Vermont ranks highest for savings stress, with economic conditions, market performance and policy concerns surfacing nationwide.

Residents of Vermont are the most stressed about their financial savings, new research by First Merchants Bank has revealed.  

According to a sentiment analysis of more than 10 million geotagged social media discussions posted over the first four weeks of January, 37% of posts about financial savings use stressed language in Vermont, which is considerably higher than the US national average of 25%.  

The following states rank highest for stress levels over savings at the beginning of 2026: 

1. Vermont: 37.1% of savings conversations register as stress  
2. Maine: 35.6%  
3. Wyoming: 35.2%  
4. Iowa: 31.6%  
5. Alaska: 30.7%  
6. Arkansas: 30.2%  
7. Alabama: 30%  
8. Oregon: 29.4%  
9. New Hampshire: 28.6%  
10. Virginia: 28.5%  

What’s driving stress over savings among Americans at the start of January?

Looking at the themes that surface most often in stressed conversations about savings nationwide, First Merchants Bank’s research shows that concerns around longer term financial health and lifetime savings are discussed six times more often than the average topic.  

Talk around the stock market performance also featured heavily, appearing three times more often, while economic policy and the political climate also filter into stressed conversations around savings nearly twice as often as the average topic.  

Throughout the first four weeks of January, negative sentiment rose by an average of 2% per week, with the sharpest jump of just over 4% occurring in the second week, indicating a sustained concern for Americans over their savings for most of the month.