Personal Financial Literacy Among U.S. Medical Students

Abstract

Background: Personal financial literacy is associated with successfully managing debt, investing for retirement, and coping with financial strain. Though medical students occupy a financially unique niche due to high debt, little is known about their financial literacy. In this study, the authors' objective was to assess financial literacy among medical students and to evaluate demographic, educational, and financial factors associated with financial literacy.

An Innovative Approach to Educating Medical Students About Personal Finance

“…This can be seen at the Florida State University College of Medicine (FSU COM), where, historically, less than 5% of medical students have significant formal education in personal finance, business principles, or any related disciplines. A broader survey completed by over 1,000 medical students from various medical schools found that only 56.6% of M4s received personal finance counseling or education during medical school [ 6 ]. Respondents to this same survey also scored an average of only 47.7% correct on a basic financial literacy quiz [ 6 ].…”

Personal Finance Education for Residents: A Qualitative Study of Resident Perspectives

“…Finally, while this study focused on the finances of residents, medical students may also benefit from a curriculum created to address these needs. Students typically do not have significant income to manage, but to “hit the ground running” with sound financial decisions in residency, financial literacy for medical students is needed . Teaching these concepts to graduate trainees alone may result in unnecessary missteps and lost opportunities early in training.…”

Financial Capability of Accounting Students in South African Universities

“…As explicated in Table 4, the analysis of this study indicated that the majority of the respondents (63.1%) are moderately financially knowledgeable, with only 14.5% highly financially knowledgeable and 22.4% less financially knowledgeable. While several recent studies have found low levels of financial knowledge among college students (Jayakumar et al, 2017;Andreou and Philip, 2018;Brooks and Wheeler, 2018;Anderson et al, 2018), others have suggested that these students have good financial knowledge (Sarpong-Danquah et al., 2018). The findings of this study are similar to those of (Thapa, 2015), who found that college students in Nepal have a moderate level of basic financial knowledge at 62% mean score.…”

“…On the other hand, several recent studies have found low levels of financial knowledge among college students (Jayakumar et al, 2017;Andreou and Philip, 2018;Brooks and Wheeler, 2018;Anderson et al, 2018), others have suggested that these students have good financial knowledge (Sarpong-Danquah et al, 2018). Jayakumar et al (2017) cross-sectional survey of first-and fourth-year students across seven American medical schools found that the students were not financially knowledgeable, despite the provision of financial counselling for the fourth-year students. Sarpong-Danquah et al (2018) investigated the level of financial literacy among students across tertiary institutions in Ghana.…”