Americans plan financial goals with more conservative approach ahead of 2023

Americans are planning their financial goals with a more conservative approach as they prepare to ring in 2023.

According to Fidelity Investments' latest New Year's Financial Resolutions Study released Thursday, savers and would-be savers are less optimistic as they look to the year ahead, according to Fidelity Investments' latest New Year's Financial Resolutions Study.

Of the 66% of respondents who said they intend to make a financial resolution for 2023, 94% said they are approaching it differently due to events over the past few years.

For the first time in its 14 years history, the study found that more Americans 53% plan to focus on short-term goals like paying off credit card debt in their resolutions than on longer-term goals like bolstering retirement accounts.

After another unconventional year, Americans are taking a pragmatic view on their financial situation as 2022 winds down, said Meredith Stoddard, vice president of life events at Fidelity, who told FOX Business that Americans are more thoughtful about saving and spending, planning to proceed with caution when it comes to the year ahead. Stoddard said the optimism signaled in the survey last year has been replaced by concerns about inflation and market volatility.

Only 65% of respondents said they believe that they will be better off next year, down from 72% in 2022's Resolution Survey. Roughly half said this year that they are ready to live sensibly or plan ahead. Inflation was cited by respondents as their top financial setback, just like last year's study.

More than a third of people told Fidelity they had less money this past year because of inflation, and 44% of those who were hit with a financial setback said they had had to dip into their emergency funds as a result of the financial setback.