Are You Financially Fit? Exclusive Survey from Fitness Magazine & Yahoo! Finance Reveals the Bottom Line on How Men & Women Deal with Dollars & Sense

SUNNYVALE, Calif., & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jennifer Aniston may be one of Hollywood’s sexiest celebs, but 82% of women polled for a new survey from FITNESS Magazine and Yahoo! Finance said they would rather win $10,000 than have her body. Considering that 40% of women admitted they have just enough cash to cover their monthly bills, the survey showed adults are still struggling in today’s economy. The exclusive survey asked 2,000 women and men to reveal their spending and saving habits and how important having money really is.

The results appear in the April 2012 issue of FITNESS, on stands March 13th, 2012, and online at Yahoo! Finance, the Web's leading financial resource, and Fitness Online. Highlights from the findings are below.

Financial Fitness
40% of women have just enough money to pay their bills each month, but no cushion for emergencies.
Here’s how both sexes stacked up:
	∙	Enough to pay bills, but no cushion	38%
	∙	Enough money for emergencies	29%
	∙	Stretched thin & behind on bills	13%
	∙	Up to my ears in debt	9 %

Tax Refund
42% of adults, and 45% of women, said they will use their tax return to pay their bills, while 32% will save it. Only 11% would use the money to splurge on a vacation or buy something nice for their kids.

Most Overpaid Celebs
Snooki and Kim Kardashian are the celebrities that adults think make more money than they deserve.
	∙	Snooki	51%
	∙	Kim Kardashian	45%
	∙	LeBron James	24%
	∙	Simon Cowell	21%

Money Well Spent
Adults would rather spend their money on a weekly dinner out (63%) than a weekly gym class they love (20%). Older adults are more likely to opt for the dinner while younger adults are more likely to choose a weekly gym class.

Dollars & Sense
	∙	49% of adults say they share control of finances with their significant others, but 41% claim they have sole control.
	∙	Men and women agree that money is the No.1 issue couples fight about (26%), followed by chores (13%), kids (8%), sex (8%), and in-laws (8%).
	∙	64% of adults admit being healthy, happy, and fit for life is worth more to them than never having to worry about money again.
	∙	55% of adults say they are a combination of frugal and spendthrift in their relationships; 29% admitted to being the frugal and 16% said they were the spender.

Tips for Saving Money from Farnoosh Torabi, host of “Financially Fit” on Yahoo! Finance
	∙	Track your spending – Logging the dollars you shell out each day will help you make better decisions and avoid impulse-buying. Use free apps like Bundle that help you keep tabs on your expenses.
	∙	Make a deal – At least once a year, call your cable, cell phone, car, and home insurance companies to ask for a better rate. Companies might be willing to negotiate if they think you’re shopping around because it’s easier to keep a customer than to find a new one.
	∙	Watch out for sneaky bank fees – Banks have recently instituted new charges, including higher maintenance fees on checking accounts, charges for making deposits using smartphones, etc.

Full survey results available by request.
Watch Financially Fit on Yahoo! Finance, hosted by Farnoosh Torabi here: http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/
Follow Yahoo! Finance on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Yahoofinance
Follow Yahoo! Finance on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/yahoofinance
Follow FITNESS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/FitnessMagazine
Follow FITNESS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/fitnessmag

About the Survey:
Yahoo! partnered with Ipsos MediaCT to conduct the Yahoo! Finance Financially Fit survey in November 2011. We interviewed n=2,000 Americans ages 18 to 64 representative of the U.S. online population via an online quantitative survey.

About FITNESS magazine
Launched in 1992, FITNESS magazine is a leading source for all the latest news on health, nutrition and exercise. The magazine and its partner website, fitnessmagazine.com, are devoted to delivering strategies and tools that help women make little changes to achieve big success. With a you-can-do-it attitude, our workouts, health and beauty advice, diet plans and success stories motivate readers to get strong in mind, body and spirit. The magazine empowers women to embrace fitness as a lifestyle—not an age or dress size—and to change the conversation from "skinny" to "healthy." FITNESS is published 10 times a year by Meredith Corporation [NYSE: MDP], with a rate base of 1.5 million and an audience of 7.4 million readers. For more information, please visit www.fitnessmagazine.com.

About Yahoo!
Yahoo! is the premier digital media company, creating deeply personal digital experiences that keep more than half a billion people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the globe. And Yahoo!’s unique combination of Science + Art + Scale connects advertisers to the consumers who build their businesses. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.com) or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).