Key Insight: Here's why workers earning over $200,000 remain uncertain about their financial allocation decisions.
What's at Stake: Workers who must navigate competing saving priorities without personalized guidance from their employers.
Forward Look: What's coming: Employee expectations shifting toward highly personalized financial guidance.
Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
Most American workers are struggling to balance everyday expenses with saving for the future, a new survey found, highlighting the need for more guidance on retirement planning.
Just 26% of respondents to Vestwell's 2026 Saver Survey said they were very confident they were allocating extra money from each paycheck in the best way
"Savers are overwhelmed by the question of what to do first," said Aaron Schumm, founder and CEO of Vestwell. "A higher salary does not come with an instruction book. We're seeing workers at every income level genuinely unsure whether they should build their emergency fund, pay down debt, or max out their 401(k) to get the full employer match. These are solvable problems that employers and benefits providers are uniquely positioned to help with."
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Adding to this stress over
Other challenges include credit card or consumer debt (38%), lack of emergency savings (32%), student loan payments (20%), and childcare or family expenses (17%).
"This survey confirms and shows that this is not a low-income or moderate-income concern," said Kevin Gaston, head of strategic retirement consulting at Vestwell. "This is across the income bandwidth."
Deciding where to put the next dollar has long been a challenge for workers, Gaston added, but expectations around financial guidance are changing. "I think the challenge now is that people expect and are hoping to get a much more substantial level of personalization," he said. "If you think about education 20 years ago, I'd sit down with you and say, 'What's the right thing for someone like you?' Now I think you're expecting me to say, 'What's the right thing for you specifically?' And your variables can be incredibly different."
Vestwell's survey was conducted in June among a nationally representative sample of around 1,000 employed U.S. adults spanning a broad range of ages, income levels, industries and employer sizes.
Workers need better counsel on building financial security
The survey also examined the connection between emergency savings and retirement planning, finding that 32% of respondents said a lack of an emergency cushion is holding back their retirement contributions. Demand for emergency savings accounts remains strong across all age groups, with workers in their 40s showing the highest interest (44%).
That demand is reflected in employees' views of workplace benefits: 37% identified an employer-sponsored emergency savings account as one of the top benefits that would most
But many workers are still looking for more guidance on how to direct their paycheck dollars
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"I think the employer can turn this from a liability, where they look at it as I have to educate my workforce, into a stability factor," Gaston said. "If I feel like my employer helps me understand my benefits here and my overall picture of what I should be doing, then I'm less worried."
Where workers seek financial guidance also varies by generation: 63% of employees in their 20s turn to friends and family for help, while 53% of workers in their 60s rely on a financial adviser.
"The fact that more people are using AI and social media for financial guidance than their own employer's benefits platform shows both an unmet need and an opportunity," Schumm said. "People need help. If employers don't step in to provide credible resources, workers will continue piecing together consequential financial decisions from fragmented sources that may not reflect their full benefits picture, financial priorities, or personal circumstances."
