The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index: A New Measure of Financial Literacy
How well individuals navigate life’s financial decisions is dependent, at least in part, on their knowledge and understanding of personal finance. The Personal Finance Index offers unique insights concerning Americans’ capacity for sound financial management and decisionmaking.
The Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) is a survey-based assessment tool that produces a robust measure of overall knowledge of personal finance while enabling refined analysis across eight functional areas. The survey also collects information about household finances and financial behaviors, providing insights into the relationship between knowledge and outcomes. P-Fin Index results are available for the U.S. adult population as well as demographic subgroups defined by age, gender, race and ethnicity, education level, employment status, household income and exposure to financial education.
Developed by the TIAA Institute and the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC) at The George Washington University, the P-Fin Index is based on responses to 28 core questions, with three or four questions devoted to each of the following topics: earning, consuming, saving, investing, borrowing and managing debt, insuring, comprehending risk and go-to information sources. The first wave of the survey was fielded online in September 2016 with a nationally representative sample of 1,043 U.S. adults age 18 or older.