TY  - UNPD
A1  - Lusardi, Annamaria
T1  - Household saving behavior : the role of literacy, information and financial education programs
T2  - Center for Financial Studies (Frankfurt am Main): CFS working paper series ; No. 2007,28
N2  - Individuals are increasingly in charge of their own financial security after retirement. But how well-equipped are individuals to make saving decisions; do they possess adequate financial literacy, are they informed about the most important components of saving plans, do they even plan for retirement? This paper shows that financial illiteracy is widespread among the US population and particularly acute among specific demographic groups, such as those with low education, women, African-Americans and Hispanics. Moreover, close to half of older workers do not know which type of pensions they have and the large majority of workers know little about the rules governing Social Security benefits. Lack of literacy and lack of information can affect the ability to save and to secure a comfortable retirement; few individuals rely on the help of financial advisors and ignorance about basic financial concepts can be linked to lack of retirement planning and lack of wealth. Financial education programs can help improve saving and financial decision-making, but much more can be done to improve the effectiveness of these programs. JEL Classification: D91
T3  - CFS working paper series - 2007, 28 
KW  - Financial Literacy
KW  - Financial Education Programs
KW  - Saving Behavior
KW  - Pensions
KW  - Haushalt
KW  - Sparen
Y1  - 2007
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/389
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-50990
N1  - This paper has been written for the conference "Implications of Behavioral Economics for Economic Policy" held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on September 27-28, 2007.
IS  - September 2007
ER  -