Nov 04, 2026
November 2026 Just So You Know…
Congratulations
Doctoral student Yeqi Zhu (Mentor Dr. Lu Fan) on receiving the 2026-2027 Jan Hathcote Social Science Academic Support Fund for their study entitled “The Role of Psychological Characteristics in Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Young Adults’ Personal Finance”.
FHCE Faculty members Dr. John Grable, Lu Fan, Swarn Chatterjee, and Yilang Peng were listed in the 2026 Stanford/Elsevier list of top 2% Scientists in the world.
In Other news…
Dr. Dee Warmath is a Multiple Principal Investigator on a $2.5 million NIH RC2 proposal submitted as part of the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (CTSA) renewal, in partnership with Emory University and Georgia Tech. The project, GHL AlignAssist, would expand the Georgia Health Landscape, which already integrates community-level data from across the state, into a human–AI decision-support system. The UGA team also includes Dr.Daehwan Ahn from FHCE and Ali Berg from Nutrition/FACS Cooperative Extension!
Dr. Grace Bagwell Adams was invited to serve as a Keynote Speaker for the Converse College Data Science and Cybersecurity week.
Research
Cusumano, C., & Warmath, D. (2026). Mind the gap: Investigating how financial well-being shapes job satisfaction through burnout. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 41(1), 189-203.
“While existing research demonstrates synergies between the domains of life, relatively little work has been conducted examining the nature of these synergies in the context of employee well-being. Through the lens of the conversation of resource theory, we argue that financial well-being, as the individual’s subjective assessment of their financial situation, represents an important resource with implications for employee well-being and job satisfaction. Using data from 217 full-time U.S. employees, the current study examines (1) whether individuals with lower levels of financial well-being (i.e., higher current money management stress and lower expected future financial security) have lower levels of job satisfaction and (2) whether burnout mediates the observed relationship. We find that current money management stress, the present dimension of financial well-being, is associated with job satisfaction indirectly through burnout. In contrast, expected future financial security has a direct association with job satisfaction that is not mediated by burnout. Our results suggest that research and practice related to employee well-being should be based on a more holistic view of the employee.”
“Communities across Georgia are subject to several natural disasters and emergencies, such as fires, flooding, severe storms, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, and public health emergencies. While we all hope that such occurrences never happen, history has shown that being prepared for disasters can limit its impact on you and your loved ones. The recommendations included in this field report cover basic supplies for emergencies and evacuations. For a more comprehensive list of preparedness supplies,”
Fernandes, D., Netemeyer, R. G., & Warmath, D. (2026). Financial Advice to Financial Well-being: The Mediating Role of Financial Self-Efficacy. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 07439156261473895.
“A central goal in consumer financial decision-making is to understand the factors that promote financial well-being. Previous studies show that interventions aimed at improving consumer objective knowledge of personal finance to affect financial well-being have only minor effect sizes, and that the effects are weaker for individuals in a state of financial vulnerability. In this research, the authors examine the effects of financial advice on consumer financial self-efficacy and downstream influence on perceived financial well-being. They present five studies that examine when, how, and why financial advice improves financial well-being via a financial advice→ financial self-efficacy→ financial well-being chain of effects. Two correlational studies show that receiving financial advice is positively related to financial self-efficacy, which is strongly related to financial well-being. Three experimental studies examine the effects of simple versus more complex general advice from popular authors, the effect of “just-in-time” actionable financial advice, and the effect of advice tailored to a financially vulnerable population. Overall, the findings show that financial advice can foster financial self-efficacy when it is simple, actionable, and tailored to a specific financial need or population, thereby improving financial well-being. The results have implications for research and policymaking.”
Ogunyemi, K. O., Shaikh, A. T., Bashir, A., Dixon, B. E., Warmath, D., Toth, M., ... & McNabb, S. J. (2026). Modernizing public health surveillance for global health security leveraging AI. The Lancet Regional Health–Americas, 58.
“An electronic public health surveillance (e-PHS) embracing One Health and participatory approaches will collect and analyze data at the human-animal-environment interface to enhance real-time information for the prevention and control of public health emergencies (PHE) such as infectious disease outbreaks. Yet full implementation is suboptimal worldwide. Leveraging the capabilities of emerging digital technologies legally and ethically, we described the scope, added benefits, and applicability of a novel cloud-based, artificial intelligence-enabled One Health Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response health information system (AI-OneHIS) data infrastructure for modernizing the existing traditional PHS models. This multifaceted innovation will ensure faster data capture, seamless interoperability of fragmented HIS, and precise decision support, while preserving their structures, functionalities, and capabilities for routine operations and data sovereignty. This should enable the prevention, timely detection, and effective response to PHE for improved health outcomes if implemented with fidelity on a strong governance-collaboration-informatics-analytics framework.”
Sun, X., Zhang, Y., & Chatterjee, S. (2026). From Perception to Protection: How Fraud Worry Shapes Investor Behavior. International Journal of Financial Studies, 14(9), 245.
