Strengthening Economic Security in the Force: Recommendation for Baseline Financial Readiness Screening for Initial Accession Candidates

Abstract

In late 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin directed expanded financial readiness resources for all Service members. Part of this provision included developing a financial assessment for Service members to help them assess their overall financial well-being and develop strategies to manage their financial affairs. What was missing from this guidance was a provision for an initial accession assessment to provide a baseline for each Service member. Without this baseline data, there is no way to track the improvement of Service members’ financial readiness over time, or to assess the effectiveness of financial literacy education programs. This thesis reviews National and Defense policy, from United States Code to Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Armed Services’ policies. The review identified gaps in these policies related to requirements to collect data for the purpose of assessing the performance of and improving the effectiveness of financial literacy education programs. Neither the United States Code nor the Department of Defense and Service policies require the collection of baseline data. The product of this thesis is a financial readiness screening matrix, which assesses the (1) financial literacy, (2) debt-to-prospective income ratio, and (3) credit score of initial assessment candidates. The recommendation is for the Department of Defense to adopt this model and initiate a baseline data capture program.