Research Progress Report 305 May, 1967
Major Financial Decisions in the Family Life Span
Bertanell Henricks Long, Jeanette A. Oberly, Cleo Fitzsimmons
School of Home Economics

This study examines in some detail the nature of financial decisions reported by homemakers in 91 Indiana families who cooperated in a pilot study for the Purdue University AES Project 1412, NC-76, "Pattern of Major Financial Decisions and Crises in the Family Life Cycle."

Summary
The purposes of this study were, basically, to use a classification of major financial decisions made by families and to learn their arrangement through the years of marriage. These were judged to further the purpose of the larger study, to which this one contributes, which is to learn whether or not such decisions arrange themselves in some pattern indicating a life cycle into which all families may fit. The particular division of the 91 families into employment status groups was used to observe any influence that might be shown. Larger numbers, such as will be obtained for the regional study, are needed to learn the importance of this and other classifications of the families.

A summary of some outstanding characteristics of families in the employment status groups may suggest means for analysis of decisions by larger groups of families more
evenly distributed in such groups. The summary is shown on page 3.

Decisions
Existence of a complex of related needs dependent for satisfaction directly or indirectly on money provisions serves to emphasize the importance of financial decisions. These decisions have been defined as any that deal with or are related to money resources of the family. Major decisions for purposes of this study were any that the homemaker recalled as having been of extreme importance.

Differences in the kind and number of major financial decisions made by the families during various segments of the family life span were investigated. Purposes of the study were (1) to classify major financial decisions made by families, (2) to determine the arrangement of these decisions as they occur in each year of marriage.

Procedure for the Study
A random proportional sample of households from which data would be sought was drawn for the pilot study. Examination of reports of interviews obtained revealed a

PURDUE UNIVERSITY • Agricultural Experiment Station • Lafayette, Indiana