“This study develops an integrated conceptual framework to examine the association between investors’ subjective perception of being targeted by investment fraud and their adoption of protective coping behaviors. Drawing on the transactional model of stress and coping, the paper proposes that perceived fraud targeting acts as a stressor that increases fraud-related worry, which in turn motivates behavioral responses. Using merged data from the 2024 FINRA Investor Survey and the National Financial Capability Study, the study found that perceived fraud targeting significantly increases both fraud worry and protective behaviors, with worry partially mediating this relationship. Additional findings indicate that investor identity reduces worry, while family financial socialization and market trust promote protective actions. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that objective investment knowledge moderates these pathways. The study highlights the importance of subjective risk perception in shaping proactive fraud prevention behaviors and offers implications for policymakers, educators, and financial advisors.”
Szymanski, C. M., Rogers, A. M., Glendenning, L. M., Warmath, D., Mousa, J. J., Daugherty, T. M., ... & Mansfield, L. S. (2026). Transformative advances in Guillain–Barré syndrome research. mSphere.
“The Guillain–Barré Syndrome Innovation Alliance held its inaugural meeting focused on creating treatment solutions for Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS), an autoimmune disease increasingly recognized as a postinfectious neuropathy and the most common cause of paralysis since vaccines for polio. These collaborators, funded by the Department of War, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, span institutes/universities, including the University of Georgia, Michigan State University, Florida State University, the University of Utrecht, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Group efforts span biochemistry, epidemiology, immunology, medicine, microbiology, microbial ecology, glycobiology, neurology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and multiomics data science/computational biology. Our team is committed to the advancement of two core objectives: expanding understanding of biological mechanisms of GBS and developing more efficacious, targeted therapies. We are dedicated to finding alternative therapies for patients unresponsive to intravenous immunoglobulin and to creating affordable options to eliminate financial barriers to care.”
Warmath, D., Razin, V., Farmer, S., Peagler, A., Volney, J., Johnson, L. M., Westbrook, A. L., Rock, C., & Chandrasekaran, S. (in press). The Association Between Willingness to Adopt Wearable Technologies and Willingness to Participate in Technology-Based Obstetric Research. Pregnancy.
“Participation in obstetric studies evaluating wearable technologies remains a barrier to clinical implementation and requires both technology acceptance and willingness to engage in research. This study examines the association between the willingness to adopt wearable technology during labor, delivery, and/or immediate postpartum period and the willingness to participate in technology-related research, as well as the demographics associated with each construct. Strategies that promote technology acceptance and research engagement may increase participation in technology-based obstetric research. Greater participation, particularly among pregnant individuals, is needed to establish the safety, effectiveness, and clinical utility of wearable technologies in pregnancy.”
Warmath, D., Borowiec, K., LeBaron-Black, A. B., Mottola, G., Reiter, M., Schindler, K., & Caraballo, J. (2026). Improving Measurement in the Study of Consumer Finance: Consensus from the NEFE Scale Validation Project. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 1-11.
“Research conducted in the areas of consumer/household finance and financial education is intended to inform policy, programs, and practices that encourage more positive financial decisions and outcomes. The way in which that research is conducted matters. The development, selection, and use of measures is a core element of our research; however, little attention is paid to the topic. The objective of the consensus process reported in this paper was to identify impactful and feasible recommendations for the improvement of measure-related decisions in this field. A modified Delphi process was used involving a panel of seven experts who used findings from the NEFE study to identify potential recommendations and then engaged in two rounds of discussion and voting. Through this process, a set of 19 recommendations organized into five domains were identified. The intention of this paper is to motivate conversation that can lead to actions in our field that advance our understanding of and ability to impact well-being in the financial domain of life.”
Warmath, D., LeBaron-Black, A. B., Mottola, G., & Schindler, K. (2026). The Concept of Money Management Across Poverty Levels. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 1-10.
“In this study, the authors examined factorial validity, reliability, and measurement invariance of the Brief Money Management Scale using NEFE data. The study found three main results: (a) The fit statistics from our confirmatory factor analysis were good, indicating that the hypothesized factor structure from the original study was confirmed with the NEFE data (i.e., evidence of factorial validity). (b) The scale and its sub-dimensions showed evidence of convergent and discriminant validity as well as acceptable levels of internal consistency (i.e., evidence of reliability). (c) the authors also found evidence for scalar invariance, suggesting that people at different poverty levels interpret the items in the Brief Money Management Scale similarly. The findings suggest that this scale can appropriately be used to compare money management behavior across US poverty groups. The mean differences indicate that individuals across different poverty groups engage in money management behaviors at different rates.”
Weigle, E. A., McAndrews, L., & Warmath, D. (2026). How mother’s well-being influences the relationship between clothing comfort and maternal–foetal attachment. Clothing Cultures, 12(1), 21-37.
“Pregnant women’s well-being and health practices are related to a primary stage of interacting with one’s child during gestation. Caring for one’s body and foetus includes working to achieve comfort through maternity wear embodiment but the clothing industry has avoided linking the affective nature of clothing to women’s prenatal health. This study explores how pregnant women’s well-being moderates the relationship between maternity wear comfort and bonding with one’s child. Hundred and one pregnant women between 25 and 35 weeks gestation participated in an anonymous online survey. Results found that well-being moderates the relationship between women’s aesthetic, emotional and sensorial clothing comforts and maternal–foetal attachment. These results call for a commitment to support pregnant women’s gestational health by making the act of clothing oneself during pregnancy a more critical topic and public priority since the act of wearing and forming a relationship with clothing during pregnancy has major implications on women’s first feelings of parenting.”
