Feb 05, 2025
Congratulations
Congratulations to our doctoral students: Juha Lee, Juan Sandvoal Hoyos (Sebastian), and Ravisha Chutani on receiving scholarships to attend and present their papers at the 2025 ACCI conference in Pittsburgh, PA this April.
Congratulations to doctoral student Camryn Cobb (mentor Dr. Dee Warmath) on her paper entitled “Dominance and Division: Zero-sum Thinking” being accepted for presentation at the 2025 Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference in Denver Colorado this February.
Dr. Dee Warmath on becoming the incoming editor for the Journal of Family and Economic Issues. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10834-024-09998-0
Other news…
Outstanding faculty in our department are chairing and leading two conferences this year:
The 2025 Financial Therapy Association (FTA) Conference will be in Athens Ga, and the call for papers are out. FHCE faculty Dr. Megan Ford is serving as the Conference Chair for the 2025 conference. If you are interested in attending the call for papers deadline has been extended to February 7th, 2025: https://financialtherapyassociation.org/education/conference-2025/#proposal
The 2025 VITA U Conference will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico this year, and FHCE faculty Dr. Lance Palmer is the Chair of this conference. https://www.fcs.uga.edu/financial-planning/vita-u-conference-2025. If you are interested in attending, the Call for papers deadline is Feb 28th, 2025: https://proposalspace.com/calls/d/1759
Dr. Kimberly Watkins led a group of our undergraduate and graduate students to the 2025 NAPFA South Conference in Atlanta, GA this year.
Dr. Lu Fan’s research on cryptocurrency and social media use was feature in UGA Today in January 2025: https://news.uga.edu/social-media-users-likely-to-invest-in-crypto/
Dr. Megan Ford was interviewed by vox.com on relationships and money. Here is a link to the article: https://www.vox.com/even-better/396354/merging-finances-partner-considerations-money-love-relationships-debt.
Research
Lim, H., Lee, J. M., & Fan, L. (2025). Retirement status change, social support and life satisfaction among older adults: differences by household income level. International Journal of Social Economics. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-03-2024-0209
“The study found that completely or partially retired individuals reported higher life satisfaction than those who continued working. Those who had returned to work also experienced higher life satisfaction, particularly among the low-income group. Among the middle-income group, individuals transitioning toward retirement reported greater life satisfaction than those still working. Across all subgroups, closeness with a spouse or partner and having close friends were positively related to life satisfaction. However, a lack of close relationships with immediate family members was linked to lower life satisfaction in the low- and middle-income groups, though this was not found in the high-income group”.
Qi, J., Zhang, Y., & Ouyang, C. (2025). Cryptocurrency Investments: The Role of Advisory Sources, Investor Confidence, and Risk Perception in Shaping Behaviors and Intentions. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 18(2), 57.
“The findings from this study indicated that investor confidence was positively associated with the likelihood and intentions to invest in cryptocurrency. Conversely, heightened risk perceptions associated with cryptocurrency reduced both the likelihood and intentions to invest. The findings from this study make a compelling case for financial professionals to enhance client education on cryptocurrency risks and for policymakers to strengthen regulations, ensuring accurate information dissemination through media and social networks. By providing a nuanced understanding of advisory influence and investors’ characteristics, this research offers valuable insights for financial professionals, policymakers, and investors navigating the complexities of cryptocurrency investments”.
Zhang, Y., Chatterjee, S., & Fan, L. (2025). Informed investment decisions: The role of fundamental and investment-specific financial knowledge on investors’ information source choice. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning. https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgrjfcp/early/2025/01/08/jfcp-2023-0139.abstract
“This study uses the 2021 National Financial Capability Study State-by-State Survey combined with the Investor Survey to examine the relationships between investment-specific and fundamental financial knowledge and the associations of these two types of knowledge with investors’ reliance on three distinct information sources for investment decisions, namely, mobile trading apps, financial professionals, and social networks. The analysis reveals that objective investment-specific knowledge and objective fundamental financial knowledge negatively correlated with investors’ reliance on all three information sources and the number of sources used. On the other hand, subjective investment-specific knowledge exhibited positive correlations with the reliance on these three information sources and the number of sources used but subjective fundamental knowledge did not. The findings provide important implications for policymakers, financial planners, and counselors”.
