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This FDIC Consumer News article features tips to help students and their families avoid debt overload as they plan for — and pay for — college, graduate school or other education.

Over the last several decades, there has been a well-documented trend away from defined benefit plans toward defined contribution plans, in which an employee's retirement income depends on contributions to the plan along with the investment earnings on those contributions. Current workers increasingly must decide how much to contribute to retirement plans and how to invest plan contributions. By understanding which personal characteristics are associated with financial literacy, policymakers may target limited education resources to individuals with psychosocial traits that indicate risk for low financial literacy and insufficient retirement planning. Traditional, prior research on financial literacy has examined the impact of mainstay economic variables. This study examines the impact of previously unexplored variables- financial satisfaction, hopelessness and religiosity-on financial literacy. The study uses Health and Retirement (HRS) data and finds that financial satisfaction and religiosity are both significant independent predictors of financial literacy.

Estimate Your Social Security Retirement Benefits Online. The Retirement Estimator is tied to a person’s actual Social Security earnings records and eliminates the need to manually key in years of earnings information.

This article featured in the Winter 2011/2012 edition of FDIC Consumer News provides information about what to do if you have been turned down for opening a checking account or the bank has closed your account and the importance of understanding reasons why.

This special edition of FDIC Consumer News provides simple strategies and practical guidance for borrowing, saving, banking and avoiding Scams for young adults, teens, parents and caregivers.

This edition of FDIC Consumer News focuses on small businesses. They are crucial to the U.S. economy and they're very important to the entrepreneurs who put their own money and long hours into operating and growing a company. If you're a small business owner – or you want to be – read our tips on ways to handle your business' finances, including getting loans, paying for everyday expenses, understanding your rights and responsibilities, and guarding against fraud.

Use savings bonds to plan for your financial future.

This FDIC brochure provides information and advice on overdraft fees.

Minority groups, particularly Hispanics and Blacks, are less likely to use formal financial advice compared to their White counterparts and have lower levels of financial literacy on average. This gap in literacy may have important implications for savings, investing, and retirement planning. To better reach these groups and improve financial literacy, the literature recommends making access to financial education easier, targeting the education to the population, and delivering it through preferred methods. Although they have not been thoroughly evaluated for effectiveness, this chapter provides an overview of several promising, real-world financial education initiatives targeted toward minority populations.

How the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau empowers consumers through financial education, market supervision, and enforcement of financial protection laws.