University students and retirement planning: never too early

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main predictors of university students’ intention to invest in a pension fund: an understanding of how young people perceive retirement planning is relevant for its policy implications. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) proposed by Ajzen (1985) which explains how human behaviour is guided, and provides a framework to explore the underlying beliefs that affect one’s behaviours. Findings The evidence on a sample of Italian university students highlights that the TPB predictors, pension knowledge, money management and the highest level of financial literacy, positively influence their intention to invest in a pension fund. Research limitations/implications Although the authors are aware of the limitations of the analysis (limited to a specific country and to a specific financial product), the authors believe that the study has the merit of offering a number of ideas for further research. In fact, there are few contributions in the literature that identify the intention of young people to save for retirement. The study sheds light on this important issue. However, because it is limited to Italian university students, its findings cannot be generalised. Practical implications The study can be used by regulators, financial educators, counsellors and public institutions to increase the propensity of young people to plan for their future and guide them towards attitudes and behaviours most likely to increase their savings for retirement. Social implications The evidence suggests that regulators, institutions and educators should improve the information that is provided to families first and to the younger generations – at school, for instance – about the functioning of the pension system. The survey’s findings emphasise that university students are generally unaware of the many reforms to the system while believing that their state pensions will be sufficient to maintain a retirement standard of living that is the same as the standard of living achieved during their working lives. Originality/value In the authors’ knowledge, there are not studies that focus on the youngs’ intention to invest in a pension fund. The authors believe that millennials are the most hitted by the Fornero’s reform and understand which predictors affect this intention can allow to drive the decision in investing in these important financial tools.

Financial literacy and personal retirement planning: a socioeconomic approach

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Las capacidades financieras como determinantes de la alfabetización alimentaria entre estudiantes universitarios

“…En esta investigación se ha analizado la relación entre la alfabetización alimentaria y las capacidades financieras de universitarios inscritos en los programas de estudios de administración y nutrición, del Campus Victoria de la Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, México. Varios estudios han consignado el poco interés de los jóvenes en la planeación financiera de largo plazo, rasgo evaluado en la actitud y el comportamiento financieros (Boisclair, Lusardi y Michaud, 2017;Bongini y Cucinelli, 2019;Rolison, Hanoch y Wood, 2017). Por ejemplo, Rolison et al (2017) advierten sobre la necesidad de educar con una mentalidad orientada hacia el futuro y conocimientos financieros suficientes para propiciar su interés por la inversión y el ahorro.…”

Savings and financial literacy: a review of selected literature

“…Different econometric models developed regarding the relationship between financial literacy and savings include a diverse set of explanatory and/or control variables. These include, among others, demographic and socioeconomic variables such as gender, age, household size, qualifications, marital status, income and/or wealth and employment status (Bongini and Cucinelli 2019;Cupák, Kolev and Brokešová 2019;Heckman and Hanna 2015;Lachance 2014). Other variables incorporated in models are risk tolerance (Brounen, Koedijk and Pownall 2016;Nguyen et al 2017), attitudes, subjective norms, perceived control (Bongini and Cucinelli 2019), self-confidence, underconfidence (Ramalho and Forte 2019), institutional factors (Heckman and Hanna 2015) and cognitive, connotative, and affective factors (Kerry 2018).…”