Americans’ personal financial satisfaction fell in the fourth quarter for the first time in seven quarters as market volatility took a toll on their confidence, the American Institute of CPAs reported yesterday. The AICPA’s personal financial satisfaction index clocked in at 30.9, a 1.4 drop from the third quarter. That erased 24 percent of the index’s gains from the previous three quarters.
The report noted that this was only the fourth time the index had decreased since climbing from a -42.0 bottom in the third quarter of 2011. But even with the decline, the PFSi, defined as the Personal Financial Pleasure Index minus the Personal Financial Pain Index, was still solidly in positive territory and not too far from recent record highs.
The single largest factor in the decline was the stock market's volatility in the fourth quarter of last year. The Job Openings and CPA Expectations outlooks also declined at a much smaller rate.
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