Minnesotans Are Among Nation’s Best When It Comes To Budgeting

With money getting tighter and tighter over the last few years, budgeting has become a necessary step toward financial security. With that being said, which states are able to boast the 'best budgeters?'

WalletHub's Chip Lupo analyzed data from each of the 50 states to come up with a definitive ranking of the best and worst states for planning personal finances.

“Not having a budget sets you up for financial failure. If you don’t carefully plan out and track how much of your income you can dedicate toward each of your expenses and other financial priorities each month, it’s easy for frivolous spending to get out of hand and prevent you from saving money, investing or even keeping up with your bills, Lupo said. 

Unfortunately, many people were never taught how to budget, so states should strongly consider requiring instruction on budgeting in schools.”

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WalletHub used three key dimensions when conducting the study: Spending/Debt, Credit and Savings.

"We evaluated those categories using 12 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the best budgeting skills," WalletHub said. 

Finally, we determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states."

The bottom five states when it comes to budgeting are (in order) Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Oklahoma and Alabama.

The top five were (in order) Hawaii, Washington, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

The great state of Minnesota ranked #6 overall in WalletHub's study, ranking 11th in 'debt,' 1st in 'credit' and 5th in 'savings.'

For more information on this study, check it out in full on the WalletHub website.