Yoo, J., & Babiarz, P. (2026). Predicting US migration flows with online search data. Urban Studies, 00420980261493801.
“Residential mobility shapes labor markets, housing demand, infrastructure needs, and regional development in the United States. This study examines whether Google Trends data improve the prediction of U.S. interstate migration flows. Using Internal Revenue Service state-to-state migration records and Google Trends data for all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 2004 to 2018, the study estimates gravity-based panel models of unilateral out-migration and bilateral origin-destination flows. The results show that migration-related search intensity is associated with subsequent migration flows and improves predictive performance beyond conventional gravity-model covariates and fixed effects. These findings suggest that Google Trends data can serve as a timely complement to administrative migration records. Search data do not replace official statistics, but they can help identify emerging migration patterns before administrative data become available.”
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Oct 30, 2026
October 2026 Just So You Know…
Congratulations
Dr. Kimberly Watkins, doctoral students Kiana Drummond and Ravisha Chutani, and financial planning alumna Naomi Hill were awarded a $15,000 Ralston Institute Momentum Grant for their study "Financial Self-Efficacy for Substance Use Recovery: A Pilot Program for Post-Rehabilitation Reintegration." They are working with local partners, Acceptance Recovery Center (ARC) and Athens Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP), to deliver financial wellness workshops with ARC and COSSUP participants
Doctoral student Nayeon Kim (Major professor: Dr. Yilang Peng) on successfully defending her portfolio and for being admitted to candidacy!
Doctoral students Yeqi Zhu (Mentor Dr. Lu Fan) and Olawale Akinle (Mentor Dr. Effie Antonoudi) will be recognized as winners of best paper awards at the 2026 AFCPE Conference, Bethesda, MD this November.
Dr. Michael Thomas will be recognized with the 2026 AFCPE Mary Ellen Edmondson Educator of the Year Award in this year’s conference to be held in Bethesda, MD this November.
Doctoral student Catherine Asiimwe, and faculty Dr. Kimberly Watkins were selected to participate in the financial literacy workshop at Stanford University earlier this semester.
Drs. Effie Antonoudi (Co-PI) and Travis Mountain (Co-PI) and the Elevate Couples Georgia (HEART) grant received $988,000 in supplemental funds this year for the 5 year project (2026-2030).
Doctoral candidates Juha Lee, Mary Akinde, and Nayeon Kim were invited to the Phi Epsilon Omicron National Honor Society as part of the 2026 cohort. Additionally, the following FHCE undergraduate and graduate students were also invited to the 2026 cohort of the society: Troy Bigwood (CE), Adam Kaufman (MSFP), Brooke Meyers (FP), Samantha Scharff (FP).
In Other news…
Dr. Kristy Archuleta will be the keynote speaker in the 2026 AFCPE Annual Meeting, Bethesda, MD.
Doctor student Martie Sowards, who also serves as a graduate assistant with the Love and Money Center, was invited to present on the topic of financial well-being by the UGA Career Center.
The 2026 Housing Educators Research Association (HERA) conference held in Athens earlier this month under the leadership of Dr. Kim Skobba was a huge success.
Dr. Xiaohan Zhang was invited to present her findings on the Texas Economy to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas this past month.
The FHCE career fair had record attendance with 38 firms, and 327 students attending the event. Tremendous work by Melissa McBride, Jessica Mangum, Sherle Brown and the UGA Career Fair team led my Jessica McLeod, Leann Golob, and others in making this happen. Huge thanks to Dr. Joe Goetz (Advisor Financial Planning Alumni Group) for helping us have an alumni mixer following the career fair.
The Residential Property Management (RPM) Board meeting took place earlier this month. Huge thanks to Prof. Sherle Brown for leading this effort!
The Financial Planning Advisory Council led by alums Richard Zulick, Tom Schorn, and Raj Chokshi also met in October. Huge thanks to Melissa McBride, Sonja Halder, Suzanne Griffeth, Adison Marsh, and Jayme Bolding for all their help and support with this.
Research
Antonoudi, E., & Ludwig, E. T. (2026). Technology‐Enabled Financial Help‐Seeking: Evidence of AI and Financial Planners on Retirement Saving Behavior. Financial Planning Review, 9(3), e70043.
“This study aims to examine the effectiveness of three sources of retirement planning advice: AI tools, financial planners, and their combined use, in shaping retirement saving behavior. We introduce the Technology-Enabled Financial Help-Seeking (TEFHS) framework, which extends earlier models of financial help-seeking by incorporating technology adoption theory and resource-based perspectives…Results show that all advice sources are associated with higher odds of saving for retirement compared to individuals reporting no formal guidance. AI-only users demonstrate higher odds of saving, financial planner-only users show stronger associations, and combined use of AI and financial planners produces the highest odds. These patterns are consistent with a combined model in which AI reduces friction for standardized, rules-based choices while planners provide coordination and coaching for complex decisions. This study extends help-seeking theory into a technology-enabled environment while providing evidence relevant to the future of financial planning practice. The results indicate that expanding access to both AI-enabled tools and financial planners remains important for improving retirement saving behavior, particularly among individuals who do not currently engage with professional financial advisors.”
