Microsoft Word Ed Horwitz Post Dissertation Fina docx

 Self-Assessed Financial Skills  
Financial skills are represented in the financial literacy model (Figure 4.2) as a 
combination of confidence and ability. Two questions were asked related to self-reported 
financial skills, daily financial skills, and math skills. Respondents agreed or disagreed according 
to a seven-point Likert-type scale where 1=strongly disagree, 4=neither agree nor disagree, and 
7=strongly agree. The mean daily financial skills score was 5.95 with a standard deviation of 
1.36, and the mean math skills score was also 5.95 but with a standard deviation of 1.43. The 
survey questions were as follows: 

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1.  Daily Financial Skills: I am good at dealing with day-to-day financial matters, 
such as checking accounts, credit and debit cards, and tracking expenses. 
2.  Math Skills: I am pretty good at math.  
The question on daily financial skills asked about financial confidence by agreement or 
disagreement with the characterization of “good” and financial ability when asking about the 
action of “dealing with” financial matters. The math skills question measured self-reported 
financial numeracy skills, and has been used in prior literature (Seay & Robb, 2013).  
Historically, these two questions were combined with self-reported financial knowledge and used 
within a composite measure of self-assessed financial confidence. In this study, these questions 
were separated from the self-reported financial knowledge question because the financial literacy 
framework identified financial knowledge and financial skills as two separate components.