The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) has included a 4-level risk tolerance measure since 1983. In 2016 the SCF introduced an additional 11-level risk tolerance measure. We compare the new and old measures, with a regression on the new measure, plus three logistic regressions on cumulative...

Analyses of the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) dataset found that 33% of households had comprehensive financial assets (excluding retirement funds) sufficient to cover 3 months of spending. We conducted a hierarchical model and found that objective literacy (score on a financial...

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...

Early distributions from retirement accounts could endanger future retirement income security, and the U.S. has restrictions to discourage them, including possible tax penalties. On the other hand, tapping one's retirement assets may be rational when an individual encounters financial hardship....

Hypothetical questions were used with 252 students at two universities to elicit values of relative risk aversion and of the elasticity of marginal utility with respect to consumption. Conceptually, the magnitude of these two utility function parameters are plausibly similar, but there was not a...

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of racial/ethnic status on the ratio of financial obligations payments to income among U.S. renter households. The proportion of homeowner households with a ratio over 40% has decreased since 2007, but the proportion of renter...

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%...

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....

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. The journal publishes cutting-edge,...