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The purpose of this study is to examine the association between financial capability and informal bankruptcy, especially among families in which the respondent and/or spouse borrowed student loans to fund their own education and families that did not have such loans.

US nationally representative data were employed. Three family types were used, families with student loans borrowed to fund respondent and/or spouse's education and education was completed (type 1 holders) or not completed (type 2 holders), and families that did not borrow student loans for respondent and/or spouse's education (non-holders). Informal bankruptcy was measured by being insolvent and late in debt payment for 60 or more days. Financial capability was measured by both an index and its various components. Multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to examine associations between financial capability and informal bankruptcy.

Generally, financial capability was negatively associated with informal bankruptcy, and student loan holders were more likely to be informally bankrupt than non-holders. However, such negative associations were statistically significant for type 1 holders and non-holders but insignificant for type 2 holders. Two desirable financial behaviors (information search and online banking) reduced the chance of informal bankruptcy for type 2 holders.

First, cross-sectional data cannot establish a causal relationship. Second, findings using data from a single country may not be generalized to other countries.

Financial service professionals should help loan applicants evaluate the necessity of borrowing. Banking professionals can use the findings to develop products to meet different consumer needs. Financial educators should target different groups with different strategies in financial capability education. Policymakers should develop policies helping student loan holders complete education funded by student loans.

This study examines factors related to informal bankruptcy, providing insights to warning signs of bankruptcy. This study explores the potential effect of a new factor, financial capability, on informal bankruptcy, filling in a gap in the bankruptcy literature. This study recognizes differences in informal bankruptcy among various types of families and examines the different effects of financial capabilities on informal bankruptcy for different types of families.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate roles of financial literacy, financial behavior, and financial capability as mediating factors between financial education and financial satisfaction.

Data are from the 2012 National Financial Capability Study, a large national data set with detailed information on financial satisfaction, education, literacy, behavior, capability, and related variables. Mediation analyses are used to answer research questions.

Financial education may affect financial satisfaction, a subjective measure of financial well-being, through financial literacy, financial behavior, and financial capability variables. Results show that subjective financial literacy, desirable financial behavior and a financial capability index (a sum of Z-scores of objective financial literacy, subjective financial literacy, desirable financial behavior, and perceived financial capability) are strong mediators between financial education and financial satisfaction.

The study has used cross sectional data that can only document associations between financial education and satisfaction and the mediators between them. Future research could use relevant longitudinal data to verify multiple benefits of financial education.

The findings have implications for financial service professionals to take advantages of multiple benefits of financial education in content acquisition, confidence in knowledge and ability, and action taking when they communicate with their clients.

Policy makers on consumer financial education may use the information to advocate and promote effective education programs to improve consumer financial well-being.

This study is the first of this kind to examine the association between financial education and financial satisfaction and several financial capability variables as mediating factors.

In recent decades, research on consumer debt and well-being is emerging. However, research on the potential effect of debt portfolios on family financial well-being is limited. The purpose of this study is to fill this research gap by examining the potential effect of debt portfolios on family financial well-being, measured by three indicators of progressive financial burdens. These indicators include debt pressure (debt payment to income ratio >40%), debt delinquency (60+ days late for debt payments) and insolvency (total liability > total asset). Debt portfolios refer to various combinations of mortgage, credit card, vehicle, education and other loans.

With data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances in the USA, multivariate logistic regressions are used to identify specific debt types, consumer backgrounds and financial capability factors that are significantly associated with debt burden indicators. The findings are used to create a table demonstrating warning debt portfolios that may lead to undesirable financial outcomes.

Holdings of different types of debts are associated with different financial burdens. Specifically, holdings of three types of debts (mortgage, vehicle and other debts) tend to increase debt pressure; holdings of two types of debts (education and other debts) tend to increase debt delinquency; and holdings of four types of debts (mortgage, credit card, education and other debts) tend to increase insolvency. These results are used to construct warning debt portfolios that show greater chances of undesirable financial outcomes. Among them, the top warning portfolio for debt pressure is the combined holding of mortgage-vehicle-other debts; for debt delinquency is the holding of education-other debts; and for insolvency is the holding of mortgage-credit card-education-other debts.