Jan 27, 2025
January 2025 Just So You Know…
We are restarting the Just So You Know for FHCE. The first edition of this year begins with some highlights from last year:
Welcome
Welcome to our new faculty who joined the department starting this Fall of 2024:
Dr. Sharon Kane, Assistant Professor in Consumer Economics
Prof. Deborah Lacey, Lecturer in Financial Planning/Consumer Economics
Graduate Coordinator Assistant Jeanne Taylor
Condolences
FHCE lecturer Jim Pasztor passed away during the summer of 2024.
Congratulations…
Congratulations to all of our summer/Fall 2024 doctoral graduates: Drs. Gary Clement (Chair: Dr. John Grable), Heejae Lee (Chair: Dr. Dee Warmath), Hofner Rusiana (Dr. Patryk Babiarz), Jordan Bell (Chair: Dr. Dee Warmath).
Congratulations to the following FHCE alumni whose firms made it to the 2025 Bulldog 100:
- Ryan DeLettre (Consumer Econ ’06)
- Spencer Sutlive (Financial Planning ’20)
- Will Scott (Housing ’04)
- Emily Poole (Consumer Journalism ’00)
- Stephen Womack (Consumer Econ ’05)
Congratulations also to FHCE Alumna Katrina Bowers (Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics ’84) on receiving the FACS Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award.
Dr. Kimberly Watkins on receiving the Financial Therapy Association 2024 Outstanding Community Outreach Leader Award.
Congratulations to FHCE doctoral candidate Jia Qi (co-authors: FHCE Alumna Dr. Yu Zhang (Kansas State University) and Dr. Swarn Chatterjee) on receiving the AFS Best Paper Award in the 2024 Academy of Financial Services Conferences in Columbus, OH.
Dr. Daehwan Ahn participated in the 2024 UGA Teaching Academy Fellows program.
Dr. Effie Antonoudi was selected to the UGA Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
Dr. Lu Fan was selected in the 2024 cohort of the UGA ASPIRE Fellows program.
FHCE Faculty Drs. Daehwan Ahn, Effie Antonoudi, Lu Fan, and Kimberly Watkins were inducted as Owens Institute of Behavioral Research (OIBR) as new affiliates. Drs. Andy Carswell and Dee Warmath are also current affiliates of the OIBR.
Other news…
Under Dr. Lance Palmer's leadership and with tremendous support from Wil Golden and other members of the VITA team the VITA-U Conference was hosted by UGA in 2024. Dr. Palmer's efforts also resulted in the starting of the Online Graduate Certificate program and Endorsement in Financial Literacy.
Under Dr. Kristy Archuleta's leadership, the Graduate Certificate in Behavioral Financial Planning and Financial Therapy also brought in its first cohort in the spring of 2024.
Enrollment grew across all of the FHCE undergraduate and graduate programs!
Dr. Jermaine Durham successfully organized the 2024 GICH Fall Retreat at the Georgia Center, along with Dr. Kim Skobba and other members of the GICH team. The Fall retreat had record attendance, and was a tremendous success all around.
Dr. Michael Thomas was invited by the following organizations to deliver keynote addresses: 2024 AFCPE Annual Conference, Columbus, OH; 2024 J.P. Morgan and Chase Speaker Series: “A Holistic View of Financial Socialization.”; 2024 CFP® Board Connect Conference: “Compassionate Financial Guidance for the Mass Affluent.”; Department of Defense (DoD): “The Top Five Things to Consider When Taking Care of Your People: Cognitive Exploration of Human Behavior”.
Research
Adams, K., Skobba, K., & Tiller, L. (2024). “I Would Make This Place Mine” : Photo Voice Reflections of Youth with Foster Care Experience in a Precollegiate Program. Child Welfare, 101
Bell, J., Jurgenson, J., & Warmath, D. (n.d.). The Role of Objective Financial Situation and Psychological Outlook in the Relationship Between Personal Life Shocks and Financial Well‐Being. Journal of Consumer Behaviour. doi:10.1002/cb.2437
Cusumano, C., & Warmath, D. (2024). Mind the gap: Investigating how financial well-being shapes job satisfaction through burnout. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 1-15.
