Considering that at the end of 2017, Americans had incurred $92.2 billion in new credit-card debt, the highest increase since 2007, it's hardly surprising that a lot of people are still having a very hard time of it—despite a booming (well, at the moment, zigzagging) stock market—in the wake of the Great Recession. In fact, according to WalletHub, only two in five adults actually have a budget. In addition, for the first time ever, the total amount of credit card debt among Americans has passed $1 trillion. Better financial education would help, not just for credit card debt but for other shortcomings in people's approaches to money and finance, including spending more than they earn, only paying the minimum on credit card balances, not comparing credit cards before they apply for one and resorting to nonbank lenders for loans. And when WalletHub took a look at all 50 states and the District of Columbia to see how things shook out across the country, it found that some states do much better in this regard than others. States and D.C. were evaluated on 15 key metrics, including their grade on high-school financial literacy, what percentage of their populations had emergency funds, whether they had budgets and whether they overspent their earnings each month. In those better-performing states, the study found, residents are much more savvy about how they handle their funds and approach financial issues in life than others. They actually managed to accumulate rainy-day funds, save for their kids' college education and have a budget to try to achieve their long-term goals. Other states aren't so fortunate, with more payday loans, less comparison shopping and more overspending—interestingly, Washington, D.C. falls into this category, ranking in the bottom 10—and residents have a harder time coping with the fallout of poor financial choices.