Difference due to explained and unexplained components in financial help-seeking
| Financial help-seeking | Coefficient | p-value | 95% CI | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Explained Components | 0.514 | <0.001 | (.46, .57) | 115.5 |
| Unexplained Components | −0.069 | 0.259 | (−.19, .05) | −15.5 |
| Total Difference | 0.445 | <0.001 | (.34, .54) |
Descriptive statistics for the total sample, men, and women in the 2022 SCF
| Variables | Total Sample n = 4,595 | Men n = 2,593 | Women n = 2,002 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prop (%) | M (SD) | Prop (%) | M (SD) | Prop (%) | M (SD) | Min | Max | |
| Help-seeker (Stage four) | 6.20 (3.17) | 6.42 (2.98) | 5.98 (3.33) | 0 | 10 | |||
| Perceived retirement preparedness | 3.05 (1.32) | 3.23 (1.31) | 2.89 (1.31) | 1 | 5 | |||
| Intentional saver | 54.68 | 58.48 | 50.97 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Owns retirement account | 41.55 | 45.86 | 37.35 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Risk tolerance | 4.24 (2.74) | 4.81 (2.65) | 3.68 (2.70) | 0 | 10 | |||
| Objective financial knowledge | 2.23 (.81) | 2.41 (.73) | 2.05 (.85) | 0 | 3 | |||
| Subjective financial knowledge | 7.25 (2.16) | 7.36 (2.02) | 7.16 (2.29) | 0 | 10 | |||
| Age | 52.44 (17.61) | 51.84 (17.41) | 53.04 (17.79) | 18 | 95 | |||
| Log income | 11.14 (1.25) | 11.33 (1.39) | 10.95 (1.05) | $0 | $458,000,000 | |||
| IHS Net worth | 10.95 (6.51) | 11.82 (5.67) | 10.11 (7.13) | $ (555,500.00) | $2,390,000,000 | |||
| White/Caucasian | 68.89 | 72.58 | 67.26 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Married | 63.22 | 67.28 | 55.22 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Employed | 61.03 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Education | ||||||||
| Less than high school | 8.37 | 7.34 | 9.38 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Some college | 20.89 | 20.55 | 21.22 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Associate’s degree | 27.99 | 23.63 | 32.25 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Bachelor’s or master’s degree | 24.46 | 29.06 | 19.98 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Doctorate or professional degree | 18.28 | 19.42 | 17.17 | 0 | 1 | |||
Multivariate decomposition results of gender differences and financial help-seeking
| Group 1 = male (reference group) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group 2 = female (comparison group) | ||||||
| Difference due to explained components | Difference due to unexplained components | |||||
| Variable | Coef | SE | Percent shared | Coef | SE | Percent shared |
| Perceived retirement preparedness | 0.027* | 0.010 | 5.97 | −0.127 | 0.134 | −28.61 |
| Intentional saver (Is not an intentional saver) | 0.051*** | 0.005 | 11.46 | −0.029 | 0.057 | −6.42 |
| Owns retirement account (Does not own) | −0.013* | 0.007 | −3.00 | −0.217*** | 0.047 | −48.74 |
| Risk tolerance | 0.206*** | 0.018 | 46.44 | −0.017 | 0.083 | −3.82 |
| Expects future expense (Does not expect) | −0.001 | 0.001 | −0.18 | −0.221*** | 0.057 | −49.67 |
| Objective financial knowledge | 0.109*** | 0.018 | 24.46 | 0.355* | 0.149 | 79.84 |
| Subjective financial knowledge | 0.075*** | 0.004 | 16.85 | 0.773*** | 0.207 | 173.81 |
| Age | 0.022*** | 0.003 | 5.05 | −0.279 | 0.206 | −62.66 |
| Log income | −0.019* | 0.008 | −4.37 | 0.890 | 0.470 | 200.27 |
| IHS Net worth | 0.049*** | 0.011 | 11.05 | 0.255** | 0.088 | 57.27 |
| White (Non-White) | −0.022*** | 0.004 | −5.06 | −0.263** | 0.076 | −59.1 |
| Single (Married) | 0.011 | 0.016 | 2.51 | −0.021 | 0.062 | −4.73 |
| Employed (Not employed) | −0.019 | 0.011 | −4.24 | −0.191** | 0.068 | −42.99 |
| Education (Less than high school) | ||||||
| Some college | −0.002* | 0.001 | −0.54 | 0.035 | 0.052 | 7.87 |
| Associate’s degree | −0.077*** | 0.015 | −17.36 | 0.213** | 0.077 | 47.95 |
| Bachelor’s or master’s degree | 0.092*** | 0.016 | 20.74 | 0.088 | 0.050 | 19.7 |
| Doctorate or professional degree | 0.025*** | 0.004 | 5.71 | 0.175*** | 0.044 | 39.34 |
Results of OLS regression results
| Variable | Coefficient | SE | p |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perceived retirement preparedness | 0.11 | 0.05 | 0.036 |
| Intentional saver (Is not an intentional saver) | 0.69 | 0.13 | < .001 |
| Owns retirement account (Does not own) | 0.13 | 0.14 | 0.337 |
| Risk tolerance | 0.19 | 0.03 | < .001 |
| Expects future expense (Does not expect) | 0.16 | 0.12 | 0.185 |
| Objective financial knowledge | 0.20 | 0.08 | 0.016 |
| Subjective financial knowledge | 0.30 | 0.03 | < .001 |
| Gender (Male) | 0.06 | 0.12 | 0.638 |
| Age | −0.02 | 0.00 | < .001 |
| Log income | −0.08 | 0.04 | 0.077 |
| IHS Net worth | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.206 |
| White (Non-White) | −0.22 | 0.13 | 0.088 |
| Single (Married) | −0.08 | 0.13 | 0.536 |
| Employed (Unemployed) | 0.01 | 0.14 | 0.92 |
| Education (Less than high school) | |||
| Some college | 0.25 | 0.27 | 0.356 |
| Associate’s degree | 0.53 | 0.27 | 0.05 |
| Bachelor’s or master’s degree | 0.78 | 0.27 | 0.005 |
| Doctorate or professional degree | 0.63 | 0.28 | 0.027 |
| Intercept | 3.06 | 0.57 | < .001 |
Results of gender differences between individual predictors
| Men | Women | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Most prominent | Biggest advantage | Level of advantage | % help-seeker | Most prominent | Biggest advantage | Level of advantage | % help-seeker | Gap if equal | |
| Perceived retirement preparedness | 4 to 5 | 22%/15% | 5 | 92% | 1 to 3 | 22%/15% | 1 | 79% | 4.4% |
| Intentional saver | 1 | 58%/41% | Yes | 94% | 0 | 49%/42% | No | 83% | 4.7% |
| Owns retirement account | 1 | 46%/37% | Yes | 95% | 0 | 63%/54% | No | 85% | 4.4% |
| Risk tolerance | 5 to 10 | 12%/8% | 7 | 97% | 0 to 4 | 21%/10% | 0 | 66% | 2.0% |
| Objective financial knowledge | 3 | 54%/35% | 3 | 94% | 0 to 2 | 25%/12% | 0,1 | 81% | 0.3% |
| Subjective financial knowledge | 7 to 9 | 22%/16% | 7 | 93% | 1 to 6, 10 | 14%/9% | 5 | 82% | 2.3% |
| Education | Bachelor’s or more | 29%/20% | 4 | 0.96 | Associate’s or less | 32%/24% | 3 | 0.88 | 0.042 |