Progress 04/01/01 to 09/30/04
Outputs
A financial education program was offered at several locations of a local employer. The program consisted of four one-hour seminars, 'Your Personal Financial Plan', 'Spending Tomorrow's Money Today', 'Planning for Retirement and Investing Basics'. Enhancements to the original modules included two online calculators:the URI CPFE Retirement Estimator and the URI CPFE Spending and Saving Planner. An experimental design was utilized to determine if changes in financial behavior resulted from attendance at the program. The seminars were paired so that each employee served in the experimental group for one topic and in the control group for the other topic. Money management was paired with credit education; investing with retirement planning. The program was offered on two consecutive days; on the first day one topic in a given set was offered; on the next day, the other topic was offered. At the first seminar which 211 attended, participants were given a consent form, a
pre-test to evaluate a baseline of their current financial practices and to collect demographic data, and a post-test to assess their intentions to change financial behaviors as a result of attending the seminar. At the second seminar, which was held two months after the first, the participant was given a follow-up survey to determine if changes in financial behavior had actually been made. Questions relating to both seminars, the one a participant had already attended and the one the participant was about to attend,were included. For those questions related to the first seminar the participant attended,the participant was considered part of the experimental group. For questions which related to the second seminar which the participant had not yet attended, the participant was treated as part of the control group. After the long-term follow-up survey was collected, the second seminar was presented. In essense, this was a dummy seminar in that all data had already been collected, and
was included for completeness of the educational rather than the research program. Workshops were based on modules which the researchers had created as part of a more comprehensive 'Getting Fiscally Fit' program. Each of the four modules consisted of a PowerPoint presentation, participant materials, and evaluation instruments. Several findings were observed: First, the groups were essentially identical at the beginning of the program (pre-test scores). Almost all participants reported very low levels of positive financial practices. Second, the post-test indicated high percentages of participants who planned to change their financial behavior, either immediately or over the next two months. These results were consistent for both the control and experimental groups, indicating that participating in the seminar had inspired them to improve all financial behavior not just the ones specifically discussed in the seminar. Finally, while there was not a great difference between the control
and experimental groups in terms of change in financial behaviors, there was an extremely large increase in the percent of respondents who indicated they had made a change in their financial behavior since the first seminar.
Impacts
The immediate direct impact of this research is on the 211 participants who received the educational programming and those who improved their financial behaviors as a consequence of their participation. For financial educators, this research has important ramifications; it provides proof that educational programming has a positive impact on financial behavior.
Publications
- Alves, Marcy. 2003. Workplace Financial Educational Education: The Effects on Employees' Financial Behavior. Master's thesis. Department of Human Science and Service, University of Rhode Island. December.
- Anderson, J.G. and C.M. Kerbel. 2004. Final report to the Department of Administration on Impact of Workplace Financial Education on Employee Personal Financial Behavior.
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Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03
Outputs
In spring/winter, we collected data at 24 workplace sites presenting different personal finance workshops at the offices of RI state workers. Two programs,Early Planning for Retirement and Personal Financial Planning, were presented. Each program had two parts which for purposes of obtaining long-term follow-up data were presented two months apart. A total of 211 people participated; 112 people participated in the first seminar of Early Planning for Retirement and 99 participated in the first seminar of Personal Financial Planning. For the second session, held two months later, 61(54%) and 60 (61%) attended,respectively, divided between experimental and control groups. Each participant completed a pre-, post and long term follow-up survey. Data analysis was conducted in the fall, resulting in a thesis in December 2003 by Marcy Alves. Aggregated results indicate: 1)the percentages of participants who were not doing basic sound financial behaviors prior to the workshop
presentations were high (ranging from zero to 92%, depending on the behavior, with an average of about 50%); 2) the percentage of those who were not doing a financial behavior prior to attending the workshop but planned to do so as a result of the workshop was quite high (ranging from 25 to 85%); and, 3) the percent who had actually begun to do a given financial behavior after two months ranged from 18-44% of those who could change. In the final few months of the project, data analysis will continue. Manuscripts will be developed and submitted for publication.
Impacts
The immediate direct impact of this research is on the 211 participants who received the educational programming and those who improved their financial behaviors as a consequence of their participation. For financial educators, this research has important ramifications; it provides proof that educational programming has a positive impact on financial behavior.
Publications
- Alves, M. 2003. Workplace Financial Education: The Effects on Employees' Financial Behavior. M.S. Thesis, University of Rhode Island, KIngston 87pp.
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Progress 01/01/02 to 12/31/02
Outputs
Module revision for the GFF Financial Education Program continued in early 2002 while a list of contacts for workplace sites was developed. Pilot testing of all 9 modules and surveys was conducted at URI during the summer. Researchers met with representatives of the State of RI, Swarovsky Crystal and Care New England Hospitals to discuss using their workplace as a site for our financial education program. Six sessions of the GFF program were conducted at URI in the fall through PDLOT. In the fall, we also met with personnel from the State of RI Office of Training and Development to finalize a program which would be available to most RI State workers in early 2003. A research design was created which enables us to collect data from a control group while simultaneously collecting data from the experimental group. Twelve sections with two workshops each have been scheduled for presentation in 2003 from January through May. A total of 345 workers have pre-registered for a
two-workshop program. Two different programs are being offered: Early Planning for Retirement (which includes Am I saving enough for Retirement? and Investing Basics) and Practical Financial Planning (which consists of Effective Strategies for Money Management and Spending Tomorrow's Money Today). For each person who completes the program, we will collect: pre-test, post-test and two month follow-up data for each of two workshops. Each registrant will be in the experimental group for one of the workshops and in the control group for the other workshop within the program.
Impacts
The purpose of this research is to evaluate the impact of financial education programs on the financial behavior of attendees. Each registrant attends two educational programs. Thus, initial impact is the provision of outreach educational programming to 345 employees. Upon analysis of the three completed surveys, the impact of eductional programming can be analyzed and assessed to answer the question: what is the impact of financial education on financial behavior?
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/01 to 12/31/01
Outputs
In the first year of this project, researchers have worked intensively to update the workplace personal financial education programs (nine in total) and related data collection instruments (27 in all) which we originally created in 1999. Due to the extensive changes in the Tax Act of 2001, much of the original content required updating. We are about to begin the pilot phase of the project to ensure program level suitability of the modules to the target audience, lower middle income and lower income employees. Workplace locations for the final data collection beginning in the fall are being identified.
Impacts
Program participants will: reduce debt levels; increase savings; increase participation in and contribution to employer retirement programs; increase quantity of pre-planning prior to financial decision-making
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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