Fan, L., & Henager, R. (2025). Generational differences in financial well-being: Understanding financial knowledge, skill, and behavior. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 49 (1), e70011.
Fan, L., & Ryu, S. (2024). Young women’s financial satisfaction: The roles of financial decision-making power, spousal relative resources, and personal financial characteristics. Journal of Family and Economic Issues. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-024-09996-2
Fan, L., & Ryu, S. (2024). Young women’s financial satisfaction: The roles of financial decision-making power, spousal relative resources, and personal financial characteristics. Journal of Family and Economic Issues. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-024-09996-2
Fan, L., Green, L. E., & Park, N. (2024). Financial stressors and alternative financial service use: Extending the ABC-X model of family stress. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 48 (1), e13002.
Gawrys, M. R., & Skobba, K. (2024). The socialization of adolescent housing awareness. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 52(4), 314-326.
Grable, J., Rabbani, A., & Heo, W. (2024). The Complementary Nature of Financial Risk Aversion and Financial Risk Tolerance. Risks, 12(7), 109.
Grable, J.E., Watkins, K., & Archuleta. K. (2024). To bank or not to bank: describing the banking status of black households. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 43(1), 62-81.
Green, L., Betz-Hamilton, A., Albright, B., Lee, S. -J., Vasquez, K., Cantrell, R., . . . Carswell, A. (2024). Home Modification for Older Adults Aging in Place: Evidence from the American Housing Survey. Journal of Aging and Environment, 38(2), 97-108.
Heo, W., Grable, J. E., & Rabbani, A. G. (2024). An Analysis of the Discrepancy Between Elicited-and Revealed-Portfolio Risk Among Individual Investors: Understanding the Role of Financial Advisors. Journal of Behavioral Finance, 1-15.
Heo, W., Kwak, E. J., Grable, J., & Park, H. J. (2024). Ownership of Cash Value Life Insurance among Rural Households: Utilization of Machine Learning Algorithms to Find Predictors. Mathematics, 12(16), 2467.
Heo, W., Kim, E., Kwak, E. J., & Grable, J. E. (2024). Identifying Hidden Factors Associated with Household Emergency Fund Holdings: A Machine Learning Application. Mathematics, 12(2), 182
Johnson, P., White, K., Watkins, K, McCoy, M., Byram, JL., & Muruthi, B. (2024) Lessons for FCS professionals on relationships between financial socialization messages financial management, optimism and stress by race. Journal of Family & Consumer Science, 115(4).
Kim, K. T., & Fan, L., (2024). Beyond the hashtags: social media usage and cryptocurrency investment. International Journal of Bank Marketing, ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-12-2023-0665
Kim, S. D., & Carswell, A. T. (2024). A theoretical development of agent specificity. Housing and Society, 51(1), 80-92.
Kruger, M., Grable, J. E., Palmer, L., & Goetz, J. (2024). Factors Associated with Couples Pooling their Finances. Contemporary Family Therapy, 46(1), 8-20.
Kwak, E. J., & Grable, J. E. (2024). A Comparison of Financial Risk-Tolerance Assessment Methods in Predicting Subsequent Risk Tolerance and Future Portfolio Choices. Risks, 12(11), 170.
Lehrer, P., Derby, L., Caswell, J. S., Grable, J., & Hanlon, R. (2024). Physiological Effects of Psychological Interventions Among Persons with Financial Stress: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Introduction to Psychophysiological Economics.. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback, 49(4), 503-521.
Lei, S., & Fan, L., (2024). Cognitive ability and stock investment among Chinese middle aged and older population. Financial Services Review, 32 (3), 1-19.
Li, Z., Chatterjee, S. and Moorman, D. (2024), Exploring the interplay of materialism, financial socialization, financial capability, and credit card debt. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 42(7), 2099-2116. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-02-2024-0106
Limbrick, J. M., Johnson, P., Worthy, S., Moorman, D. C., & Aaron, L. A. (2024). Examining the Experiences of College Students Simulating the Community Worker Role in the Community Action Poverty Simulation. Journal of Human Sciences and Extension, 12(2), 2.
