"The mission of the Center for Financial Security is to conduct applied multidisciplinary research that informs practitioners, policymakers and the general public on strategies that build financial capacity and security over the life course."

April is Financial Literacy Month

Resources Available at CFS Website to Help Get Your Finances on Track 

April is National Financial Literacy Month and in honor of the occasion, the CFS website has an entire section devoted to "Your Money."  The page provides a host of online informational resources to help individuals take charge of their financial responsibilities.  Access the Center for Financial Security's Your Money page and receive an array of resources celebrating National Financial Literacy Month.

CFS Your Money Page   

CFS Researcher Spotlight: Stephanie Moulton

Professor Stephanie Moulton's research broadly focuses on the institutional determinants of public policy outcomes across sectors, including public, private and nonprofit organizations.  She specializes in low income housing policies and programs, and the impact of financial interventions on the financial well-being of low income and vulnerable populations.   

Prior to her academic career, Moulton worked in the nonprofit sector, designing and managing asset building, homeownership, and community development programs at the local and state level.  She received her Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the school of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.  

Professor Moulton is leader of an applied research project which aims to integrate interactive online education with individualized telephone coaching to test their effectiveness for first time homebuyers.  Through a unique partnership with the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, Moulton and her team are randomly assigning a pilot group of 600 homebuyers to varying combinations of financial planning interventions.  The Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) is an independent state agency that provides affordable housing opportunities to low- to moderate-income Ohioans. First time homebuyers often struggle to keep up with savings and financial planning after buying a home.  This project has the potential to demonstrate the impacts of mixed modes for financial capability for a targeted population at a key teachable moment.

CFS Visiting Scholar - Margaret Sherraden

UW-Madison Hosts Professor from University of Missouri St. Louis  

On February 24th and 25th, the University of Wisconsin - Madison was honored to have Professor Margaret Sherraden on campus for an extended visit to discuss and present her research on financial capability and asset building in the social work field.  Sherraden spoke at the Financial Security, Literacy, and Public Policy Seminar Series, a seminar series hosted by The Institute for Research on Poverty and The Center for Financial Security.  Her seminar entitled "Reaching Out: Integrating Financial Capacity Building into Human Services Systems," touched on the positive potentials for incorporating financial capability tools into human services systems.

Sherraden is a Professor of Social Work at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Research Professor at the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis.  Her research, publishing, and teaching focus on access and equity in domestic and international social policies, social and economic development, asset building and financial education, immigration and health, and global social policies.   

U.S. Treasury Introduces the 2011 National Financial Capability Challenge

Attention high school educators! Are your students up for a Challenge? Here's your chance to check their financial knowledge! Sign up to administer the 2011 National Financial Capability Challenge to your students at challenge.treas.gov.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, the Challenge is a free, voluntary, online series of financial questions for high school students to check their knowledge of earning, spending, saving, borrowing, risk protection, and more. All high school educators are encouraged to sign up to administer the Challenge to their students and to help spread the word to other high school educators across the nation.

 Administration of this year's Challenge runs from March 7 through April 8, 2011.  

It's quick. It takes only about 30 minutes to administer the Challenge online, but the lessons your students will learn in preparing will last a lifetime.

It's easy. Comprehensive lesson plans and sample questions are available in an online Educator Toolkit to help you prepare your students for the Challenge.

It's rewarding. Educators and top-scoring students in each school will earn personalized award certificates and states with the highest participation will also be recognized.

Any high school educator can do it. All high school educators, not just math and personal finance educators, from all types of school systems - public, private, parochial, and home schooling - are encouraged to register so their students can participate. Youth group leaders who have a role in educating high school students are also welcome to participate.

For full brochure, including information on how to register. 

Integrating Financial Literacy in Existing State Programs

On Friday, February 25th, the CFS hosted a meeting with directors from several State of Wisconsin agencies, UW Cooperative Extension staff and UW-Madison faculty to share information about what programs are doing to incorporate financial capability into existing programs.

Visiting scholar, Professor Margaret Sherraden, joined the meeting and encouraged participants to think about assets and savings for lower-income households in terms of economic development and also discussed how partnering with state programs is a way to reach individuals who are most in need of financial information.  This meeting was a first step towards discovering new avenues for encouraging and offering financial education across Wisconsin.

(See article about corresponding brief in the CFS Issue Brief below or access the full brief at the CFS website.)  

MacArthur Foundation Funds Research Intersection of Household Finance and Housing 

Announced in early February, three research affiliates of the UW Institute for Research on Poverty received a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  Exploring new and unique data sets, Timothy Smeeding, Lawrence Berger, and J. Michael Collins will assess the effects of income support payments on family residential stability in the face of falling housing prices and long-term joblessness.

The study is one of nine projects selected from a pool of 150 as part of the Foundation's $25 million initiative on How Housing Matters to Families and Communities.  Findings from the study will help answer urgent questions about housing instability, affordability and debt affects for vulnerable families and children. 

Full Article  in the UW-Madison News.

CFS Project Spotlight

Tax Refunds and Savings Behavior: Developing Soft-Commitment Opportunities

Lead by researcher Damon Jones of the Harris School University of Chicago, this project aims to explore on the difficult decisions low and moderate-income families are faced with when receiving the Earned Income Credit and Child Tax Credit.

The project tests whether tax filers are interested in making a commitment ahead of time to saving the refund by offering varying amounts of instant and delayed savings incentives.  The goal is to measure the relative value participants place on immediate versus delayed gratification, and by extension, the degree of impatience present in the target population.