2014 Conference

Financial satisfaction is especially important for practitioners, such as financial planners and counselors who seek ways to help clients become more satisfied with their financial situations, with the ultimate goal of improving life satisfaction. Previous analyses of the relationship between marital status and financial satisfaction tended to utilize limited controls, primarily accounting for sociodemographics and lacking more subjective measures. The present study seeks to more fully understand the role of marital status and labor market participation on the part of the household, while accounting for an extensive list of financial factors.  The 2012 wave of the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) conducted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) was the dataset used in this study (n = 25,509).  An ordinary least squares regression suggested that household composition and work status do appear to play a role in financial satisfaction, where single never married households and households who are unemployed, regardless of being married or single, are significantly less satisfied financially than their married dual income counterparts. Such knowledge can continue to facilitate recommended advances in fiscal and social policy that affect households.