The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) measures knowledge and understanding that enable sound financial decision making and effective management of personal finances among U.S. adults. The P-Fin Index is an annual survey developed by the TIAA Institute and the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, in consultation with Greenwald & Associates. It is unique in its breadth of questions and its coverage of the topics that measure financial literacy. The index is based on responses to 28 questions across eight functional areas: earning, consuming, saving, investing, borrowing/managing debt, insuring, comprehending risk, and go-to information sources.

• Financial literacy among women has consistently lagged that of men. There is a 10-point gender gap in the percentage of index questions correctly answered in 2024.
   
• Financial literacy levels among Asian and White Americans are roughly equal. Likewise, financial literacy levels among Black and Hispanic Americans are roughly equal, albeit at lower levels.
   
• Financial literacy tends to be low across generations, but particularly so among Generation Z—on average, Gen Z correctly answered only 37% of the index questions in 2024.
   
• Functional knowledge is substantially lower among Gen Z compared with Generation Y, Generation X, and baby boomers in all eight areas examined. Comprehending risk is the area with the least generational variation in functional knowledge; even older adults with more experience in financial decision-making score low on risk-related questions.
   

• Analogous to overall financial literacy, functional knowledge levels among women tend to lag those of men, and the gap is statistically significant across all functional areas.
   
• Compared with those with a very high level of financial literacy, those with a very low level are twice as likely to be debt-constrained; three and one-half times more likely to be financially fragile; four times more likely to lack one month of emergency savings; three times more likely to be not at all confident in their retirement income prospects; and three times more likely to spend 10-plus hours per week on personal finance issues.
   
• Twenty-six percent of those who correctly answered 4 or 5 of the retirement fluency questions are very confident they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout retirement, while only 7% are not at all confident. These figures are essentially flipped among those who didn’t correctly answer any of the questions (29% and 10%, respectively).