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Negative home equity is due to declines in home values, largely driven by economic factors, and increases in mortgage debt, a decision made by individuals. Yet, empirical research assessing the individual’s role in the occurrence of negative home equity is limited. This study used the 2018 National Financial Capability Study to explore the association between financial literacy, savings, and debt at the individual level on the occurrence of negative home equity. The findings revealed that objective financial knowledge and financial security were negatively associated with the occurrence of negative home equity, while having a home equity loan, using a payday loan, having medical debt, and exceeding credit card limits were positively associated with the occurrence of negative home equity.

Using a sample of 2621 respondents from the 2014 Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this study identifies factors associated with who makes complex financial decisions among older couples. Our results show that the bargaining power of wives has a positive association with their decision-making about savings, investments, and health insurance, while the power of husbands is negatively associated with wives being more responsible for decisions about health insurance and tax filing. Moreover, while the husband’s sense of control, risk tolerance, and cognitive ability are associated with decisions for all financial decisions, the wife’s sense of control, risk tolerance, and cognitive ability are related to some financial decisions only. Our results show some moderating roles of the perceived spousal social support, household income, and mother’s education on the association between the four explanatory variables (bargaining power, sense of control, risk tolerance, and cognitive ability) and who makes the financial decisions. The findings provide potential benefits for older couples who consult financial professionals about financial management.

Farmers as individual financial decision-makers can be better identified as those under the greater responsibility of managing multi-faceted stressful situations in both family and farm management. With using 1044 random sampling survey method, this study investigates how financial stress, financial risk tolerance, locus of control, and financial self-efficacy are associated with the life satisfaction of farmers. By investigating the farmer's financial stress and finance-related psychological factors on their life satisfaction, this study has a purpose to inform financial services professionals, such as financial planners and advisors, of how to better serve a population in the farmland industries. Our findings showed that: (a)_ financial stress decreases the life satisfaction, but farmers show lower maringal effect than the non-farmers; (b) locus of control increases the life satisfaction, but the farmers show smaller marginal effect than non-farmers, and (c) demographic factors show different maringal effects among non-famrers and farmers (i.e., age, education, gender). Overall, identification of themselves as a farmer eased the negative relationship between financial stress and life satisfaction but reduced the positive relationship between locus of control and life satisfaction.

Time orientation influences people’s perception and evaluation of a situation. Satisfaction in the present life and the future life is likely to be affected by one’s time orientation. Using samples of 1829 middle-aged Americans, this study examined the association between individuals’ time orientation and satisfaction with life in general as well as with their financial situation. In this study, we created the future-to-current ratio to assess a person’s relative time orientation tendency between future time orientation and present time orientation. The results indicated that respondents with a higher tendency of holding future time orientation exhibited greater life satisfaction and financial satisfaction of the present. A higher tendency of holding future time orientation also predicted a higher life satisfaction and financial satisfaction of the future. The findings of the study emphasize having a future time orientation is important with regard to well-being.

This study examined the relationship between teaching styles, the gap between students’ expectations and perceptions, and overall class evaluations. Using confirmatory factor analysis and Finite Mi...

Though there is a huge literature on the demand for life insurance, it heavily focuses on demographic and economic factors. This study fills the gap in the current literature by incorporating psychological factor such as an experiencing a death in family members. The goal of this paper is to investigate the effect of death experience on life insurance ownership. Using a data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we find evidence that there is positive association between a death experience and life insurance demand. Also, the model is better explained when both situational and dispositional factors are jointly examined.

When developing effective training programs, it is important to know students’ expectations of laboratory classes. The authors collected 170 surveys from students in one laboratory class to...

This study examines the associations among financial hardship, perception of situation, social support, and perceived stress using data from the second wave of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. Both financial hardship and perception of situation were hypothesized to be positively associated with perceived stress, whereas social support was hypothesized to act as an intervening variable between perception of situation and perceived stress. The results from a structural equation model showed that (a) financial hardship was a precursor of perception of situation, (b) perception of situation exhibited a positive effect on perceived stress, and (c) social support was negatively related to the level of perceived stress.

This study establishes an integrated conceptual framework to examine the influences of financial socialization on young adults’ financial and subjective well-being. Using the National Financial Well-Being Survey and structural equation modeling methods with a national sample of young adults aged 18–35, this study highlights two key potential influences of financial socialization: (a) early financial socialization experience is directly and positively associated with young adults’ financial knowledge and financial motivations (goal-oriented financial planning and self-control ability) and (b) there are indirect and positive associations between financial socialization and young adults’ perceived financial skill, financial behavior, and financial and subjective well-being. Moreover, perceived financial skill significantly mediates the relationship between financial motivations and financial management behavior and could indirectly influence financial and subjective well-being. Finally, this study also finds positive associations among financial management behavior, financial well-being, and subjective well-being of young adults.

The personal finance literature has documented the positive effects of financial knowledge, financial management, and financial self-efficacy on the lives of college students. However, there is a need for a more nuanced examination of how these factors shape financial decision making among African American college students. Using data obtained from the 2014 National Student Financial Wellness Study and structural equation modeling, results indicated that financial knowledge is not directly or indirectly associated with financial self-efficacy for African American students. Only financial management is significantly associated with increased financial self-efficacy. Findings indicate that financial education based on experiential learning may be effective for the well-being of African American students. Further, as the personal finance profession seeks to increase diversity in the field, experiential learning may be the vehicle to attract more African American professionals pursuing financial counseling, planning, and education professions in the future.

The purpose of the study described in this paper was to shed light on the need for alternative methods to improve descriptions and predictions of household financial ratios. Using data from the 2013, 2015, and 2017 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), this study examined the descriptive and predictive power of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model and an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model when evaluating household savings-to-income ratios and debt-to-asset ratios cross-sectionally and across time. Results suggest that ANN models provide a better overall model fit when describing and forecasting financial ratios. Findings confirm that machine learning procedures can provide a robust, efficient, and effective analytic method when an educator, researcher, financial service professional, lender, or policy maker needs to describe and/or predict a household’s future financial situation. Suggestions for the implementation of ANN modeling procedures by household finance researchers, practitioners, and policy makers are provided.

Online surveys are frequently used in higher education to collect students’ opinions. This study investigated the factors associated with students’ willingness to respond to online surveys. Using 540 samples from undergraduate and graduate students in the United States, this study conducted a factor analysis to categorize the reasons that students willingly participate in online surveys. Four factors were identified: Format, Affiliation, Content, and Contact. The regression analysis revealed format was significantly associated with the undergraduate students’ online survey participation, while content was significantly related to the graduate students’ online survey participation. These findings indicate the behavior of responding to online surveys may vary depending on the participants’ educational level. They also suggest a need to develop different strategies when designing online surveys for educational purposes to enhance response rates.

This study examines factors influencing the user acceptance of intranets in the restaurant industry. The study uses the application of the technology acceptance model (TAM) in explaining intranet usage in restaurant operations. The TAM is an exceptional model for which to predict system usage and has been successfully applied to numerous technologies. The original model was modified to include two independent variables: organization support and information quality. The survey collected data from restaurants in the United States. The results of the study showed that perceived usefulness was the main factor influencing intranet acceptance, while organization support, information quality, and perceived ease of use were not significant in the regression analysis. The findings indicate perceived usefulness of intranet use requires focus in order to improve communications in restaurant franchise systems.