Personal Financial Behavior. The Influence of Quantitative Literacy and Material Values

This survey study investigates how quantitative literacy may promote forward-looking financial decisions, decisions that recognize the long term consequences of current choices and may favor the future over the present. In addition, the paper examines the consumer's confidence in their quantitative skills. Confidence in working with numbers could help consumers think through the implications of their financing choices. Although quantitive literacy and consumer education matter, the paper proposes that consumer values also may be important in explaining financial behavior. In particular, materialism may drive many American consumers to take on high levels of debt. Understanding consumer financing choices may require a better understanding of the consumption behavior that motivates those choices.