> To determine the states with the most financially distressed residents, WalletHub compared all 50 states across nine metrics in six major categories, such as average credit scores, the share of people with "accounts in distress" (meaning an account that's in forbearance or has deferred payments), the one-year change in bankruptcy filings from March 2024, and search interest indexes for "debt" and "loans."
Any state "financial distress" study where California ranks #12, New York #19 and Hawaii #50 is suspicious. The search engine part is especially nonsense.
carefulfungi · 2h ago
The methodology is arbitrary and is mostly a measurement of average credit score.
This Equifax article lists CA has having a better average credit score than Texas. I did't bother to sort the Equifax to list to see how closely to correlates to the article, though.
Credit score is not a useful measure of financial health.
A minimum wage worker living paycheck to paycheck but making minimums on a large credit card balance will have a better score than a retiree who's long since paid off his house and car and pays cash for entertainment and playthings.
toomanyrichies · 1h ago
Here's the sorted Equifax list:
Minnesota 730
New Hampshire 727
Wisconsin 727
Vermont 726
Massachusetts 723
South Dakota 722
Washington 722
Colorado 720
Maine 720
Montana 720
North Dakota 720
Nebraska 720
Hawaii 719
Iowa 719
Utah 719
Idaho 718
Connecticut 717
New Jersey 717
Oregon 717
New York 713
Pennsylvania 713
Rhode Island 713
Wyoming 713
California 712
Illinois 712
Kansas 712
Virginia 712
Michigan 710
Alaska 709
Maryland 706
Ohio 706
Delaware 705
Missouri 705
Dist. of Col. 704
Indiana 704
Arizona 703
North Carolina 699
Florida 698
Tennessee 697
Kentucky 695
New Mexico 695
Puerto Rico 695
West Virginia 693
South Carolina 692
Nevada 691
Arkansas 688
Oklahoma 687
Georgia 686
Texas 686
Alabama 685
Louisiana 680
Mississippi 675
ariwilson · 50m ago
Any ranking of states that ends with Mississippi is one I can get behind
fragmede · 2h ago
Do you have any numbers as to why those rankings should be suspicious, or is it down to preconceived notions about people from those particular states you've met and you're projecting?
chris_wot · 3h ago
I do wonder how much of this can be put down to an extremely lax regulatory environment within Texas itself.
Any state "financial distress" study where California ranks #12, New York #19 and Hawaii #50 is suspicious. The search engine part is especially nonsense.
Methodology: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-most-people-in-fin...
This Equifax article lists CA has having a better average credit score than Texas. I did't bother to sort the Equifax to list to see how closely to correlates to the article, though.
https://www.equifax.com/personal/education/credit/score/arti...
A minimum wage worker living paycheck to paycheck but making minimums on a large credit card balance will have a better score than a retiree who's long since paid off his house and car and pays cash for entertainment and playthings.
Minnesota 730
New Hampshire 727
Wisconsin 727
Vermont 726
Massachusetts 723
South Dakota 722
Washington 722
Colorado 720
Maine 720
Montana 720
North Dakota 720
Nebraska 720
Hawaii 719
Iowa 719
Utah 719
Idaho 718
Connecticut 717
New Jersey 717
Oregon 717
New York 713
Pennsylvania 713
Rhode Island 713
Wyoming 713
California 712
Illinois 712
Kansas 712
Virginia 712
Michigan 710
Alaska 709
Maryland 706
Ohio 706
Delaware 705
Missouri 705
Dist. of Col. 704
Indiana 704
Arizona 703
North Carolina 699
Florida 698
Tennessee 697
Kentucky 695
New Mexico 695
Puerto Rico 695
West Virginia 693
South Carolina 692
Nevada 691
Arkansas 688
Oklahoma 687
Georgia 686
Texas 686
Alabama 685
Louisiana 680
Mississippi 675