Educators and individuals may wish to use a financial literacy quiz evaluation to measure current situations in terms of a person’s income levels, savings, credit burden, and investments. The NFEC’s money management survey questionnaire helps assess these indicators so the person or teacher can select the most appropriate educational resources for the situation. However, answers to the personal finance survey questions should be looked over carefully to make sure participants do not answer incorrectly or introduce bias into the results. People may exhibit overconfidence, deliberately misreport data, or simply forget about various aspects of their finances. The evaluator should stay aware that people have different emotions toward personal finances, which could alter their responses.

In addition to the current situation, these survey questions on money management also evaluate financial sentiment, financial behaviors, willingness to engage in behavior modification, and program results. Financial sentiment refers to people’s attitudes toward and relationships with money, hopes for the future, and how confident they feel about making money-related decisions. Financial behaviors and willingness to modify them are measured by these financial wellness survey questions according to the stages identified in Prochaska and DiClemente’s Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (1983). The overarching goal is to inspire lasting positive behavior adoption that leads individuals toward a rosier future. These measures also can be applied to accurately assess the results of financial literacy programming. The NFEC analyzes survey data to evaluate people’s overall ability to reach their financial goals.