The numbers on the page can make tomorrow feel very far away. A rising grocery bill, another month of housing costs, the balance in a retirement account — each demands attention now. Meanwhile, the future waits somewhere beyond the immediate arithmetic: trips not yet taken, afternoons with grandchildren, hobbies neglected during working years, perhaps simply the freedom to decide how to spend a Tuesday morning.
That tension between today’s financial pressure and tomorrow’s possibilities sits at the center of new research from Radnor-based Lincoln Financial (NYSE: LNC). More than half of Americans surveyed identify finances as a leading or major source of stress, yet 84% are either motivated to improve their financial wellbeing or have already begun taking action.
The findings, drawn from Lincoln Financial’s Consumer Sentiment Tracker, suggest something more complicated than a nation simply overwhelmed by money worries. Americans are stressed — sometimes enough to affect their health and financial decision-making — but many haven’t surrendered their ambitions for what comes next.
“Financial stress has a way of pulling people into the immediacy of today and making it difficult to focus on tomorrow,” John Kennedy, Lincoln Financial’s executive vice president, chief distribution and brand officer, said. “This research is encouraging because it shows Americans haven’t given up on their future; they are ready to take action.”
When Worry Feeds More Worry
Money ranked ahead of work, health, relationships and current events as a source of stress among those surveyed.
And financial anxiety doesn’t necessarily remain confined to a household budget.
Sixty-seven percent of Americans surveyed reported experiencing physical symptoms of stress. Among respondents experiencing stress, 65% reported that it negatively affects their ability to manage their finances.
Lincoln describes the phenomenon as a “financial stress loop”: Money problems generate stress, which can make managing money more difficult, potentially feeding the very worries that caused the stress in the first place.
The specific anxieties are familiar. Inflation ranks among Americans’ top financial concerns, alongside keeping pace with the rising cost of living and having sufficient income in retirement.
Yet one finding offers a glimpse at what might interrupt that cycle.
People who work with financial professionals were less likely to identify finances as a primary or top stressor. Forty-four percent did so, compared with 54% of U.S. adults overall.
The research does not establish that professional financial guidance caused the difference. But coupled with the finding that 84% of respondents are motivated to act or already doing so, it points toward a broader question: What happens when people can translate financial anxiety into specific decisions?
“The challenge is turning that motivation into momentum,” Kennedy said, “and that starts with giving people practical guidance, simple tools and the confidence to take the first step.”
Putting a Life Behind the Number
Lincoln Financial is trying to shift that conversation through The Action Plan, an advertising campaign built around a deceptively simple premise: Retirement planning shouldn’t begin and end with a target account balance.
Instead, the company is encouraging people to consider what they actually want retirement to look like.
That might mean travel. It might mean outdoor pursuits, more time with family, a long-deferred passion or the freedom to try something entirely new.
The distinction matters because retirement can otherwise become an abstraction — a distant dollar figure attached to a distant age. Giving that figure a purpose can turn an impersonal savings goal into something recognizable.
“Too often, people think financial planning is only about dollars and cents,” Kennedy said. “In reality, people don’t dream about account balances. They dream about travel, time with loved ones, new adventures and the passions they hope to pursue for years to come.”
Lincoln’s campaign is aimed in part at pre-retirees who don’t necessarily imagine their later years as a retreat from activity. The company is positioning planning around the hobbies, relationships and experiences people hope to preserve or expand as they age, then connecting those aspirations to the financial preparation necessary to support them.
It is also, unmistakably, a campaign from a financial-services company whose business benefits when consumers engage more deeply with retirement planning. But the underlying research captures a tension that extends beyond any single company’s products: Americans worried about the cost of living today are simultaneously being asked to prepare for a future that could stretch decades beyond their final paycheck.
Lincoln’s Consumer Sentiment Tracker surveys more than 1,000 U.S. adults each quarter using the Qualtrics platform, with quotas intended to make the sample representative of the adult population. The findings cited in the analysis were collected in January and April 2026.
For all the percentages, however, perhaps the most revealing number is 84%.
It represents people who, despite inflation, rising expenses and the pressure of managing today’s finances, still see something ahead worth planning for.
And perhaps that is where retirement planning becomes less about staring at a number and more about picturing the life on the other side of it — the places still to visit, the people still to sit beside and all those unclaimed Tuesday mornings.
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