Veterans are more likely to have emergency funds and retirement plans, less difficulty covering expenses and bills and a lower likelihood of experiencing an income drop than they were five years ago, according to research released today by the Finra Investor Education Foundation.

Veterans also report higher financial well-being, lower levels of financial anxiety and a greater propensity to use financial technology, according to the white paper “How are Veterans Faring Financially?

“The financial capability of both veterans and adult Americans in general improved between 2015 and 2018, though veterans appear to have improved at a somewhat faster rate,” Finra reported.

Not all veterans were doing as well as all others, however, as the Finra white paper noted some within the veteran community, including many women, are encountering challenges. The report also found that there has been a drop in the number of veterans attending four-year colleges over the past five years, and in increase in veterans forgoing medical treatment.

The white paper found that veterans in 2018 are generally faring better than non-veterans in a number of critical financial areas, as well as doing better than veterans did in a 2015 Finra survey.

Relative to 2015 veterans, Finra reported veterans in 2018 saw improvement in the following areas:

• 5% more likely to have an emergency fund.
• 7% more likely to have retirement savings outside an employer plan.
• 5% more likely to have savings in non-retirement accounts.
• 15% less likely to have difficulty covering bills and expenses.
• 15% less likely to have experienced a drop in income in the past 12 months.

Overall, veterans report higher financial well-being, lower levels of financial anxiety, and a higher likelihood of having a will, the paper said.

Veterans in 2018 are also 12% more likely to use financial technology for planning than non-veterans and are 33% more likely to participate in the gig economy, Finra said.

When individual groups within the veteran community were examined, however, Finra found an uneven picture.

Veterans who are female, younger, married, divorced or separated, or who have financial dependents, are faring worse than their veteran peers, the white paper said.

“One notable similarity to the general population is that female veterans have higher levels of financial stress and anxiety than male veterans," the report said. "However, financial stress and financial anxiety are subjective measures, and it is possible that men and women simply perceive the same financial situation differently."

Relative to male veterans, female veterans in 2018 have 4% lower financial self-efficacy, 16% higher financial anxiety and 25% higher financial stress, the report said.

Veterans in 2018 also report more problematic credit card behaviors than their earlier and non-veteran peers, the report found. In fact, veterans are 11% more likely to report problematic credit card behaviors.
And perhaps surprisingly, veterans with college and advanced degrees report higher levels of financial anxiety, but also significantly higher rates of having a will, Finra found. 

Veterans with college degrees have 16% higher financial anxiety and are 19% more likely to have a will, the report said. Meanwhile, veterans with advanced college degrees have 31% more financial anxiety and are 26% more likely to have a will.

Black veterans exhibit slightly higher or similar levels of financial capability than white veterans, the report said, which runs counter to two studies that have recently examined race-based differences in financial well-being in the general population, the self-regulator found.

“Understanding why black veterans have somewhat higher financial well-being than white veterans might inform our understanding of why black Americans, in general, have lower levels of financial well-being than white Americans,” Finra said.

Finra also fund that there has been a fairly large drop in veterans attending four-year colleges since 2015.

“This decline might be driven by concerns about student loan debt," Finra said. "The change also may reflect an improving economy (and therefore higher opportunity cost of going to school) or simply a change in veteran demand for higher education. In any event, the repercussions of a less educated veteran population could be significant.”

Troubling also is the increase in the percentage of veterans between 2015 and 2018 who reported that they had foregone medical treatment, Finra said. “Gaining a better understanding of what could be driving this increase might help improve both the financial and health outcomes of veterans,” the regulator added.