Grable, J. E., & Chatterjee, S. (2026). When Risk-Taking Capacity and Financial Risk Tolerance Diverge: Evidence from a Cluster Analysis. Finance Research Open, 100175.
“This study examines the relationship between financial risk-taking capacity and self-reported financial risk tolerance among affluent US investors. Data were collected with an online Qualtrics survey. The survey was distributed to members of the Precision Sample research panel in 2023. Using hierarchical and K-means clustering techniques, investors were categorized into three statistically distinct typologies, which were defined by their household income, net worth, financial knowledge, investment experience, and employment status. Cluster membership was significantly associated with financial risk tolerance. Skilled, knowledgeable investors exhibited the lowest willingness to take risks. High financial capacity did not guarantee high-risk tolerance. Situational and experiential factors also shaped investment preferences.”
Kim, N., Mountain, T. P., & Lee, K. (2026). Re‐Examining Young Adults' Financial Overconfidence. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 60(4), e70079.
“This study develops an alternative method for identifying financial overconfidence among young adults. Using data from the 2021 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), we apply latent class analysis (LCA) to classify individuals based on multiple dimensions of financial knowledge: self-assessed knowledge, objective responses, and “Don't Know/Refuse” (DK/RF) selections. Unlike approaches based on discrepancy scores or median splits, LCA models the joint distribution of these indicators and assigns individuals to latent profiles, allowing heterogeneity in knowledge and response behavior to be retained. The model identifies four profiles: Consistently High Knowledge, Overconfident, Reluctant, and Consistently Low Knowledge. The Overconfident class reflects high subjective knowledge with lower objective accuracy, while the Reluctant class is characterized by frequent DK/RF responses. The Overconfident group shows the highest likelihood of alternative financial services (AFS) usage, whereas the Consistently High Knowledge group shows the lowest. These findings indicate that classification strategy shapes how overconfidence is defined and related to financial behavior.”
Lim, H., Antonoudi, E., & Harris, J. (2026). College Generation Status and Financial Socialization: Implications for Financial Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, and Behavior of First-Generation College Students. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 47(1), 125-143.
“Using Structural Equation Modeling, this study examines how college generation status relates to the paths from financial socialization processes (parental financial socialization, financial education offered at high school and college) to their outcomes (financial knowledge, self-efficacy, and behaviors). Using data from a part of the 2020 Study on Collegiate Financial Wellness (SCFW), we analyzed 738 undergraduate students’ responses from one large public university in the Midwest. We found that first-generation college students engage more in negative financial behaviors compared to their counterparts. This adverse outcome can be partially explained by their financial socialization processes.”
Sun, X., Zhang, Y., & Chatterjee, S. (2026). From Perception to Protection: How Fraud Worry Shapes Investor Behavior. International Journal of Financial Studies, 14(9), 245.
"This study develops an integrated conceptual framework to examine the association between investors’ subjective perception of being targeted by investment fraud and their adoption of protective coping behaviors. Drawing on the transactional model of stress and coping, the paper proposes that perceived fraud targeting acts as a stressor that increases fraud-related worry, which in turn motivates behavioral responses. Using merged data from the 2024 FINRA Investor Survey and the National Financial Capability Study (N = 2198), the study employs mediation analysis with OLS and Poisson regression models. The results show that perceived fraud targeting significantly increases both fraud worry and protective behaviors, with worry partially mediating this relationship. Additional findings indicate that investor identity reduces worry, while family financial socialization and market trust promote protective actions. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that objective investment knowledge moderates these pathways. The study highlights the importance of subjective risk perception in shaping proactive fraud prevention behaviors and offers implications for policymakers, educators, and financial advisors."
Sep 24, 2026
September 2026 Just So You Know…
Congratulations
Dr. Michael Thomas on being promoted to Senior Lecturer in the area of Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics.
Dr. Dee Warmath was selected as a 2026 UGA Innovation District Fellow.
Professors Deborah Lacey and Wil Golden were selected as 2026 UGA Service Learning Fellows.
The Financial Planning program was selected as one of the top 8 CFP Board Registered programs in the country and invited as a finalist to the Wealth Management (Informa) Wealthies Award in September, 2026.
Dr. Kristy Archuleta was honored as an Excellence Awardee by the InvestmentNews in partnership with Prudential.
Doctoral students Yeqi Zhu and Nayeon Kim were selected to represent the department in the FACS 3MR competition in s Spring 2026.
Dr. Yilang Peng was accepted as a Fellow of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence!
Dr. Sharon Kane was accepted to the 2026 Cohort of UGA Active Learning Summer Institute.
Welcome….
Ken Chrzanowski assumed responsibilities as Assistant Director of the Financial Resilience Education Center (FREC), and faculty in the Department of Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics
Drs. Ashlee Tziganuk, Grace Bagwell Adams, Tammy Williams, and Xiaohan Zhang on starting as new faculty members in FHCE this fall.
