra Information:

Beyond Finance Financial Wellness Toolkit – Their proprietary assessment tools help diagnose value-goal misalignment
MyMoney.gov Framework – Government-endorsed building blocks for financial capability development
NEFE LifeValues Research – Validated methodology for connecting financial behaviors to core motivations

Expert Opinion:

“This data reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of behavioral change mechanics,” explains MIT behavioral economist Professor Abigail Sussman. “Financial resolutions require designing systems that make failure geometrically harder than success – like account structures where discretionary spending requires physically depositing cash at distant locations. Willpower alone cannot sustain most Americans through 4Q holiday spending temptations after 10 months of restraint.”

Key Terms:

Financial resolution failure statistics 2025
Behavioral economics debt reduction strategies
Childhood financial socialization impacts
Values-based financial goal setting
Automatic savings commitment devices
Financial self-trust deficit solutions
Early financial habit formation windows

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Eight out of 10 Americans fail on some (or all) of their financial New Year’s resolutions

Why Most Americans Fail Their Financial New Year’s Resolutions

Summary:

What This Means for You: