Financial Coaching: Advancing the field to better serve consumers
This report provides an overview of the 2017 Financial Coaching Symposium, including lessons learned and next steps for the field to consider.
Research and reports
We study how consumers interact with financial products and services to help identify potential problems in the marketplace and achieve better outcomes for all. Review our reports and analyses to help inform your decisions, policies, and practices. And, see reports that we periodically prepare about the CFPB.
Featured
Building blocks to help youth achieve financial capability
A guide for assessing young people's progress toward acquiring the foundations of financial capability.
Effective financial education: Five principles and how to use them
There is no single right way to help adults improve financial decision-making, just as there is no single right way everyone should conduct their financial lives. This report, reflecting research and input from the field, presents five principles for effective financial education.
Consumer insights on managing funds at retirement
This report describes CFPB research on ways to help people make decisions for spending their retirement savings. The study explored ways to communicate retirement spending options, whether it is years before retirement or “just in time” when retirement is near.
CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale: Scale development technical report
This technical report describes the development and scoring procedures of the CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale.
The Office of Servicemember Affairs: Charting our course through the military lifecycle
This report introduces the Office of Servicemember Affairs’ new focus: charting the financial issues a servicemember faces throughout his or her military career.
Tracking success in financial capability and empowerment programs
This report provides a recommended core set of five financial outcomes for programs to track. The purpose is to assist the field of financial capability and empowerment in creating some commonality in outcomes to measure across a variety of different programs.
A guide for advancing K-12 financial education
Financial education in grades K-12 can reach consumers at a pivotal point. This resource guide connects community and education leaders with information, insights, and best practices for advancing financial capability.
The power of light-touch financial education: A demonstration with credit card revolvers
Rules-based educational messages are low-cost and scalable, and can be effective. Exposure to a guideline reminding consumers to be cognizant of credit card usage led to lower card balances among consumers who carry a balance.
Consumer insights on managing spending
This report describes CFPB research on approaches to helping consumers manage their spending, such as approaches that would give consumers real-time feedback on their spending at the point of purchase.
Personal finance teaching pedagogy
The CFPB researched the childhood origins of financial capability and well-being to identify those roots and to find promising practices and strategies to support their development.