A Financial Literacy Test That Works

Brokers, financial advice providers, and many others need to test peoples’ ability to manage their money. Nevertheless, there are some who debate such tests arguing that they aren’t useful for predicting behavior. But our work has confirmed that there actually IS a short and very effective diagnostic financial literacy test that can be used to measure financial know-how and predict behavior.Read More

Three Cheers For Financial Literacy

Since 2000, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OEDC) has assessed the reading, math, and science knowledge of 15-year-olds around the world every three years.  More recently, since 2012, the program has also measured teen’s financial literacy. The latest findings just released by the OECDs provided small – but consequential – reasons for celebration.Read More

Goals-Based Investing: From Theory to Practice

In the world of financial advice, we are seeing a welcome trend toward goals-based investing. This trend puts a greater focus on the goals that investors want to achieve with their savings —such as retirement security, paying for college or purchasing a house — and uses these goals to drive investment strategy and monitor progress.Read More

Making Your Retirement Savings Last

Ask yourself these questions:
Do you want a guaranteed retirement income stream as long as you live, to protect you against outliving your assets?
Are you nearing retirement?
Are you in a defined contribution pension – either an employer-sponsored 401(k) or 403(b) plan, or an individual Roth or regular IRA?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” reading this post could save you money!Read More

Why Aren’t Consumers Doing Their Part?

Interest rates are nothing more than the cost of spending money today instead of saving it. And a main tool of monetary policy has always been controlling interest rates as a means of stimulating or cooling off economic activity. When central bankers lower interest rates, they encourage people to spend more today. This is because lowering the return on saving encourages firms to hire and invest to meet the increased demand and boosts economic activity.Read More

A Peek Into America’s Pocketbook Reveals Finances Are Improving Slowly, But Surely

Today’s release of the latest National Financial Capability Study shows that we’re doing better protecting ourselves against financial emergencies than in the past. We’re also doing a better job cutting our high-interest debt than previously. Yet our personal finances, particularly the amount of debt we’re taking on, is still troubling.Read More