Many people get tangled in habits that aren’t in their best interests financially. However, if they can get their money issues figured out, they’ll likely have a happier, more stable life.
Since good money management skills are crucial for financial success, WalletHub, a personal finance website, compared more than 2,500 cities based on 10 key indicators of money management skills.
It looked at data ranging from the median credit score to the average number of late payments to the mortgage debt-to-income ratio.
Here are the results of WalletHub’s report “Cities Where People Have the Best Money Management Skills.”
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Cities with the best money management skills |
Cities with the worst money management skills |
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1. Cupertino, California |
2508. Locust Grove, Georgia |
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2. Palo Alto, California |
2509. Covington, Georgia |
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3. Chevy Chase, Maryland |
2510. Hampton, Georgia |
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4. Los Altos, California |
2511. Park Forest, Illinois |
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5. Scarsdale, New York |
2512. Calumet City, Illinois |
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6. Sunnyvale, California |
2513. Fairburn, Georgia |
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7. Lexington, Maine |
2514. Tolleson, Arizona |
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8. Redmond, Washington |
2515. Canton, Mississippi |
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9. Mountain View, California |
2516. Dolton, Illinois |
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10. McLean, Virginia |
2517. Ruston, Louisiana |
“Many Americans have unfortunately never been taught good money management skills, but it’s never too late to learn,” Chip Lupo, WalletHub analyst, said in the report. “Our study found that in the cities where people are best at money management, residents have significantly higher credit scores than average, well into the excellent credit range.”
It’s due to low debt-to-income ratios, low credit use, and low rates of late payments and delinquency, Lupo said.
In Cupertino, California, pictured above, the city where people have the best money management skills, the median credit card debt, $2,790, is only about 1.6 percent of the median income, $178,180, which is the lowest ratio in the country. This indicates that many people keep their credit card use very low and pay their balance off every month.
In addition, Cupertino residents only use about 26 percent of their available credit, the seventh-lowest percentage in the country. They’ve had the third-fewest late payments per person in the past 12 months, and the third-lowest debt delinquency rate. The median credit score in Cupertino is 778, which is into the excellent credit range.”
Click on the report link above or use the map to find out where your city ranks in the list of cities with the best money management skills.
I was surprised to see that results varied in Washington state. High- and lower-ranked cities are sometimes right next to each other and there are high- and lower-ranked cities in both Western Washington and Eastern Washington cities.
