A new study from CreditCards.com ranks the best and the worst states in the county for managing their money.
The report looked into areas like income and average FICO credit scores to create the ranking.
South Dakota ranked No. 1 in the study, beating Montana, which took the top spot the last time this report came out in 2016.
Seven out of the top ten states in the study lean republican, while eight of the bottom ten leaned democrat.
Utah's result in the study is outside of this trend though. We came in 33rd place, tied with Louisiana.
Study authors say the cost of living and the cost of lifestyle are the main reasons for lower rankings.
Gary Gygi with Gygi Captial Management has some advice for those looking to manage their money better:
- Live within your means, don't spend more than you bring in income.
- If you have debt for education or home pay it off as soon as you can.
- Use credit cards to create good credit history but pay them off monthly, if unable to do that then pay down the highest interest rates first.
- Establish savings and proper insurance.
- Invest in the future in a diversified way.
Some of the states with the best credit scores in the study had middle to low incomes.
South Dakota, the top-ranked state on the list, had the second-best FICO score of 727, but the average income of the state, at $56,274, was ranked 33 out of 51.