In the news…
Dr. Michael Thomas was invited as a speaker at the Obama Presidential Center in September, 2026. Dr. Thomas was also invited by Vanguard to present to their advisors last month.
Dr. Kim Skobba is helping organize the 2026 HERA conference in Athens this year.
Dr. Diann Moorman has taken over as the Undergraduate Coordinator for FHCE from this Fall.
Research
Antonoudi, E., Rollins-Koons, A., Lim, H., & Heckman, S. (2026). Owning a Home or Two: An Analysis of the Financial and Behavioural Determinants of Single versus Multiple Property Ownership in the US Pre-and Post-COVID. Financial Planning Research Journal, 12(1), 1-24.
This study investigates behavioural and financial determinants of single versus multiple property ownership in the United States before and after COVID-19. Using nationally representative Survey of Consumer Finances data from 2019 and 2022, we examine how risk tolerance, financial literacy, and financial confidence influence these ownership outcomes. Results reveal shifts across the two periods, with education and ethnicity assuming different roles over time. Unlike prior work focused solely on homeownership, this paper compares determinants of multiple and single property ownership across contrasting economic contexts, offering insights for financial planners advising clients on complex housing and investment decisions.
Chutani, R., Watkins, K., Grable, J., & Archuleta, K. (2026). Financial anxiety as a pathway linking financial capability and financial well-being: a test of gender differences. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 1-29.
Results show that financial capability was negatively associated with financial anxiety and positively associated with financial well-being, both directly and indirectly. A multi-group analysis revealed consistent gender patterns: men and women both experienced lower well-being when financial anxiety was high and greater well-being with higher capability. Notably, the mediating effect of financial anxiety was gender-invariant, showing no significant difference between men and women
Chutani, R., Watkins, K., Lu, Z., & Grable, J. (2026). Family Financial Socialization, Financial Capability, and Well‐Being Across Generations: Practical Insights for Financial Planners. Financial Planning Review, 9(2), e70038..
Using the family financial socialization theory (FFST), this paper reports on a study that aimed to investigate the relationship between family financial socialization and the financial capabilities, behaviors, and well-being of individuals across different generational groups. Using a nationally representative sample of 6180 US respondents from the 2016 National Financial Well-Being Survey (NFWBS), structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the direct and indirect associations between financial socialization and financial well-being.
Drummond, K., Skobba, K., & Lewinson, T. (2026). Precarious pathways: exploring the life circumstances of extended-stay hotel residents. Housing Studies, 1-20.
When individuals and families lose either access to or when they are displaced in highly commodified housing markets, the extended stay hotels present a housing option. Although budget hotels offer access without requiring background checks or security deposits, transitioning from these units to more stable, secure housing can be difficult. This study interviewed 29 residents in suburban and exurban metro Atlanta, Georgia, and identified how participants’ housing pathways evolve and are affected by employment instability, financial strain, shifting social relationships, health challenges, incarceration, and rental screening barriers…Despite the cost, lack of tenure security, and inadequate conditions, budget hotels were often the best available option among the precarious housing arrangements used by participants. The findings suggest that reducing reliance on extended-stay hotels will require investment in affordable housing, alongside programs that reduce screening barriers and address disruptions that redirect housing pathways.
Grable, J. E., Archuleta, K., Kwak, E. J., Joo, S. H., & Hampton, B. (2026). A Description of the Intersection between Consumer Financial Confidence and Creditworthiness. Finance Research Open, 100127.
National optimism predicts higher financial confidence and creditworthiness. Internal locus of control boosts the odds of being financially high-functioning. Insecurity, shocks, and age raise the risk of mismatched confidence and credit status. Race and ethnicity shape discordant financial profiles beyond economic factors. Policy should integrate psychology and culture into financial education and advice.
Peng, Y. (2026). What Makes COVID-19 Charts Understandable? A Visualization Complexity Framework for Evaluating Data Visualizations in Pandemic Media Coverage. Science Communication, 10755470261460330.
This study proposes a multidimensional framework to assess visualization complexity. We collected 6,641 COVID-19 visualizations from 29 media outlets over 18 months and recruited U.S. participants (N = 905) to evaluate a subset (N = 640). Results indicate that traditional measures of visual complexity had limited effects on audience perceptions, whereas data encodings, particularly advanced chart types and higher variable count, significantly shaped audience evaluations. These findings offer practical insights for enhancing the clarity and effectiveness of data visualizations in science communication.
Sun, X., & Chatterjee, S. (2026). From media exposure to trading behavior: evidence from social media, traditional media and investor knowledge. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 1-22.
Using social media for investment selection correlates positively with perceived investment knowledge but negatively with objective investment knowledge. On the other hand, traditional media use is positively associated with both objective and subjective investment knowledge. This study also found that both social media use and traditional media use are associated with frequent trading behavior. But, objective investment knowledge negatively mediates the relationship between social media use and investor trading frequency.
Warmath, D., Borowiec, K., LeBaron-Black, A. B., Mottola, G., Reiter, M., Schindler, K., & Caraballo, J. (2026). Improving Measurement in the Study of Consumer Finance: Consensus from the NEFE Scale Validation Project. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 1-11.
