Household time preference for US households, as measured by the planning horizon, was fairly stable for many years, but sharply changed with the onset of the Great Recession. Based on an analysis of a combination of the 1992-2013 Survey of Consumer Finances datasets, time preference increased in...

This study used data from the 2015 National Financial Capability Study to analyze the adoption of mobile payments by U.S. households. While 24% of respondents used mobile payments, the mean rate for those under age 25 was 11 times the rate for those 65 and older. State rates ranged from about 9%...

It has been well established in the literature that financial advice leads to informed decision‐making and improved financial outcomes. However, there is limited evidence regarding the link between financial planner use and attitudes toward retirement saving. As financial planners provide...

Lack of financial sophistication has been suggested as a cause of retirement plan failure. We extend previous studies of retirement adequacy by testing the effect of financial sophistication proxies on projected retirement adequacy, using the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) dataset. We...

Consumers face many decisions involving risk, yet some researchers claim that consumers cannot make rational decisions when risk is involved, even when full information is available. A simple normative analysis of decisions about insurance deductibles is presented. Implications for consumer...

This study examines the factors affecting household saving, extending previous research by adding measures of consumer optimism to the variables previous investigators used to analyze saving behavior. In addition to expectations about household income and the economy, we create an optimism...

Although there are over one million same-sex couple households in the United States, there has not been much research on their investment attitudes and behavior. This study uses datasets from the combined 1992, 1995, 1998, and 2001 Surveys of Consumer Finance to compare same-sex couples to other...

Most research studying family financial behavior of racial/ethnic groups has ignored Asian households or arbitrarily combined them with other racial/ethnic groups. We treated Asian households as a separate racial/ethnic group to compare twelve financial behaviors and attitudes of Asian...

We investigated racial/ethnic differences in high return investment ownership using the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Logistic regression analysis shows that even after controlling for income, risk tolerance, education, and other factors, Black and Hispanic households are less likely...

Some textbooks suggest using financial ratios to provide simple indicators of whether households are making appropriate financial decisions. We investigate three investment ratios mentioned in textbooks: investments to net worth, investments to annual income, and investments to total assets. We...