The intention of this study was to document how closely households follow normative descriptions of financial behavior in relation to their financial planning horizon. Modern Portfolio Theory predicts that households, in general, exhibit risk aversion. Aversion to wealth volatility should...

The purpose of this study was to test several propositions imbedded in Stanley and Danko's (1996) ground breaking book, The Millionaire Next Door. Given the book's impact in shaping the type of advice provided by those in the media and many financial planners and wealth managers, this study was...

This paper uses the most recent wave of a nationally representative dataset to examine the factors associated with elderly homeowners' decision to obtain reverse mortgage loans. The findings of this study suggest that very few homeowners participated in the reverse mortgage market, and...

Frequent shifting of household portfolio composition may erode wealth due to poor market timing and transaction costs. If household preferences are stable, the optimal wealth maximizing strategy is periodically rebalancing to maintain a relatively constant ratio of investment assets to wealth...

Frequent shifting of household portfolio composition may erode wealth due to poor market timing and transaction costs. If household preferences are stable, the optimal wealth maximizing strategy is periodically rebalancing to maintain a relatively constant ratio or investment assets to wealth...

The capital accumulation ratio (CAR) is commonly used in academic research as a measure of household portfolio quality. This study tested whether a higher initial CAR impacts change in wealth over a decade among households in the accumulation life cycle stage. Meeting the 25% CAR guideline...

This study uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine whether self-regulation, proxied by regularly dining together with family, is associated with better financial preparedness and greater wealth accumulation across time among households. Findings reveal that individuals who...

This paper examines the association between stock market return expectations and financial wealth holdings of older adults using the 2016 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Our study finds that less than 30% of individuals assigned a greater than 50% probability that the market will earn a...

This paper investigates whether false confidence, as characterized by a high level of personal mastery and a low level of intelligence (IQ), results in frequent investor trading and subsequent investor wealth erosion across time. Using the National Longitudinal Survey (NLSY79), change in wealth...