Financial Literacy and Wellness among African-Americans: Financial wellness

New Insights from the Personal Finance (P-Fin) Index

The 2019 P-Fin Index survey contained several questions indicative of financial wellness—questions regarding behaviors that should promote financial wellness or regarding outcomes that demonstrate financial wellness. Our previous research found a strong link between P-Fin Index scores and these indicators of financial wellness.¹⁶ This finding holds among African-Americans as well—those with greater financial literacy tend to exhibit greater financial well-being. In addition, consistent with other research discussed above, African-Americans tend to exhibit lower financial well-being than whites do. Both findings hold along the following dimensions:

• Saving and planning for retirement (Figures 8 and 9).

• Non-retirement savings (Figure 10).

• Debt constraint (Figure 11).

• Capacity to handle a financial shock (Figure 12).

¹⁶ See Yakoboski, Lusardi and Hasler (2019).

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