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If you are having difficulty making your mortgage payment, one of the most important things you can do is seek assistance. This website provides information and links to agencies and organizations that may be able to help you with mortgage payments and keep your home.

The Federal Reserve Banks have established Foreclosure Resource Centers to help address local and regional challenges in their mortgage markets and local communities. The site probides background information and links regional foreclosure centers, where you’ll find resources for small municipalities, housing counselors, and consumer and community groups.

If you are in the market for a loan or credit, a home equity plan is one of several options that might be right for you. This website provides details about home equity loans and gives tips for shopping for this form of loan.

This Department of Agriculture website provides information on an array of topics around Financial Security. It includes information on the work of land-grant university partners and Cooperative Extension, to help youth, economically-vulnerable individuals and families, and consumers making financial decisions. It also includes information on research focused on household savings behavior and family-owned businesses.

This website provides information that can help you and your family adapt to tough economic times. The features resources include brochures, articles, and links to other pages about money management.

Instructional materials and tools that can increase your understanding of the Federal Reserve system, economics and financial education. All of the Fed web sites, curriculum, newsletters, booklets and other resources are free.

Abstract: American women tend to be less financially literate than men, which is consistent with a household division of labor in which men manage finances. However, women also tend to outlive their husbands, so they will eventually need to take over this task. Using a new survey of older couples, I find that women acquire financial literacy as they approach widowhood. At an estimated increase of 0.04 standard deviations per year approaching widowhood, 80 percent of women in the sample would catch up with their husbands prior to the expected onset of widowhood.

We present new experimental evidence on heterogeneity in the formation of inflation expectations and relate the variation to economic literacy and demographics. The experimental design allows us to investigate two channels through which expectations-formation may vary across individuals: (1) the choice of information and (2) the use of given information. Subjects who are more economically literate perform better along both dimensions—they choose more-relevant information and make better use of given information.

Household financial planning can be challenging and household members often lack basic financial literacy skills. This paper discusses the potential and pitfalls of one approach to solving these problems—the development and dissemination of financial guidelines simple enough to be explained in graphic form. The discussion is motivated by the history of nutritional guidelines, namely the Food Pyramid and MyPlate.