My academic journey began in 1994 in Japan. After 7 years of graduate school in Japan, I was trained as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Housing and Consumer Economics at the University of Georgia for one and a half years. In 2002, the University of Kentucky provided me a valuable opportunity to serve Kentuckians, as well as students at UK. I was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2008. During my sabbatical leave in the fall semester of 2009, I stayed at Columbia University for developing noncognitive and motivational research for retirement savings. I served as a member of the Board of Directors (2010-2013) in the American Council on Consumer Interests. 

I have been fascinated with research on how we can obtain financial security in our lifetime. One line of my research has focused on financial security and health problems in later years. I have extensively studied the effect of health on retirement savings from various perspectives: difference in race/ethnicity, older women and their poverty transition, comorbidity of chronic health problems, longitudinal effect, and financial security status of solvency, liquidity, and investment asset accumulation for retirement. I have also kept track of consequences of health problems and family/consumer debt. The other line of my research has been how to financially prepare for retirement with limited resources. This research has focused on two directions: cognitive intervention through improving health literacy and financial literacy, and noncognitive intervention through improving self-regulatory skills/capabilities such as perseverance and motivation. I have been devoted to developing and refining conceptual underpinnings for intervention for retirement savings. Intervention-focused field studies have been conducted for the age 50+ population and the age 25-49 population to improve their individual and family savings behaviors at each life stage.

Currently projects to answer my burning research questions are underway: how to encourage people with different motivational modes (e.g., “just do it" vs. “right thing to do”) to change their financial and health behaviors; whether inconsistent preference for choice (e.g., flip-flop) leads to detrimental financial or savings outcomes; and how to measure and mitigate financial burden of cancer patients and their families.  

I have been fortunate to be surrounded by many passionate master’s and doctoral students. Their research interests are debt in young adults, cross-cultural differences in retirement planning, extension program effect on personal financial and health literacy and so on, which are all imperative for family and consumers. Personal messages that I share with graduate students include having strong passion for their research topics, working hard, and having great communication. Intelligence has a normal distribution and is not the only factor for meaningful research outcomes and successful academic careers.

Research

• Financial Security in Life Stages of Individual and Family
• Chronic Health Conditions and Financial Burdens
• Health Events and Consumer Debts
• Financial Literacy and Retirement Savings
• Noncognitive Skills/Traits and Financial Outcomes
• Self-Regulation and Financial Behaviors