Risk Tolerance and the Financial Satisfaction of Credit Card Users

This study tests whether risk tolerance mitigates the effects of credit card mismanagement on users' financial satisfaction. We used data from the Health and Retirement Study and found results showing that credit card mismanagement reduces the financial satisfaction of lower-risk-tolerance users only. The results also suggest that the psychic costs of credit card mismanagement (i.e., stress and anxiety), not the monetary costs (fees and higher interest rates), may be the biggest contributors to the dissatisfaction associated with credit card use.