Research conducted in the areas of consumer/household finance and financial education is intended to inform policy, programs, and practices that encourage more positive financial decisions and outcomes. The way in which that research is conducted matters. The development, selection, and use of measures is a core element of our research; however, little attention is paid to the topic. The objective of the consensus process reported in this paper was to identify impactful and feasible recommendations for the improvement of measure-related decisions in this field. The work reported here was motivated by a previous study conducted by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) that evaluated the psychometric properties of existing personal finance measures. The aim of the current study was to identify recommendations for improving the development, selection, and application of measures in the field of consumer/household finance and financial education. A modified Delphi process was used involving a panel of seven experts who used findings from the NEFE study to identify potential recommendations and then engaged in two rounds of discussion and voting. Through this process, a set of 19 recommendations organized into five domains were identified. The intention of this paper is to motivate conversation that can lead to actions in our field that advance our understanding of and ability to impact well-being in the financial domain of life.
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Dec 01, 2025
Doctoral student Ravisha Chutani (Co-authors: Drs. Kimberly Watkins, John Grable, and Laura Lu (college of education)) received the CFP Board Best Paper Award at the 2025 CFP Board-AFS Annual meeting, Chicago, IL for their paper “Understanding the Impact of Family Financial Socialization and Financial Capability on Financial Wellbeing Across Generations: Practical Insights for Financial Planners.”
Doctoral students Mary Akinde (Co-Major Professors: Drs. Patryk Babiarz and Diann Moorman) and Catherine Asiimwe (Major Professor: Dr. Lance Palmer) received the UGA Graduate School Graduate Degree Accelerator Awards.
Doctoral student Yeqi Zhu (Co-author and Mentor: Dr. Lu Fan) also received her best paper award at the 2025 AFCPE Conference, Phoenix-Glendale AZ for their paper entitled “Buy now, pay later: A roadblock to financial well-being”
The Financial Resilience Education Center (FRC) Renovation Celebration event this past November was a huge success. Over 80 attendees participated in this event, including Provost Ben Ayers, FACS Dean Dr. Anisa Zvonkovic, Associate Dean of Extension Dr. Allisen Penn, Financial Planning Legacy Leaders Charles Schwab Foundation, Signature FD, Schorn Wealth, HB Wealth, and Bluerock Wealth Management among others. Congratulations to Dr. Lance Palmer, Melissa McBride, Jessica Mangum, Sonja Halder, Casey Cane, Suzanne Griffeth, Dr. Michael Thomas and the Student Financial Planning Association (SFPA) student leaders for helping put together this tremendous event. Huge thank you to our FHCE faculty including Drs. Effie Antonoudi, Megan Ford, Joe Goetz, Wil Golden, Deborah Lacey, Travis Mountain, Anne Sweaney, Pamela Turner, and Kimberly Watkins, for participating in this celebration along with several of our amazing doctoral, Master’s, and undergraduate students, alumni, and other supporters and stakeholders at this event.
Doctoral student Juan S (Sebastian) Sandoval published his co-authored paper in the International Journal of Bank Marketing.
In the news…
Dr. Dee Warmath helped develop the Georgia Health Landscape Dashboard, a tool to identify local health gaps, and connect regional health professionals or policymakers with researchers along with Dr. Alsion Berg of Nutritional Sciences and Jon Duke (Ga Tech). Dr. Warmath’s work was featured in the Gatech News and @UGAResearch:
Other news…
Dr. Michael Thomas led the Financial Planning Quiz Bowl team to the 2025 AFCPE Conference held at Phoenix-Glendale, AZ this past November.
Several graduate students including Nayeon Kim, Francisco Diaz, and Katrina Goudelock presented their research at the 2025 HERA Conference, Blacksburg, VA this past November. Several FHCE Faculty including Prof. Sherle Brown, Drs. Andy Carswell, Sharon Kane, Diann Moorman, and Kim Skobba also presented their papers at the HERA conference.
Several graduate students including Yeqi Zhu (paper award winner; Mentor/Co-author Dr. Lu Fan), Kiana Drummond, Charlotte Ingram, and Lindsay Mapes) also presented their papers at the 2025 AFCPE Symposium, Phoenix-Glendale, AZ this past November. Financial Planning faculty members including Drs. Effie Antonoudi, and Lu Fan also presented their research at the AFCPE symposium.
Doctoral student Lin Sun (Major prof. Dr. Patryk Babiarz) presented her paper at the 2025 Southern Economic Association (SEA) Annual conference in Tampa Florida last month.
Doctoral student Lindsay Mapes (co-author: Dr. Patryk Babiarz) presented her paper at the 72nd North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International in Denver, CO last month.
Doctoral student Kiana Drummond (Major prof. Dr. Lance Palmer) was invited to present her co-authored paper at the 2025 Personal Finance and Investment Symposium, Perth, Australia.
Doctoral students Lindsay Mapes and Yeqi Zhu also presented their papers in the Graduate Seminar class in November.
The inaugural meeting of the Financial Planning Advisory Council was held following the FRC Renovation Center launch. The inaugural committee members include alumni Richard Zulick (Morgan Stanley), Tom Schorn (Schorn Wealth), and Raj Chokshi (Bluerock Wealth). The meeting was also attended by FACS Dean Dr. Anisa Zvonkovic and FACS Senior Director of Development Suzanne Griffeth.
