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Financial Literacy and Retirement Fluency: New insights for improving financial well-being
April 18, 2024The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index), now in its eighth year, annually assesses financial literacy among U.S. adults and examines the relationship between financial literacy and financial well-being. In addition to a robust measure of overall financial literacy,… Read More »
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An unrecognized barrier to retirement income security: Poor longevity literacy
August 21, 2023Longevity literacy is an understanding of how long people tend to live upon reaching retirement age. It is particularly important since retirement income security requires planning, saving, and preparing for a period that is uncertain in length. Unfortunately, data from… Read More »
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How financial literacy varies among U.S. adults: The 2022 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index
April 12, 2022Summary: The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) is an ongoing project now in its sixth year that annually assesses financial literacy among the U.S. adult population. The P-Fin Index is unique in its capacity to produce a robust… Read More »
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Financial literacy and well-being in a five generation America: The 2021 TIAA Insitute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index
October 19, 2021Summary: With five years of the Gen Z cohort now over age 18, the U.S. adult population spans five generations. This report uses data from the 2021 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) to compare financial literacy across the… Read More »
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Financial Well-Being and Literacy in the Midst of a Pandemic: The 2021 TIAA Insitute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index
April 04, 2021Summary: The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) is an annual barometer of knowledge and understanding which enable sound financial decision making and effective management of personal finances among U.S. adults. It is unique in its capacity to examine financial… Read More »
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Black and Hispanic Women’s Financial Well-Being
February 22, 2021Summary: We provide an in-depth examination of the financial well-being of Black and Hispanic women and the factors contributing to it, using the 2018 wave of the National Financial Capability Study. We document meaningful differences between Black and Hispanic women… Read More »
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Building Up Financial Literacy and Financial Resilience
December 14, 2020Abstract: This article uses data from the 2020 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance (P-Fin) Index to show that many American families were financially fragile well before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. economy. Financial fragility is particularly severe among specific demographic groups,… Read More »
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Financial Literacy and Wellness Among U.S. Women: Insights on Underrepresented Minority Women
November 17, 2020Summary: The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) provides an annual measure of overall financial literacy among the U.S. adult population, plus a nuanced analysis of personal finance knowledge across eight functional areas. The 2020 P-Fin Index survey was… Read More »
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Are Americans financially resilient to weather COVID-19?
October 26, 2020Introduction: Financial wellness depends, at least in part, on such knowledge, as demonstrated by four years of findings from the TIAA Institute/GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index). In times that are anything but normal—times like today with the COVID-19 pandemic… Read More »
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Millennials and money: Financial preparedness and money management practices before COVID-19
August 11, 2020Abstract: Millennials (individuals age 18–37 in 2018) are the largest, most highly educated, and most diverse generation in U.S. history, and they are already playing a pivotal role in society by making up the largest share of the work force. Consequently,… Read More »
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Financial Literacy and Wellness among African-Americans: New Insights from the Personal Finance (P-Fin) Index
June 17, 2020The nation’s 44 million African-Americans account for 13% of the U.S. population and have a significant impact on the economy, with $1.2 trillion in purchases annually. Yet the financial well-being of African-Americans lags that of the U.S. population as a… Read More »
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The 2020 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index: Many Do Not Know What They Do and Do Not Know
April 07, 2020Summary: The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) is an annual barometer of knowledge and understanding which enable sound financial decision making and effective management of personal finances among U.S. adults. It is unique in its capacity to examine financial… Read More »
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Millennials and money: The state of their financial management and how workplaces can help them
February 25, 2020Summary: Millennials (individuals age 18–37 in 2018) are the largest, most highly educated, and most diverse generation in U.S. history. Millennials are making financial decisions that will likely shape the future of the U.S. economy for the next 30 years,… Read More »
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Financial Literacy and Wellness among African-Americans: New Insights from the Personal Finance (P-Fin) Index
November 20, 2019Forthcoming in the Journal of Retirement The nation’s 44 million African-Americans account for 13% of the U.S. population and have a significant impact on the economy, with $1.2 trillion in purchases annually. Yet the financial well-being of African-Americans lags that… Read More »
