Published by Gbaf News
Posted on April 26, 2018
4 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Personal Financial Satisfaction Index (PFSi) measures the financial pleasure and pain of typical American households
The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) will release the results for the first quarter of 2018 Personal Financial Satisfaction Index (PFSi), a quarterly economic gauge that measures the personal financial standing of a typical American, at 7:00 a.m. EDT, Thursday, April 26.
This quarter’s release is the first time the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been felt in the index. In recent quarters, Americans have been experiencing record high levels of personal financial satisfaction thanks in large part to a surging bull market. Whereas personal taxes have been the largest contributor to financial pain for seven quarters in a row. Now, after the stock market’s recent decline and with the new tax law in effect, the PFSiwill provide an empirical measure of how the average American is feeling about their finances in these dynamic times.
In addition, the AICPA will be releasing new data from Harris Poll which questions Americans about their personal financial satisfaction levels.
The PFSiweighs a variety of economic factors to calculate the personal financial satisfaction of a typical American. Using both proprietary and normalized U.S. government data, the PFSiis comprised of two component indices that measure positive (Personal Financial Pleasure) and negative (Personal Financial Pain) factors equally. As a point of comparison, the University of Michigan’s monthly Consumer Sentiment Survey, questions American households on their financial conditions and attitudes about the economy.
Pleasure factors include the proprietary PFS 750 Market Index, comprised of the 750 largest companies by market capitalization trading on the U.S. market, excluding mutual funds and ETFs. The additional components are the AICPA’s CPA Outlook Index, as well as Real Home Equity Per Capita and Job Openings Per Capita. Pain factors include inflation, personal taxes, loan delinquencies and underemployment.
Additional information on the PFSican be found at: AICPA.org/PFSi.
Personal Financial Satisfaction Index (PFSi) measures the financial pleasure and pain of typical American households
The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) will release the results for the first quarter of 2018 Personal Financial Satisfaction Index (PFSi), a quarterly economic gauge that measures the personal financial standing of a typical American, at 7:00 a.m. EDT, Thursday, April 26.
This quarter’s release is the first time the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been felt in the index. In recent quarters, Americans have been experiencing record high levels of personal financial satisfaction thanks in large part to a surging bull market. Whereas personal taxes have been the largest contributor to financial pain for seven quarters in a row. Now, after the stock market’s recent decline and with the new tax law in effect, the PFSiwill provide an empirical measure of how the average American is feeling about their finances in these dynamic times.
In addition, the AICPA will be releasing new data from Harris Poll which questions Americans about their personal financial satisfaction levels.
The PFSiweighs a variety of economic factors to calculate the personal financial satisfaction of a typical American. Using both proprietary and normalized U.S. government data, the PFSiis comprised of two component indices that measure positive (Personal Financial Pleasure) and negative (Personal Financial Pain) factors equally. As a point of comparison, the University of Michigan’s monthly Consumer Sentiment Survey, questions American households on their financial conditions and attitudes about the economy.
Pleasure factors include the proprietary PFS 750 Market Index, comprised of the 750 largest companies by market capitalization trading on the U.S. market, excluding mutual funds and ETFs. The additional components are the AICPA’s CPA Outlook Index, as well as Real Home Equity Per Capita and Job Openings Per Capita. Pain factors include inflation, personal taxes, loan delinquencies and underemployment.
Additional information on the PFSican be found at: AICPA.org/PFSi.
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