A systematic and bibliometric review of the financial well-being: advancements in the current status and future research agenda

Purpose Achieving financial well-being is essential for individuals, families and countries as it leads to life satisfaction and happiness. This study synthesizes and identifies financial well-being's key areas and dimensions using a blended systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis approach. Design/methodology/approach The authors systematically study a sample of 467 articles from the Scopus database to identify the research trend regarding financial well-being during the last 25 years (1997-2021). Various graphs and networks are presented to understand the publication trends, influential papers, conceptual and intellectual structures and research collaboration status. Findings Four clusters in the field of financial well-being were found: conceptualization and antecedents of financial well-being, financial well-being of young adults, the relationship between financial literacy and financial well-being and consequences of financial well-being. Further, emerging themes in financial well-being were identified with a content analysis of the papers published during the last five years. Practical implications This study will help financial planners, regulatory bodies and academic researchers in getting a better understanding of financial well-being and in identifying potential areas for future research. Originality/value Prior to this study, no such comprehensive bibliometric analysis on financial well-being has been carried out to the best of the authors' knowledge. This gap motivated the authors to combine quantitative and qualitative methods to review the published research and do a content analysis, to identify prominent authors and publications.