This study is limited by using only cross-sectional survey data to examine associations between debt portfolios and financial burdens. To examine the causality of debt portfolios on financial burdens, appropriate panel data are necessary, which is a direction for future research. In addition, this study used data from only one developed country. In future research, data from more countries, including both developed and developing countries, should be analyzed to verify if similar relationships exist among families in other countries.

Results of this study have implications for practitioners in banking and other financial institutions. The study presents a comprehensive list of debt portfolios in the order from high risk to low risk in terms of financial burdens. Banking and other financial service professionals can use the information to help their clients make informed borrowing decisions, predict their debt burdens and offer early preventions based on their clients' debt portfolios. Marketing strategists can use the information for effective segmentation and promotion purposes.

This study utilizes a new concept, debt portfolios and examines its associations with family financial burdens. Financial burdens include three indicators that are seldom used together in previous research. These indicators conceptually indicate various severity levels of debt burdens. This study also presents a conceptual discussion on the association between debt portfolios and financial burdens and provides a better understanding of consumer debt behavior and its consequences. The warning debt portfolios constructed based on the findings have direct managerial implications for banking and other financial service professionals.

Financial inclusion can be proxied by banking status. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential effects of financial capability on the financial fragility of US adults with various banking statuses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study utilized the 2021 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) dataset to investigate the relationship between financial capability and financial fragility among consumers with different banking statuses. The analysis controlled for employment shocks, health shocks and other consumer characteristics. Banking statuses included fully banked, under-banked (utilizing both banking and alternative financial services) and unbanked individuals. Logistic regression analyses were conducted on both the entire sample and subsamples based on banking statuses.

The results showed that financial capability was negatively associated with financial fragility. The magnitude of the potential negative effect of financial capability was the greatest among the fully banked group, followed by the underbanked and unbanked groups. Respondents who were underbanked or unbanked were more likely to experience financial fragility than those who were fully banked. Additionally, respondents who were laid off or furloughed during the pandemic were more likely to experience financial fragility than those without employment shocks. The effect size of financial capability factors was greater than that of COVID-19 shock factors. These results suggest that higher levels of both financial capability and financial inclusion may be effective in reducing the risk of financial fragility.

This study represents one of the first attempts to examine the potential effects of financial capability on financial fragility among consumers with various banking statuses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this study offers new evidence to determine whether COVID-19 shocks, as measured by health and employment status, are associated with financial fragility. Additionally, the effect size of financial capability factors is greater than that of COVID-19 shock factors. The results from the 2021 NFCS dataset provide valuable insights for banking professionals and public policymakers on how to enhance consumer financial wellbeing.

This study aims to examine the literature on consumer financial capability. By analyzing the research trends, theories, definitions and themes, the literature on financial capability is synthesized, and agenda for future research is suggested. A framework is presented that portrays the antecedents as well as the outcomes of financial capability and their interlinkages.

Following a systematic approach, the review is based on 215 articles published during January 2007 and–March 2022, retrieved from Scopus. It presents the definitions and theories of financial capability, publication trends, influential articles, prominent authors, prolific journals and countries publishing on financial capability. Using bibliographic coupling, the intellectual structure of the topic is explored, along with offering a framework through content analysis.

The bibliographic coupling analysis identifies four major clusters of research themes and capability theory appeared to be the most prominent theory. The synthesis draws upon five conceptual definitions of financial capability. Based on the discussion, in this review, financial capability is defined as an individual ability to apply appropriate financial knowledge, perform desirable financial behaviors and take available financial opportunities for achieving financial well-being. A conceptual framework delineates the synthesized literature and propositions based on this framework and relevant research are proposed. Finally, directions for future research are discussed.

This paper is an attempt to offer a comprehensive synthesis of the scholarship on financial capability and its conceptualization. It further proposes an extensive future research agenda. The study has implications for financial services providers relating to retail bank marketing.

The purpose of this literature review paper is to define consumer finance, describe the scope of consumer finance and discuss its future research directions.

In this paper, consumer finance is used as a synonym of household finance. Consumers refer to individuals and families. After defining the term “consumer finance,” we conducted a critical review of consumer finance as an interdisciplinary research field in terms of money managing, insuring, borrowing and saving/investing. Future research directions are also discussed.