Lu, Y., & Peng, Y. (2024). The Mobilizing Power of Visual Media Across Stages of Social-Mediated Protests. Political Communication, 41(4), 531-558.
McCoy, M., Machiz, I., Johnson, P., White, K., Watkins, K., & Bennetts, C. (Accepted). Resilient personality or financial resilience framework for coping with mental and physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial Services Review.
McCoy, M., Watkins, K., Kahler, R., Reiter, M., & White Jr., K. (2024). The importance of being a “client” for financial planning students: A thematic analysis of financial planning students’ experiences meeting with a planner. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning. doi:10.1891/JFCP-2022-0077
Pak, T.-Y., Fan, L., & Chatterjee, S. (2024). Financial socialization and financial well-being in early adulthood: The mediating role of financial capability. Family Relations, 73 (3), 1664-1685. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12959
Parks, J. M., Johnson, P. L., Worthy, S. L., Moorman, D. C., & Aaron, L. A. (2024). “What About the Children?”: College Students Simulating a Child’s Role During the Community Action Poverty Simulation. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, 35(1), 84-95.
Peng, Y., Wen, T. J., & Yang, J. (2024). A Computer Vision Methodology to Predict Brand Personality from Image Features. Journal of Advertising, 53(4), 626-638.
Peng, Y., Lock, I., & Ali Salah, A. (2024). Automated Visual Analysis for the Study of Social Media Effects: Opportunities, Approaches, and Challenges. Communication Methods and Measures, 18(2), 163-185.
Qi, J., Chatterjee, S., Worthy, S., Herndon, K. and Wojdynski, B. (2024). Using an extended post-acceptance framework to examine consumer adoption of fintech. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 42(3), 642-668.
Qian, S., Lu, Y., Peng, Y., Shen, C. C., & Xu, H. (2024). Convergence or divergence? A cross-platform analysis of climate change visual content categories, features, and social media engagement on Twitter and Instagram. Public Relations Review, 50(2), 102454.
Sharma, M., & Babiarz, P. (2024). Income Shocks, Financial Hardship, and Changes in Depression Symptomatology Among Older Americans During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, 35(2), 173-187.
Sunder, A., Palmer, L., Chatterjee, S., & Goetz, J. (2024). Benefits of Consistent and Comprehensive Financial Advice during the Great Recession. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 41, 100900, 1-16.
Totenhagen, C. J., Li, X., Wilmarth, M. J., Archuleta, K. L., & Yorgason, J. B. (2024). Do couples who play together stay together? A longitudinal dyadic examination of shared leisure, financial distress, and relationship outcomes. Family Process, 63(1), 210-227.
Warmath, D., Peng, Y., & Winterstein, A. P. (2024). “Letter to my future self” as a device for assessing health education effectiveness. Patient Education and Counseling, 123, 108217.
Warmath, D., Borowiec, K., LeBaron-Black, A., Motola, G., Reiter, M., Schlinder, K., & Caraballo, J. (2024). Improving measurement in the study of consumer finance: consensus from the NEFE Scale Validation Project. Journal of Family and Economic Issues.
Watkins, K., Choi, S., Reiter, M., McCoy, M., Smodic, S*., Thompson, C.*, White, K., & Muruthi, B.A. (2024). U.S. Black adults' estate planning: The role of financial planner use, inheritance receipt, and life insurance ownership. Financial Planning Review. doi:10.1002/cfp2.1181
White, Jr., K., Olajide, O., Watkins, K., Reiter, M., Johnson, P., & McCoy, M. (2024). The strength of perception of financial education quality on financial stress and anxiety. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning. doi: 10.1891/JFCP-2023-0022
Zhang, Y., & Fan, L., (2024). The nexus of financial education, literacy, and mobile fintech: Unraveling pathways to financial well-being. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 42 (7), 1789-1812.
Zhang, Y., Chatterjee, S., & Moorman, D. (2024). Desirable Family Financial Behaviors: An Examination of the Role of Family Structure in the United States. Journal of Financial Therapy, 15(2), 4. 44-75.
Zhang, Y., Qi, J., & Chatterjee, S. (2024). Exploring the role of help-seeking behavior, family financial socialization, and capability on financial well-being. Family Relations, 73(5), 3054–3072.