The 2025 Fall RPM Career Night was a huge success. Thank you professor Sherle Brown, and Melissa McBride for making this happen. And thank you to Drs. Kim Skobba, Anne Sweaney, and Suzanne Griffeth for being there. Many thanks to Aimee Dowd from the FACS SSAC for promoting the major at this event. Huge thanks to the H.O.U.S.E student officers for their participation and help with this event, and thank you to our amazing Housing Management and Policy-Residential Property Management students for their participation.
Alumna Dr. Yu (Yulia) Zhang of Kansas State University presented her work (virtually) to the students in the Graduate Seminar Class last month.
Research
Ming, S., Maietta, J. E., Ranum, R. M., Hermann, G., Murriel, E. C., Block, C.,
Watkins, K., & Kiselica, A. M. (2025). Practical considerations for job application, interview, and negotiation in clinical neuropsychology.
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 1–19.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2025.2565213“This manuscript developed a narrative review of considerations for prospective employment in neuropsychology. This study provides a summary of factors to consider in job selection and negotiation in clinical neuropsychology in multiple settings, including the topics of compensation, benefits, and productivity expectations. Overall, the manuscript provides an overview of critical topics for early career success in clinical neuropsychology that could be incorporated into graduate and post-doctoral training curricula.”
“Curriculum design in programs to build life skills often focuses on explicit learning methods that aim to increase declarative knowledge. However, this type of education has been shown to have minimal impact on behavior. We introduce a continuum of knowledge and argue that more flexible forms of knowledge are required to impact behavior, especially for novices. Using a randomized controlled trial conducted over several sessions, this study explores the ability of semi-flexible and flexible knowledge to promote optimal behaviors in the context of personal finances. We found that as knowledge became more flexible, desired changes in actual behavior became more likely. Our results provide evidence that life skills education programs, such as collegiate financial education, may be “barking up the wrong tree” with the focus on explicit learning. Expanding program design to incorporate a focus on flexible knowledge may improve the impact of such programs on desired behavior.”
Sandoval, J. S., Collazos-Ortiz, M. A., Sarmiento-Sabogal, J., & Cayon-Fallon, E. (2025). Financial knowledge and financial behavior: evidence from five Latin American countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
International Journal of Bank Marketing, 1-22.
https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-09-2024-0567
“This study finds an association between financial knowledge and comparing financial products before acquiring them, and a negative relationship with overspending. Regarding seeking financial advice, the association was negative for the objective measure and positive for the subjective measure. The results also indicate that COVID-19 led to more precautionary behaviors among those with higher financial knowledge. However, there is considerable variation by country, both before and during the pandemic, suggesting that structural factors influence these relationships.”
Nov 25, 2025
Congratulations
Doctoral student Lin Sun (mentor: Dr. Patryk Babiarz) received the 2025 Jan M. Hathcote Social Science Academic Support Award for her project entitled: “Trust in the Machine: Decoding Consumer Acceptance of AI-Generated Financial Advice from LLMs”
Doctoral student Xiaoyuan Sun (co-author: Dr. Swarn Chatterjee) on receiving a best poster award at the 2025 AFS CFP Board CFPConnections25 Conference in Chicago, IL.
Doctoral student Kiana Drummond on being invited to present her paper entitled “Beyond the refund: Modeling client experience, satisfaction, and financial well-being changes in a VITA program” (co-authors: USDA Higher Education Challenge grant team led by Drs. Lance Palmer, Travis Mountain, Wil Golden, and Swarn Chatterjee; and doctoral students Catherine Asiimwe and Ruchika Bansal) at the AFS Australia New Zealand Chapter Personal Finance and Investment Symposium in Perth Australia. Kiana’s paper was selected based on her poster presentation on the same topic at the 2025 CFP Connections conference in Chicago, Illinois this past October.
Dr. Kimberly Watkins has been accepted as a faculty affiliate of the UGA Love and Money Center
Dr. Joseph Goetz on receiving the Distinguished Leadership Award from Texas Tech University School of Financial Planning
Dr. John Grable was recognized for his service at the Academy of Financial Services Awards ceremony in the 2025 CFP Board Connections Conference, Chicago, IL.
Drs. Lance Palmer, Travis Mountain, and Wil Golden on receiving the Gifted Savings funding to evaluate financial literacy and investment behavior of high school students.
Dr. Dee Warmath has been selected to be one of the inaugural
UGA faculty innovation fellows. Dr. Warmath’s and Inaugural Faculty Innovation Fellows’ works were featured on
UGA TODAY.
In the news…
Nearly 100 students signed up for the Evening with Caleb Silver event. Caleb Silver is the editor-in-chief of Investopedia and shared his insights on AI and the future opportunities for Financial Planning, and the tremendous opportunities for students graduating from our program. Thank you Dr. Michael Thomas for hosting the Q&A panel and Dr. Kimberly Watkins for leading this event!
Dr. John Grable was invited to speak at the Financial Planning Association meeting in Spokane, Washington.
