Abstract
Financial literacy is essential knowledge for recent college graduates to be able to manage a stable job, career, and personal wealth. This study examined the financial literacy of 228 college students (49.8% males; 50.2% females) at a regional public university in Eastern Kentucky. The participants were randomly invited to complete a 22-item online financial literacy survey, which was created based on the work of Cude et al. (2006). The survey contents included five demographic questions and 17 five-point Likert scales (1= strongly agree/ always, 5= strongly disagree/ never) to rate participants’ knowledge on investing, saving, budgeting, and credit. The data was collected between mid-October and early December 2022. The authors identified five factors covering personal financial literacy: (1) understanding of investment, (2) understanding of financial risk and budgeting, (3) perceptions of saving and spending, (4) longing for saving and investing, and (5) motivation for learning financial literacy. The results showed that individuals who had taken a finance course had a higher rating in understanding investment, financial risk, and budgeting than those who had not taken a course. Furthermore, those who had taken a financial literacy course received a higher score on the factor--perceptions on saving and spending. This finding suggested increased opportunities to attend financial literacy classes and mock experiences will help students build foundational knowledge and confidence in utilizing practical finance skills.