How are Mississippians, generally, doing financially? A recent set of rankings indicates that the average Mississippi resident may be in a more financially challenging position than the average resident of other states.

The rankings are financial well-being rankings from Gallup and Healthways. The rankings compared the states on financial well-being score. This score is based on the responses in a 2014 survey taken of over 175,000 American adults. Among the things, respondents were asked about in the survey were whether they worry about money, how they feel about their standard of living, how able they were to afford the things they wanted to do, how able they were to afford health care and how able they were to afford food.

The financial well-being score is on a 0-to-100 scale, with higher scores representing better financial well-being. Mississippi’s score was 56.1. This is the lowest score among the states. So, Mississippi held the worst rank in the rankings. In comparison, the state with the next lowest score (Tennessee) had a score of 57.5, the national average score was 59.7 and the state with the highest score (Hawaii) had a score of 66.0.

Based on the survey results, difficulties with affording what they want to do, problems with affording healthcare and difficulties with affording food were more common for individuals in Mississippi than they were for residents of any other state.

Thus, the rankings and the survey results indicate that financial challenges are something many Mississippians are no stranger to. Many things can be behind a person being in a financially difficult situation. Debt can sometimes leave a person very financially vulnerable.

When debt is a contributor to a person’s financial struggles, properly addressing the debt may be able to help the person start moving in a better financial direction. Bankruptcy attorneys can help individuals that are being financially hindered by their debt load with investigating options for seeking debt relief, including bankruptcy options.

Source: Gallup, “Hawaii Leads U.S. in Financial Well-Being; Mississippi Last,” Nader Nekvasil and Alyssa Brown, Oct. 13, 2015

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