Whose assets? Individual and household income and savings and mental health in a longitudinal cohort

While there is a growing understanding of the link between financial assets and mental health, the literature is lacking in two dimensions. First, although wealth (including savings) may better inform ability to cope with life's stressors than income alone, the role of wealth in shaping health is substantially understudied relative to income. Second, most studies measure income at the household level instead of the individual level. Using five waves of the nationally representative CLIMB survey collected in Spring 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, we estimated the odds of probable depression (Patient Health Questionnaire, PHQ-9≥10) and anxiety (GAD-7≥10) across individual and household level income and savings using generalized estimating equations to account for clustering over time at the individual level and to account for baseline mental health. Our sample included 1,314 participants across the five waves of the CLIMB survey. The average age of participants was 46.5 years [sd: 16.4] in 2020. When controlling for demographic variables, each financial asset was independently associated with mental health. In fully adjusted models where savings and income at the individual and household level were included, for every $10,000 more that an adult reported in individual annual income, they had 0.95 times the odds of probable depression (95%CI: 0.92, 0.99) and 0.95 time the odds of probable anxiety (95%CI: 0.91, 0.99), translating to 5% lower odds. Having $10,000 more in individual savings was associated with 0.95 times the odds of probable anxiety (95%CI: 0.91, 0.99). These findings suggest that 1) financial assets were each independently associated with mental health, 2) having higher individual income was associated with mental health even when adjusting for financial assets at the household and individual level, and 3) higher individual savings were associated with lower probable anxiety. Individual-level financial assets may be associated with mental health differently than household-level financial assets.