From the Editor

This issue contains Volume 28 - Issue 4 of Financial Services Review (FSR). This issue

is our special issue on Financial Literacy. We thank the many authors that submitted articles

for consideration for this issue. Interest in this area of financial planning has been tremen-

dous. In fact the reception was so well received, we will have an additional financial literacy

issue in 2021. I would like to thank my co-editor, Terrance Martin at Utah Valley University

for his wonderful insight and assistance on this special issue.

I would like to thank the board and members of the Academy of Financial Services for

their continued support. I continue to work in broadening the scope of articles, while still fo-

cusing on individual financial management and personal financial planning. I encourage

authors to reach out when discussing implications of their findings in a more comprehensive

way. As such, all articles in the Journal more appropriately relate to financial planning

issues.

The lead article “Financial Literacy, Attitudes, and Financial Satisfaction: An Assessment

of Credit Card Debt-Taking Behavior of Australians” is coauthored by Muhammad S. Tahir,

Daniel W. Richards, and Abdullahi D. Ahmed, all at RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria,

Australia. The authors examine the relative strength of the association of financial literacy,

attitude towards balancing spending and savings, and financial satisfaction with credit card

debt-taking behavior using the 2016 wave of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics

in Australia (HILDA) Survey. They find that higher financial literacy is associated with less

credit card debt. Based on their results, they advise policy-makers to include components in

the financial literacy curricula which encourage savings attitude to reduce problematic debt-

taking.

The second article “Can Financial Literacy Education Reduce the Use of Medicaid and

SNAP?” is coauthored by Abdullah Al-Bahrani, Northern Kentucky University, Darshak

Patel, University College of Dublin, Ireland, and Jamie Weathers, Western Michigan

University. The authors explain that policies supporting financial literacy education are pro-

moted as a way to decrease reliance on social safety nets. The assumption is that low levels

of financial literacy translate to lower economic outcomes and thus to increased dependence

on social programs. The authors use the 2018 National Financial Capabilities Study to inves-

tigate the possible relationship between high school mandated financial literacy education

and social program participation and find no evidence of such a relationship.

The third article, “Financial Literacy: Profiling a Successful High School Outreach

Program” is coauthored by Greg Filbeck, Penn State Behrend, Jason Pettner, C.S. McKee,

1057-0810/20/$ – see front matter © 2020 Academy of Financial Services. All rights reserved.

Financial Services Review 28 (2020) v–vi



and Xin Zhao, Penn State Behrend. During 2018-2019 the CFA Society Pittsburgh launched

a high school financial literacy campaign resulting in significant improvements in financial

behavior, subjective and objective financial knowledge, and self-esteem. In analyzing the

results the authors find a disconnect between actual and perceived financial knowledge.

They found that students exhibit gains in all aspects after completing the program. The sub-

categories with the lowest pre-survey scores or female students show the greatest improve-

ments in the post-survey. Students with lower GPAs experienced greater improvement in

financial behavior and objective knowledge, while higher GPA students improved more in

subjective knowledge.

The final article, “The Association between Financial Risk and Retirement Satisfaction”

coauthored by Blain M. Pearson and Michael Guillemette, both at Texas Tech University.

The authors posit that a higher level of risky financial assets that a retiree holds may produce

higher returns, resulting in utility gains. They test this hypothesis using a variable con-

structed measuring retirees’ ratio of risky assets to total assets (risk ratio).They examine the

association between the risk ratio and retiree utility using a retirement satisfaction variable

from the 1992-2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. They find that increases in

retirees’ risk ratio is associated positively with increases in their retirement satisfaction.

Thank you to those who make the journal possible, especially the referees and contribut-

ing authors. I would like to send a special thank you to the many reviewers that have signifi-

cantly contributed to the quality of our journal by providing timely and thorough reviews of

the submissions to our journal.

Please consider submission to the Financial Services Review and rely on the style infor-

mation provided to ease readability and streamline the review process. The Journal wel-

comes articles over the range of areas that comprise personal financial planning. While FSR

articles are certainly diverse in terms of topic, data, and method, they are focused in terms of

motivation. FSR exists to produce research that addresses issues that matter to individuals. I

remain committed to the goal of making Financial Services Review the best academic jour-

nal in individual financial management and personal financial planning.

Best regards,

Stuart Michelson

Editor Financial Services Review

Terrance Martin

Co-editor, Special Topics Issue on Financial Literacy

vi S. Michelson and T. Martin / Financial Services Review 28 (2020) v–vi