Dr. Michael Thomas was invited to be present on a panel of experts discussing Real World Assets (RWAs) at the 3rd Annual Lehman College Digital Assets Conference in NYC, NY.
Other news…
First year doctoral student Marty Sowards represented UGA at the 2025 Utah Valley University Financial Planning Career Fair in Orem Utah this past October.
Over 238 students attended the 2025 FHCE Fall Career Fair setting a new record! 30 firms participated in this event! Huge thanks to prof. Sherle Brown for helping us plan this event!
The Financial Planning Alumni Group event that followed the Career Fair was also well attended. Thank you Drs. Effie Antonoudi, Joseph Goetz, Lance Palmer, Megan Ford Michael Thomas, Kimberly Watkins and other faculty members whose names I may have missed for all your support.
The RPM Board meeting that followed in the evening of the FHCE Career Fair was another success. Thank you professor Sherle Brown making this happen. And thank you to Drs. Andy Carswell and Pamela Turner and other faculty members whose name I may have missed for being there.
Thank you Melissa Mcbride, Jessica Mangum, and Sonja Halder for all your help with these events!
Dr. Brenda Cude has been busy! Currently, she is consulting with Healthy DC, the District of Columbia's Health Insurance Marketplace, to improve their consumer communications, including their website. Next week, she will speak at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors in Tirana, Albania, on the topic of keeping insurance affordable and valued by customers. And, in December Dr. Cude will attend the Consumer Federation of America's Financial Services Conference, participating in a panel discussion. The topic is "Tech Comes to the Insurance Market: The Opportunities and Pitfalls Facing Industry, Regulators, and Consumers." In September, Dr. Cude presented “Words that work: Clearer consumer messaging” to 200 participants at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Insurance Summit in Kansas City, MO. She also chaired a panel on Aging and Long-Term Care at the same conference and presented a paper with Sharon Tennyson of Cornell University titled “Consumer insurance literacy: Evidence from a survey of homeowners insurance purchasers” at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Center for Insurance Policy and Research Regulatory Research Symposium, also in Kansas City, MO.
Drs. Effie Antonoudi, John Grable, Joseph Goetz, Kimberly Watkins, Kristy Archuleta, Lance Palmer, Lu Fan, and Travis Mountain participated in the panel for our doctoral students in the seminar class this past October.
Dr. Yunhee Chang, University of Mississippi, presented her research on natural disasters and credit use to the doctoral students in the Seminar class in October.
Research
Daniels, I. M., Hollar, D. L., McCoy, M., & Watkins, K. (2025). Relationships between financial well-being and resiliency: evidence from law enforcement. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 1-21.
“This study investigates how ego-resiliency (ER) and bounce-back resilience (BBR) relate to financial well-being/distress (FWBD) among law enforcement officers. Results show that both ego-resilience and bounce-back resilience are positively and additively associated with financial well-being, suggesting that the capacity to recover from adversity and the proclivity for context-appropriate behavioral impulse control are related to perceived financial health. The law enforcement context enhances the relevance of this study to society, as officers operate under high-stress conditions and are authorized by governments to engage the public in consequential ways. Identifying financial well-being as a correlate of stress-coping resources has implications for the psychological well-being of officers and the health of their interactions with the broader public. This study contributes to the literature of financial well-being by establishing relationships to previously underexplored psychological correlates. Furthermore, this study examines financial well-being in an occupational sample. Such samples are underexplored in the literature.”
Reiter, M., Jurgenson, J. B., McCoy, M., Watkins, K., White, K., & Warmath, D. (2025). Evaluating the Klontz Money Script Inventory-Revised (KMSI-R): Factorial Validity, Internal Consistency, and Measurement Invariance with a Diverse Sample. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 1-13.
“The Klontz Money Script Inventory-Revised (KMSI-R) is a widely used scale that assesses individuals’ money scripts or beliefs. This study examines the factorial validity, internal consistency (i.e., reliability), and measurement invariance of the KMSI-R using a diverse sample of respondents. Using a proprietary dataset with a final sample of 2686 respondents, the authors found that the measurement’s internal consistency was reasonable for all items. However, factorial validity was not supported, with poor fit indices for the four-factor model (X2(458) = 3912.96, RMSEA = .053, CFI = .762, TLI = .742). Improvements in fit were observed after removing items with low loadings and applying theoretically relevant modifications (X2(96) = 610.249, RMSEA = .045, CFI = .930, TLI = .912). Measurement invariance across racial and ethnic groups was not supported. The findings suggest that the KMSI-R needs significant revision before it can be used with diverse populations.”
Zhang, Y., & Chatterjee, S. (2025). Overconfidence and portfolio return expectations: The mediating role of option trading behavior. Economics Bulletin, 45(3), 1283-1296.
“This paper investigates the role of overconfidence in investment knowledge on higher investment portfolio return expectations, with a focus on the mediating role of option trading behavior among individual American investors. The findings show that overconfidence was consistently associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in option trading behavior and holding the belief that one's investment portfolio returns were superior to the market average. The mediation analysis further reveals that overconfidence mediated by actively participating in options trading, may result in investors' positive perception of their portfolio performance.”