Foundational Factors are the wide variety of aspects that influence each part of the framework at a fundamental level. These factors can broadly be grouped into the following categories:
- General Skills and Competencies include basic literacy and numeracy, problem solving skills, critical thinking, information literacy, executive function, self-advocacy, communication, persistence, and other similar competencies.
- Values and Beliefs include internal factors like motivation, affect, attitudes, cognitive bias, time discounting, risk preference, stress, trust in the financial system, and other mental constructs.
- Family and Culture include personal factors like family socialization and family composition, as well as culture.
- Socioeconomics and Geography include overarching factors like the state of the economy, socioeconomics and systemic inequality and issues specific to a particular region or locale.
While the factors are germane for all individuals, the way in which they collectively influence a specific individual are unique.
NOTE: Foundational Factors are broadly categorized for ease of information sharing. The groupings themselves are not consequential, so long as the factors themselves are foundational.