RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Now to news of what all that work has led to. It's news from a study released yesterday by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Americans, as a whole, are more financially well-off than they were four years ago. They have less debt. People are setting aside more money for emergencies.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

So the headline is pretty good, although some of the details are not. There's one big source of debt that is not getting cleaned up very quickly. Student loan debt is still huge. And even people who are clearing up debt may not be saving much. Most people are not managing to set aside money for retirement in ways that they used to. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.