Copyright 2008, Institute for Financial Literacy

Proposed Rebates in 2008:
How will Americans Spend Their Tax Rebate Checks?

A Report Published by the 
Institute for Financial Literacy, Inc. 
March 2008
Final Version

The Institute for Financial Literacy is a non-profit financial literacy organization.  The Institute’s mission is to make effective financial literacy education available for all American adults.  The Institute accomplishes its mission by developing financial literacy education materials, publishing the National Standards in Adult Financial Literacy Education, maintaining the Library of Personal Finance, administering the Center for Financial Certifications, hosting the Annual Conference on Financial Education and conducting research through the Center for Consumer Financial Research.

FINDINGS AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report finds that:
* Most survey respondents intend to Pay Debt with their prospective tax rebate checks (48%).
* The second most common response was to place the funds into Regular Savings (22%).
* The third most common response was Buy Something at (13%).
* The fourth most common response was Other at (12%).
* Retirement Savings was the least popular answer at (4%).
RECOMMENDATIONS
* Further study should be conducted to determine why Americans are expressing such a significant preference for debt reduction at this time.
* The study results may be an early indication of the educational effectiveness of both the pre-filing bankruptcy Credit Counseling and the Bankruptcy Debtor Education and additional research should be conducted.
* The low preference for retirement savings options, even among those 40 years and older, is an alarming indicator and educators, academics, economists and policymakers should all take serious note of this data.


Institute for Financial Literacy
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www.financiallit.org