MyMoney Resources - MyMoney Five

Determine how long it will take to pay off your debt based on different monthly payment scenarios.

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.

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.

Three steps to take when you don't have enough money to pay your credit card bill. How to avoid debt-counseling scams.

Traditional economic theory posits that people make decisions by maximizing a utility function in which all of the relevant constraints and preferences are included and weighed appropriately. Behavioral economists and decision-making researchers, however, are interested in how people make decisions in the face of incomplete information, limited cognitive resources, and decision biases. Empirical findings in the areas of behavioral economics and judgment and decision making (JDM) demonstrate departures from the notion that man is economically rational, illustrating instead that people often act in ways that are economically suboptimal. This article outlines findings from the JDM and behavioral-economics literatures that highlight the many behavioral impediments to saving that individuals may encounter on their way to financial security. I discuss how behavioral and psychological issues, such as self-control, emotions, and choice architecture can help policymakers understand what factors, aside from purely economic ones, may affect individuals’ savings behavior.

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

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.

Increased policy and academic attention has been placed on promoting retirement savings early in the life course. This study investigates the extent to which retirement savings behavior among young persons, a population for which retirement savings is important but typically low, differs by marital status. We draw national survey data on young adult households (ages 22 – 35; N = 3,894) from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Results reveal considerable differences by marital status. Controlling for important characteristics, young adults who were married were more likely than all other groups (including cohabitors) to perceive retirement as an important savings goal and to have an individual retirement account. Married persons were more likely than their single counterparts to participate in a defined contribution pension plan. Single women fared particularly poorly on retirement savings outcomes. A range of possible theoretical links between marriage and retirement savings at young adulthood are discussed.