Long-term unemployment, stagnant wage growth and growing debt have taken a toll on the financial security of many Ohioans who are likely to be among the 28 percent of all Americans who say they are in worse financial shape now than a year ago, according to a Bankrate.com survey released Wednesday.

“I think there are some people who feel hopeless…in terms of trying to meet expenses and so forth, ” said Melodee Sheils, director of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the Miami Valley. “But they’re not really doing anything, not even taking baby steps, to move themselves forward and get back on track.”

That was evident in the Bankrate.com survey, which found that regardless of income, nearly 40 percent of adults do not track their spending or keep a monthly budget.

Maintaining a budget is particularly important in Ohio, where median household income, when adjusted for inflation, declined to $46,093 in 2010 - the lowest level in more than 25 years.

“Even if you don’t have a whole lot of money to budget, you still need to prioritize your spending,” Sheils said. “If you want to spend this amount of money in one area, then you need to figure out how you can otherwise meet your other obligations. So many people are out of touch with what the reality is, they don’t have a clue about what their financial situation is.”

People’s views about their financial situation vary by age, education, income and even political affiliation, according to the survey, which found:

• 30 percent of those with some college education say they are better off than a year ago, compared to 13 percent who did not attend college.
• 34 percent of those earning less than $50,000 per year say they are worse off, versus 20 percent of those earning $50,000 or more.
• 29 percent of those older than 50 say their net worth is lower today than 12 months ago; 12 percent of people younger than 30 say the same.
• And, about a third of Republicans - 32 percent - say they are more comfortable with the amount of debt they have than a year ago, compared to 24 percent of Democrats.

The Bankrate.com survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percent and was based on telephone interviews with more than 1,000 adults conducted earlier this month.

It mirrors the results of an earlier study evaluating the financial security of Ohio residents conducted by the Corporation for Enterprise Development.

CFED’s “assets and opportunity scorecard” found that 27 percent of Ohio households are asset poor, or have little or no financial cushion to rely on in case of emergency.

Ohio ranked 37th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of the percentage of residents who could come up with $2,000 in a pinch.

Most of the households studied were led by people earning a regular paycheck, according to the report’s authors.