Consumer Interests Annual Volume 49, 2003 Financial Fitness Quiz: A Tool For Analyzing Financial Behavior Barbara O’Neill, Rutgers Cooperative Extension 1 Jing Jian Xiao, University of Rhode Island 2 Periodic financial check-ups are as important as annual physicals in assessing current behavior, diagnosing problems before they become worse, and identifying uncovered risk exposures (O’Neill, 2002). This abstract describes an ongoing study of financial behavior using data collected via an interactive online assessment tool, the Financial Fitness Quiz. Descriptive statistics are provided about online quiz respondents, along with average scores for each question and the results of tests of differences in quiz responses with respect to demographic characteristics such as age, income, ethnicity, marital status, and household income. Two prior waves of data were collected in the first half of 2001 and 2002, with limited demographic data collected about respondents. A third wave of data, with a complete array of demographic characteristics, is currently being analyzed using quiz responses collected during the last half of 2002 The purpose of this study is to determine how online Financial Fitness Quiz takers handle their finances and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their financial behaviors. The research will contribute to existing literature about ways that “real people” handle their money. Information about financial behaviors can be used to inform personal finance education programs and publications. Specific research questions to be answered are as follows: What are respondents’ most frequently performed financial behaviors? What are respondents’ least frequently performed financial behaviors? What is the mean score for each quiz question and for the entire quiz? What are the significant relationships between performance of specific financial behaviors and demographic characteristics? What are the significant relationships between quiz scores and demographic characteristics? Survey Instrument and Data Analyses The Financial Fitness Quiz consists of 20 items to which respondents are asked to select the response that best describes their current financial management practices. Nineteen of the items have Likert-type levels: 5= always, 4= usually, 3= sometimes, 2= seldom, and 1= never. For the remaining item, “I have a current will,” respondents are asked to respond with “5” for “yes” and “1” for “no” (O’Neill, Beaugard, and Wisneski, 2001/2002). Responses can range from 20 to 100 with higher scores indicating better performance of recommended financial practices. The Financial Fitness Quiz Web page provides general statements about users’ financial fitness, based on their overall score. Respondents also receive specific suggestions for improvement based on their responses to each of the questions. The Financial Fitness Quiz has two primary purposes: to provide users with instant feedback on their financial fitness and to generate data to support ongoing empirical research about participants’ financial behavior. It can be accessed from the Web site www.rce.rutgers.edu/money/ffquiz.asp (O’Neill, in press). Scores of all items and the total score were tallied and averaged. ANOVA analyses were used to examine if there are associations between the scores and demographic variables. The level of significance used for analyses was .05. Preliminary Findings Financial Fitness Quiz data were obtained from 469 and 173 respondents, respectively, during January- June 2002 and 2001. The sample included both people who were referred to the Web site by Extension educators and others and those who just happened to find it. The average quiz score for the 2002 sample was 64.98, down slightly from 67.34 in 2001 (O’Neill & Xiao, in press). Average scores for each of the 20 statements ranged from a low of 2.01 to a high of 4.82 in 2002. These scores are reported, in descending order, in Table 1 below. Average scores compiled from data collected from 173 respondents in 2001 are also shown, with the 2001 rank in parentheses (O’Neill, Beaugard, & Wisneski, 2001/2002).