Financial Self-Efficacy and the Financial Satisfaction of Credit-Card Users

Abstract

This study tests whether an individual’s sense of financial self-efficacy mitigates the effects of credit-card mismanagement on users’ financial satisfaction. We first replicate the results of a previous study of credit-card usage and risk tolerance and find that credit-card mismanagement is associated with lower financial satisfaction for only borrowers with low risk tolerance. We then use data from the Health and Retirement Study and find that credit-card mismanagement reduces the financial satisfaction of borrowers with lower financial self-efficacy only. These results also demonstrate the usefulness of FSE as a predictor of borrower behavior, and reinforce the theoretic connection between FSE and individual risk preferences.