This paper discusses similarities and differences among several terms such as consumer finance, household finance, personal finance, family finance and behavioral finance. The paper also reviewed key studies on consumer financial behavior around four key financial functions, namely, money management, insurance, loan and saving/investment and several nontraditional topics such as fintech and financial capability/literacy. The paper also introduced several datasets of consumer finance commonly used in the United States and China.

This paper clarified several similar terms related to consumer finance and sorted out the diverse literature of consumer finance in multiple disciplines such as economics, finance and consumer science, which provide a foundation for generating more fruitful research in consumer finance in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current state of research on Personal Financial Management Behavior (PFMB), with a prime focus on its antecedents and the consequences. By analyzing the research trends, methods, determinants and outcomes, the PFMB literature is synthesized, and agenda for future research is suggested. A framework is presented that portrays PFMB's antecedents and consequences and further specification of the mediation and moderation linkages.

The review is based on 160 articles published during 1970–2020. It follows a systematic approach and presents the definitions and theories of PFMB, publication trends based on time, region, sample population, research designs, data collection and analysis techniques, along with antecedents and outcomes through content analysis.

The synthesis draws upon various factors affecting PFMB, such as demographics, socio-economic, psychological, social, cultural, financial experience, financial literacy (FL) and technological factors. The prominent outcomes of PFMB include financial satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, quality of life, financial success, happiness, financial vulnerability/resilience and financial well-being. The future research agenda sums up the recommendations in the form of research questions on variables and their linkages, followed by methodological advancements.

This paper covers the scholarly work done in this area in the past 51 years. To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt to offer a most comprehensive and collective scholarship of this subject. It further gives an extensive future research agenda.

This study aims to examine the association between parental financial socialization and life satisfaction and the mediating roles of desirable financial behavior in the association between parental financial socialization and life satisfaction of college students in India. Furthermore, this research also explores the moderating effects of parents’ socioeconomic characteristics (education, income and professions) in the association between parental financial socialization and desirable financial behavior.

A sample of 1,161 college students was collected in India. Parental financial socialization is measured by direct parental teaching in this study. The first stage moderated mediation model is performed to examine the direct and indirect effects through financial behavior of parental financial on life satisfaction as well as the moderating role of parents’ socioeconomic characteristics.

The mediation analysis shows that parental direct teaching is positively associated with young adults’ financial behavior, which in turn contributes to their life satisfaction. Furthermore, this study also finds negative moderation effects of parental education on the association between parental direct teaching and children's financial behavior.

This study extends the knowledge of family financial socialization in the context of India. Moreover, it examines the mediation roles of desirable financial behavior in the association between parental direct teaching and children’s life satisfaction. Furthermore, this paper explores the potential influence of parents’ education, income and professions on children’s financial behavior and life satisfaction.

This paper aims to examine and compare the associations between financial capability and financial anxiety (FA) before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Specifically, financial capability is measured by three indicators: financial knowledge, financial behavior and financial confidence. This study also examines and compares the association among different income groups before and during the pandemic.

Data are from 2018 to 2021 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). Structural equation modeling (SEM) is employed to examine the direct and indirect associations between financial capability factors and FA. Furthermore, this paper also conducts multi-group SEM for three income groups to examine the heterogeneous effects of household income.

Both before and during the pandemic, financial knowledge is directly positively and financial behavior is directly negatively associated with FA. In addition, both financial knowledge and financial behavior are positively associated with financial confidence, which in turn is negatively associated with FA. However, when taking the indirect effects into consideration, the total effects of financial capability factors on FA are all negative. Furthermore, the pandemic has intensified the negative association between financial behavior and FA rather than financial knowledge or financial confidence. Multi-group SEM shows that the positive direct effects of financial knowledge are only significant in the low-income group, while the negative direct effects of financial behavior are only significant in the low- and middle-income groups before the pandemic. However, direct effects of financial knowledge and financial behavior are significant in all income groups during the pandemic.

First, this study specifies a construct, financial confidence, to proxy perceived financial capability. Second, it examines the mediating role of financial confidence in the association between the other two financial capability factors (financial knowledge and financial behaviors) and FA. Third, it also compares the associations between financial capability factors and FA before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.