economic hardship during retirement for an
individual, and potentially, for the surviving spouse
and other family members.
This paper is aimed to evaluate financial
knowledge during prime earning years of
government officials, when they are making key
financial decisions. This setting offers information
on the level of financial literacy possessed and the
attitudes towards making key financial decisions.
We find that financial literacy proves to be a key
determinant of better financial decision making. This
study also indicated that although demographic
profiles such as gender, age, and career level have
strong correlation with the level of financial literacy,
they do not have mediating effect to the financial
literacy and financial decision making.
Analysing the relationship between financial
literacy and financial decision making in the
institutional context will provide the opportunity to
improve the understanding on the process of
financial decision making, specifically in a macro
view. This study is also important to the manager of
financial institutions and advisors since they are able
to put more emphasis when giving their quality
advice to the workers. Scholars and academicians
stands to benefit from the added knowledge in the
area of personal finance management and also be
able to identify other research gaps for future
studies, especially in the context of developing
countries.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
The term financial literacy has been used loosely by
scholars, policy officials, financial experts and
consumer advocates to describe the knowledge and
understanding of financial terms, concepts, and
sound decisions that produce optimal results. By the
most basic definition, financial literacy relates to a
person’s competency for managing money. Chen
and Volpe (2005) and Huston (2010) broadly define
financial literacy as a measure of how well an
individual can understand personal finance-related
information and then take the necessary and
appropriate financial decision. Remund (2010)
defines financial literacy as a degree to measure
understanding of key financial concepts and
possession of the ability and confidence in managing
personal finances through appropriate, short-term
decision-making and sound, long-range financial
planning.
Financial decision is defined as a selection of
possible choices made with the applied knowledge
of financial literacy. Financial decisions are greatly
influenced by a constant battle between the
generating of goods and services in the marketplace
and a person’s limited reserves to acquire such
goods and services (Remund 2010).
A financially literate individual has the
capability to plan, save, borrow, invest and spend
wisely and able to take risks reduction measures.
Bernheim and Garrett (2003) show that those who
were exposed to financial education in high school
or in the workplace save more. Similarly, using
dataset called the Rand American Life Panel that
offers a set of features for the analysis of literacy
and retirement planning, Lusardi and Mitchell
(2007) found that those who are financial illiterate
are less likely to plan for retirement and to
accumulate wealth, and more likely to take up higher
interest mortgages (Moore 2003). Martin (2007)
reviews past literature on the effectiveness of
financial education, and find that financial education
is necessary in the area of retirement planning,
savings, homeownership, and credit use. Hathaway
and Khatiwada (2008) also provide a comprehensive
critical analysis of past studies that examine the
impact of financial education programs on consumer
financial behaviour. Of what they examined, they
recommend that there is a need for this type of
education especially in the area of financial activity
(e.g. credit card counselling and retirement
planning). Study by Bhushan (2014) on the
relationship between investment behaviour and
financial literacy also found that awareness and
investment preference largely depends on the
financial literacy of the individuals.
Individual differences can either strengthen
or weaken the relationship between financial literacy
and financial decision making. In recent studies,
correlations are found in existence between
demographic characteristics and financial literacy.
Education has been positively associated with
financial literacy and financial outcomes (Bernheim
and Garrett 2003, Lusardi 2008). Study on gender
and financial literacy shows men are typically
identified as having higher levels of financial
literacy. Survey conducted by (Chen and Volpe
2005, Lusardi, Mitchell et al. 2010, 2011) found that
women generally possess less financial knowledge
and interests compared to males. Females also tend
to be risk adverse in financial choices. Whether a
respondent is married or not also may impact their
finances. Having a spouse or dependents will affect
the financial planning, as an individual will include
providing for them in his financial thinking.
Furthermore, age and experience are also associated
with higher level of financial literacy and better
financial decision making. Generally, older