Many suggestions in personal finance, such as financial ratio guidelines, are based on the assumption of relatively stable household income. However, little research has been conducted on factors related to household income volatility. We calculate the percent change in inflation-adjusted...

We examined the association between financial knowledge overconfidence and the perception of emergency fund needs using the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) dataset. Only 28% of respondents reported a perceived amount of emergency funds needed that would cover at least 3 months of...

Using six Survey of Consumer Finances cross-sectional datasets representing the years 1983-2001, this study investigates changes in financial risk tolerance levels over time. Logit analyses are performed to test changes in risk tolerance, controlling for respondent and household characteristics....

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) has included a 4-level risk tolerance measure since 1983. In 2016, the SCF also included an 11-level risk tolerance measure. We compare the two measures, and develop suggestions for using the new measure. While the new measure is seemingly simpler than the...

This article describes the current status and trends in the past three decades (1990-2019) of the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning (JFCP). Since its first issue published in 1990, JFCP has become a major research outlet in consumer finance. It publishes cutting-edge, peer reviewed,...

The distinction between subjective and objective risk tolerance is illustrated by expected utility analyses of portfolios. Optimal portfolios were derived for one, 5, and 20 year investment horizons for 6 major financial asset categories. The important aspects of objective risk tolerance are the...

This article uses 69 years of real rates of return for six types of financial assets to find efficient portfolios for saving for college, in terms of mean and minimum accumulations. Small stocks are in every efficient portfolio. For 10 and 15 year time frames, the portfolio that was the safest...

Effects of financial and demographic variables on risk tolerance were estimated for households with an employed respondent in the 1992 Survey of Consumer Finances. Logistic regression analysis showed that female headed households were less likely to be risk tolerant than otherwise similar...

We identify and present original analyses of four methodological issues related to using Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) datasets and illustrate these issues with recent articles published in this journal. The issues are: recognizing that the respondent is not necessarily the household head,...

This article focuses on the effect of race and ethnicity on financial risk tolerance. Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to be willing to take some financial risk but more likely to be willing to take substantial financial risk than Whites, after controlling for the effects of other variables....