ACLI Financial Resilience Index

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The ACLI Financial Resilience Index measures the middle-class’ ability to manage life’s challenges and plan for a stable financial future.

Released quarterly, the ACLI Financial Resilience Index measures the direction and magnitude of middle-class financial resilience by tracking 26 different variables that represent important middle-class cost pressures and financial resources.

The Headline Index is composed of a Cost Resilience Index and a Resource Resilience Index:

▶ The Cost Resilience Index measures the ability to afford modest luxuries without trading off the essentials and to afford life-stage appropriate care and education.

▶ The Resource Resilience Index measures the ability to handle unexpected expenses and sustain a quality of life, and the ability to save and live well in retirement.

This composition frames financial resilience as the interaction of cost pressures and financial resources and provides insight into the specific underlying factors that drive changes in middle-class financial resilience. Consumer survey findings (featured in the full index and analysis) offer a snapshot as to how middle-class households are feeling.

JULY 2025 INDEX

Middle-class financial resilience is stabilizing at normal levels after intense periods of improvement.

The Headline Index was 5.0 in Q1 2025, down 15 points from Q4 and down 29 points from a year ago. This indicates that, although middle-class financial resilience has worsened, it is still stronger than it was 25 years ago.

The Resource Resilience Index fell again due primarily to slower asset growth.

The Cost Resilience Index increased for the ninth consecutive quarter, nearing historical norms.

The companion survey found that over half of middle-class households are at least somewhat concerned about the risk of serious decline in their household’s financial situation.