Individual

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.

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

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

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.

The majority of research on the retirement decision has focused on the health and wealth aspects of retirement. Such research concludes that people in better health and those enjoying a higher socioeconomic status tend to work longer than their less healthy and less wealthy counterparts. While financial and health concerns are a major part of the retirement decision, there are other issues that may affect the decision to retire that are unrelated to an individual’s financial and health status.

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.

This article provides an overview of the literature on best practices for retirement savings plan design and financial education in the workplace. Without a successful plan design, financial education will not be effective and even a well-structured plan can fail to achieve retirement savings goals without financial education. The main components of a retirement savings program that employers must consider include options for enrollment, investment choices, employer matching of contributions, and distributions over the working career and at retirement.

The practice of spreading money among different investments to reduce risk is known as diversification. By picking the right group of investments, you may be able to limit your losses and reduce the fluctuations of investment returns without sacrificing too much potential gain. To learn more about this investment strategy, read the SEC’s online materials on diversification.

What you must know about debit card and ATM overdraft coverage. Plus, how to reduce or eliminate debit card and ATM overdraft fees.

How the CFPB serves the unique challenges and financial education needs of military service members facing deployment, change of duty stations, and emergencies.