Assessing the Use and Usefulness of Current Financial Resources for Civilian Military Spouses

Most military installations have the resources available to operate as an independent community. However, immediate access to these resources tends to promote societal disconnection for the civilian military spouse (CMS). This disconnection leaves the CMS with many misconceptions when it comes to certain life skills. The Department of Defense (DoD) has attempted to answer these concerns with the introduction of well being plans to open the door for the CMS to seek personal financial assistance. However, this study found that CMSs pre, ferred to seek financial assistance from formal, nonmilitary resources such as professional financial planner/ counselor and informal financial resources such as family and other military spouses. The findings provided implications for marketing, financial literacy program consistency, and military retention.
Personal financial management is one life skill that has become a concern for military and government officials (Department of Defense [DoD], 2003; Keane, 2001; Tiemeyer, Wardynski, & Buddin, 1999; Varcoe, Lees, Wright, & Emper, 2003). This personal problem is not only costing the military financially but also costing the military its integrity and reputation (Government Account, ing Office [GAO], 2005). In an effort to address these concerns, the Department of Defense (DoD) has initiated three well being programs that encompass various aspects of well being in order to enhance military living. These areas include life skills, community development, child, care, deployment readiness, and transition assistance in addition to a financial management component. The first initiative introduced was the Strategic Well Being Plan in 1999. The goal of this plan was to reduce the economic and emotional strains on the family (Keane, 2001). The personal financial management component in this plan was to provide assistance to military families that would ensure successful management of their financial responsibilities and maintenance of financial stability (Keane, 2001). The second initiative was the Social Com, pact in 2002 as a partnership between the DoD and its military families. The financial management component of this initiative was an improvement from the original Strategic Well Being Plan because it implemented a per, sonal financial management requirement (Deputy Assis, tant Secretary of Defense, 2002). This requirement stated that all military members must attend a financial education course at the member's first duty station assignment. The third initiative was the Financial Readiness Campaign in 2003 with the Department of Treasury. Its objective was to target the junior enlisted personnel and provide their families with a chance to learn more about managing personal finances. The third initiative focused more on financially preparing military members for deployment, reassignment, and separation (Chu, 2003).
Even though financial readiness programs (DoD, 2003) and pre,deployment services are available, the effective, ness of such programs is unclear. As such, knowledge of the financial literacy level of military members and their spouses is lacking (Military Family Resource Center, n.d.). The critical questions are do civilian military spouses (CMS) seek help from financial service organizations when they have financial problems, and what is the avail, ability and effectiveness of that help? For married military members, their families' financial well being is directly related to the military member's level of financial literacy (Burrell, Durand, & Fortado, 2003). However, there is limited research that exists on the financial literacy level of the CMS or on the relationship between the CMS's financial literacy and the family's financial well being.
Problems may be associated with reaching the CMS through these three initiatives. First, the introduction of more than one initiative, literally back,to,back, sends a message of policy inconsistency. Furthermore, the differ, ent branches are adopting one or a combination of the three initiatives and adapting it to meet the needs of their military personnel. This not only leads to conflicting information on guidelines and financial management techniques, but also lends to over,saturation in communi, cation channels with misinformation, particularly for those military spouses who depend on external resources (e.g., Web sites) to address their financial questions. Second, all three initiatives target the primary service member (Chu, 2003; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, 2002; Keane, 2001), leaving the CMS out of the loop. This may leave the spouse with an unmet need and, possibly, an inconsistent message with each service branch (Varcoe et al., 2003). Third, although traditional military culture and negative stigmas associated with help,seeking at military bases have not previously been introduced in the literature as factors that may prohibit the efficacy of personal finan, cial education on military personnel and their families, they have been found to be an issue (Varcoe et al., 2003). Two factors served as the justification for the current research. First, personal financial difficulties have affected the everyday lives of military personnel and their families (Knox & Price, 1995; Tiemeyer et al., 1999). Financial stress could cause poor physical and emotional health (Bower, 2003; Skinner, Zautra, & Reich, 2004; Taffel, 1997) and social difficulties (Crocker & Luhtanen, 2003; Szostak, 1998). Studies have also shown that worker productivity (Cunningham & Hyman, 1996; Garman, Leech, & Grable, 1996; Joo & Grable, 2000) and job satisfaction (Leung, Siu, & Spector, 2000; Szostak, 1998) are influenced by personal financial management. Military families are no different. Both the CMS and military member can experience a decrease in work productivity and job satisfaction when they are burdened with financial strain.
Second, the U.S. government pays the bill to recruit and train new military personnel. The need for recruits and the expense of compensating for failed recruitment and nonre, tention could increase military spending (GAO, 1998). Family life satisfaction has great bearing on whether or not the military member will continue employment with the military or separate from it (GAO, 1998). The GAO (2005) announced that the excessive financial mismanage, ment by military personnel is an expense accrued by the U.S. government. Because the cost to train and recruit the employee is a substantial cost to the government (GAO, 2005), military officials have a vested interest in determin, ing if the CMS's financial help,seeking behavior might impact these financial losses. By surveying CMSs on their financial help,seeking behaviors, more effective informa, tion channels could be introduced to satisfy the financial literacy needs of the CMS, and the expense to the U.S. government could be minimized. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to address the delivery method of financial literacy programs to accommodate the CMS based on financial help,seeking theory. Military members with access to a computer may search the Internet for personal financial tools. Therefore, CMSs from the four major military branches were surveyed to profile their financial help,seeking behaviors in an effort to simplify the delivery channels for financial information and tools. Financial help,seeking was defined as an action initiated by an individual to seek advice from a secondary source on a personal financial issue (Grable & Joo, 2003). CMSs have numerous resources available to them for seeking information and assistance on personal financial issues. These include the personal financial management counseling offices available on large military installations, Internet sites, civilian personal financial planners and financial counselors, ombudsmen, family, and friends. Yet, with all the resources available, CMSs may not be seeking assistance with personal financial issues. Informa, tion provided by results of this research will allow military and government officials to identify possible steps to improve financial literacy of the CMS, including suggest, ing more effective financial education delivery channels. (taken from : findarticles.com)