An exploratory clustering analysis of the 2016 National Financial Well-Being Survey

This paper uses cluster analysis to explore the results of the 2016 National Financial Well-Being survey. Our analysis identifies four groups, two of which have very similar levels of financial well-being but markedly different objective financial situations. These findings indicate there is a systematic bias between financial well-being and objective financial situation. Although it is understood that these two constructs do not evaluate exactly the same thing, the difference in objective financial situation between the two groups suggests that, for large subsets of the American population, these constructs may be more different than the existing literature seems to suggest. This underscores the importance of considering both objective and subjective measures when assessing an individual’s overall financial situation.