Less pain, more gain

Significant declines in inflation and loan delinquencies helped Americans feel more satisfied with their personal finances in the fourth quarter than they were one year ago, an accounting trade group says.

The American Institute of CPAs calculates personal financial satisfaction by measuring various indices it categorizes under pleasure or pain. The sum total of all indices registered a 134% annual increase in personal finance satisfaction in the fourth quarter, the organization says.

For the pleasure index, the institute considers the performance of the PFS 750 Market Index, the largest 750 U.S. companies by market capitalization. It also considers the outlook of CPAs it polls, the increase in Americans' home equity and the number of job openings per capita. For pain, the group considers underemployment, inflation, taxes and loan delinquencies.

Much of the fourth-quarter satisfaction is because pain indices dropped a steep 19.1% compared with one year ago. The decline of inflation driven by lower oil prices, drops in loan delinquencies and underemployment all translated into less pain for Americans.

The pleasure indices fell 2%, driven lower by a dimmer CPA Outlook and decline in the market capitalization of the 750 largest U.S. companies. Home equity and job openings mostly offset that.