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In 1990, the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning (JFCP) was established. The journal publishes academic research on consumer financial decision-making, financial education, counseling, and planning. This article reviews the journal's contents published during the period 1990–2022. It analyzes JFCP's publication trends, citation statistics, significant themes, authors' collaborations, keywords, and contributions to the literature of consumer finance. Most studies employed Life Cycle Hypothesis and Expected Utility Theory. JFCP publishes mostly US-based quantitative empirical studies. JFCP's eight knowledge themes are credit card behavior; financial literacy and financial behavior; financial risk tolerance; financial education, and financial behavior; financial distress and financial self-efficacy; financial well-being; workplace financial education and financial help-seeking behavior, and JFCP's retrospection. Among JFCP's articles, the most used keywords selected by authors are "survey of consumer finances" and "financial literacy." This study also describes the author, country, and concept networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the use of data visualization to improve financial literacy in adults. Using financial knowledge questions as test items this study used an experimental approach. Poisson regression was conducted on responses from 1,797 participants to an online survey via SurveyMonkey. Approximately one-third of respondents were assigned to a text-only group explaining a financial concept, one-third to a group that received a visualization plus text explanation of the concept, and one-third to a control group with no intervention. The findings suggest visualization of data assist in assimilation of financial knowledge compared to no intervention and to text interventions. The study has implications for financial education programs attempting to implement interventions in order to improve financial knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the current status and trends in the past three decades (1990–2019) of the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning (JFCP). Since its first issue published in 1990, JFCP has become a major research outlet in consumer finance. The journal publishes cutting-edge, peer-reviewed, original research papers on consumer financial counseling, planning, and education that have broad impacts on both academic research and business practices in the field of consumer finance. It is included in many major indexes such as Scopus, Emerging Source Citation Index, EconLit, among others. It has published influential papers on consumer financial well-being, financial capability, financial education, financial counseling, financial planning, retirement planning, risk tolerance, and financial behavior change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated Millennials' source selection while searching for financial information to improve financial well-being. Results from an online survey of 488 business students at a Western U.S. university showed that Millennials used multiple sources when looking for financial information, but only sources whose perceived attributes fit the seekers' preferences were considered; respondents favored family, employer/university, and government sources. Associations between personal characteristics (personal financial well-being, financial issue involvement, financial health self-efficacy, gender, and perception of source attributes) and financial information source selection were examined. Findings suggest financial practitioners, universities, and employers can improve their "fit" as financial information sources for Millennials by cocreating financial information with them, tailoring the communication channels, and enhancing the accessibility of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns regarding the adequacy of retirement savings have contributed to the move to encourage better savings behavior. One area of research focuses on understanding the profile of individuals who believe they are preparing adequately for retirement. The current study uses data from a national survey of South Africans to determine how confident workers are about their future retirement income adequacy, and whether behavioral characteristics play a role in their perception of retirement readiness. This study highlights the role that behavioral factors play in perceptions of retirement income adequacy in an African developing market context. In particular, financial risk tolerance, future time perspective, good financial behavior, and self-assessed financial knowledge are all found to be positively related to respondents' retirement confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between financial self-efficacy (FSE) and saving behavior within a sample of 847 U.S. pre-retirees aged 50 to 70 from the Health and Retirement Study. In accordance with the social cognitive theory of self-regulation, results revealed that FSE is positively related to saving behavior after controlling for sociodemographic attributes, financial characteristics, and saving motives. Understanding how FSE contributes to saving behavior is critical as older workers attempt to bridge the retirement saving gap. Financial counselors and planners can help this population save by cultivating and supporting clients' FSE throughout the financial planning and counseling process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field experiments, which are a powerful research technique, are common in some fields, but they have not been widely used in studying the effect of financial and counseling planning interventions. Financial services can benefit from the expanded use of field experiments to explore potential causal mechanisms for the effects of financial planning and counseling interventions. This article describes the value of field experiments as well as the potential problems with the approach, in this context. Researchers and practitioners in financial planning and counseling should explore opportunities to conduct field experiments, especially in situations where studies can be carefully designed and implemented in a standardized way with a sufficient number of people and where valid measures are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing financial advisors during an advisor-intermediated stock-market game was more likely during periods of relative under performance. Immediately prior to changing advisors, brain activation was greater in areas associated with error detection (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) and number comparisons (inferior parietal and middle frontal gyri). This combination of activations was analogous to those associated with choosing to stop chasing losses in a gambling task. Advisors may consider using heuristics from gambling research and investment practice that re-characterize loss experiences as something other than errors. During non-switching "quiet" periods, subjects were more likely to be focusing on the images of advisors, reflected by activation in face-specific visual regions. These results may support client-retention strategies emphasizing personal connections rather than pure numerical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Now in its third decade, the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning evolved to serve the needs of an international research community. The content analysis presented here focuses on the patterns in the second decade of publication (2000-2009), highlighting research and publication trends, and compares them with those of the first decade (1990-1999). Recent changes in the journal's identity and accessibility are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some highly religious individuals contribute a relatively high percent of their income (e.g., 10 - 15% or more) to their faith communities. This study used a racially and religiously diverse sample and employed qualitative methods to investigate why these individuals give. Five themes emerged from the grounded-theory analysis. Four themes concerned why families gave: a) out of a sense of obedience/duty, b) to express thanksgiving and feel joy, c) because they feel that it is a wise investment, and d) to promote social justice and charity. The final theme that emerged was that they give despite their financial challenges. Based on these findings, this study offers suggestions for how financial counselors and planners might provide culturally competent services to highly religious individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary recommends that financial counseling and planning research, education, and practice be framed as an interdisciplinary profession called personal finance. Authors summarize the history of the profession and key theories providing the conceptual foundation. In order for the emerging profession of personal finance to achieve significant visibility and gain maturity, professionals must reach consensus on defining collective scholarship. Readers are encouraged to engage in the dialogue and comment on the call to action by contacting the lead author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to gain an understanding of Accredited Financial Counselors' characteristics and professional activities, an online survey of Accredited Financial Counselors was conducted from December, 2002 to February, 2003. This paper describes the sociodemographic characteristics of Accredited Financial Counselors, reports the non-AFC financial counseling designations held by Accredited Financial Counselors, and provides a sketch of the contexts in which AFC designees are employed, including the type of employer, the number of counseling sessions typically conducted each week, and the average cost of counseling sessions. Suggestions for the growth and development of the financial counseling profession are offered [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]