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Debt Close to Retirement and Its Implications for Retirement Well-being
June 19, 2019We analyze debt and debt management of Americans nearing retirement age, and we show that older people have numerous financial obligations that can lead to financial distress. Drawing on the 2015 National Financial Capability Study and an extensive literature review,… Read More »
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Debt Close to Retirement and Its Implications for Retirement Well-being
June 19, 2019Abstract: We analyze debt and debt management of Americans nearing retirement age, and we show that older people have numerous financial obligations that can lead to financial distress. Drawing on the 2015 National Financial Capability Study and an extensive literature… Read More »
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Financial Literacy in the United States and Its Link to Financial Wellness: The 2019 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index
April 02, 2019The 2019 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) represents the third wave of a long-term project to annually assess financial literacy among the U.S. adult population. The P-Fin Index is unique in its capacity to produce a robust measure… Read More »
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Millennial Financial Literacy and Fin-tech Use: Who Knows What in the Digital Era
September 12, 2018Summary: Using an oversample of Gen Y in the 2018 wave of the TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index), this report examines the financial literacy of millennials and how they engage with fin-tech, i.e., use smartphones for financial purposes.
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Causes and Consequences of Financial Mismanagement at Older Ages
April 26, 2018Summary: The consequences of poor financial capability at older ages are potentially serious, particularly when people make mistakes with credit, draw down retirement assets too quickly, or are defrauded by financial predators. Because older persons are close to or past the… Read More »
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The 2018 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index: The State of Financial Literacy Among U.S. Adults
April 04, 2018Summary: The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) is an annual barometer of knowledge and understanding which enable sound financial decision making and effective management of personal finances among U.S. adults. It is unique in its capacity to examine financial… Read More »
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Financial Education, Financial Competence, and Consumer Welfare
December 05, 2017Summary: Employers routinely attempt to address deficiencies in financial decision making among their employees by deploying educational interventions that are brief and laden with motivational rhetoric. The object of the rhetorical elements is to compensate for brevity by making the material… Read More »
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A Method for Evaluating the Quality of Financial Decision Making, with an Application to Financial Education
December 05, 2017Abstract: We introduce a method for measuring the quality of financial decisions built around a notion of financial competence, which gauges the alignment between consumers choices and those they would make if they properly understood their opportunities. We prove our… Read More »
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Financial Literacy Among U.S. Hispanics: New Insights from the Personal Finance (P-Fin) Index
October 13, 2017Summary: This report uses the inaugural wave of the TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) to examine financial literacy among Hispanics. A more refined understanding of Hispanic financial literacy could accelerate initiatives to improve their financial well-being.Personal finance knowledge… Read More »
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Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement
June 30, 2017Abstract: We analyze older individuals’ debt and financial vulnerability using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). Specifically, in the HRS we examine three different cohorts (individuals age 56–61) in 1992, 2004,… Read More »
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The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index: A New Measure of Financial Literacy
March 22, 2017Summary: The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) measures knowledge and understanding which enable sound financial decision-making and effective management of personal finances. It is unique in its capacity to examine financial literacy across eight areas of personal finance in… Read More »
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Financial Capability and Financial Literacy among Working Women: New Insights
March 09, 2017Summary: The following report provides a comprehensive analysis of the personal finances of working women. Using data from the National Financial Capability Study conducted in 2015, we examined the financial capability of working women and how it changed since 2012. The… Read More »
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Women and Retirement Security
September 30, 2016Summary: Our research investigates whether and how older women’s current and anticipated future labor force patterns has changed over time, to evaluate the factors associated with longer work lives and plans to continue working at older ages. For our empirical… Read More »
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Older Women’s Labor Market Attachment, Retirement Planning, and Household Debt
August 31, 2016Abstract: The goal of this paper is to ascertain whether older women’s current and anticipated future labor force patterns have changed over time, and if so, to evaluate the factors associated with longer work lives and plans to continue work at… Read More »