Are Financial Education Programs Meeting the Needs of Financially Disadvantaged Consumers?

This paper uses data collected from a retrospective pre-test to investigate the impact that a financial education program has on participants' financial behaviors. Specifically, we compare program impact across participants with varying levels of financial competency prior to the program and examine whether the program is meeting the educational needs of those it was designed to target - namely, financially disadvantaged consumers. The findings show that the program benefited all of the participants and the greatest improvement in financial behavior was observed for those who reported lower levels of financial ability prior to the program. The findings offer important practical information to consumer educators, program developers, and financial counselors.

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