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Relationship between Financial Knowledge and Spending Habits among Faculty of Management’s Staff

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Spending habits in the most desirable way is one of the factors that can lead to financial satisfaction. Therefore, financial satisfaction depends on the ability of people to manage and take control of their personal finance in order to improve their financial decision making and financial status. This study was conducted to identify the level of spending habits among Management Faculty staff at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. This study also conducted to investigate the level of personal financial knowledge adapted by staff and lastly to determine the relationship between financial knowledge and spending habits among Management Faculty staff. The total of 97 questionnaires were distributed and completed by the staff. Data was analyzed by using descriptive, Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regression that include in Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The results firstly revealed that the higher level of financial knowledge is the factors that influence the most desirable financial behavior in spending habits among staff. Secondly, the staff perceived that the financial knowledge can be enhanced through financial education in order to improve their financial planning. Finally, the result indicates that financial knowledge have positive relationship with spending habits.
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Journal of Economic Info Vol.5, No.3 (2018) 1-6
Copyright © 2018 Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
1
Journal of Economic Info (JEI)
ISSN:2313-3376
www.readersinsight.net/jei
Relationship between Financial Knowledge and Spending Habits among
Faculty of Management’s Staff.
Nor Fazleena Binti Azmi1, Dr Suresh A/L Ramakrishnan2
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Management
* Corresponding author: suresh@utm.my
Abstract
Spending habits in the most desirable way is one of the factors that can lead to financial satisfaction.
Therefore, financial satisfaction depends on the ability of people to manage and take control of their
personal finance in order to improve their financial decision making and financial status. This study was
conducted to identify the level of spending habits among Management Faculty staff at Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia. This study also conducted to investigate the level of personal financial knowledge adapted by staff
and lastly to determine the relationship between financial knowledge and spending habits among
Management Faculty staff. The total of 97 questionnaires were distributed and completed by the staff. Data
was analyzed by using descriptive, Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regression that include in Statistical
Package for Social Science (SPSS). The results firstly revealed that the higher level of financial knowledge
is the factors that influence the most desirable financial behavior in spending habits among staff. Secondly,
the staff perceived that the financial knowledge can be enhanced through financial education in order to
improve their financial planning. Finally, the result indicates that financial knowledge have positive
relationship with spending habits.
ARTICLE INFORMATION
Received: 25 May 2018
Revised: 12 July 2018
Accepted: 25 July 2018
DOI: 10.31580/jei.v5i3.102
Keywords: Financial Knowledge, Financial Education, Spending Habits, Staff
© Readers Insight Publication
INTRODUCTION
Financial satisfaction is one of the effects if spending habit is in
the most desirable way. This is generally supported by the previous
studies indicated that best practice behavior in finance increases
financial satisfaction while risky behavior decreases financial
satisfaction (Xiao et al., 2014); (Robb and Woodyard, 2011).
Therefore, financial satisfaction depends on the ability of people to
manage and take control of their personal finance in order to improve
their financial decision making and financial status. This shows that
understanding the importance of financial knowledge is necessary for
effective financial management.
Financial knowledge is one of the aspects that need to be concern
by an individual in order to manage his or her finance in personal and
work life effectively and many research in this area have been done to
show that financial knowledge has significant effects on
financial decisions making (Taft et al., 2013). According to
(Mouna and Jarboui, 2015), the lack of financial knowledge and skills
can drive to poor financial behavior in gathering and digesting all
important financial information and thus, leads to inappropriate
financial decisions and achieve less efficient wealth allocation
accordingly. The insufficient financial knowledge also may effect to
people health physically, economically and psychologically because
the difficulties in their financial (Jorgensen and Savla, 2010).
Therefore, many researchers suggest that implementation of financial
education is one of the best remedy for proper and effective decisions
with all financial resources available.
Financial education could prove to have a powerful effect on the
employees’ behavior through variation of training and programs
which is provided by their employers (Bayer et al., 2009). The
employees are a part of an organization and well-developed financial
skills are associated with their productivity as financial knowledge
can enhance their confidence when they are making decisions. Thus,
this paper identified the effects of financial knowledge towards
spending habits among UTM Management Faculty staff.
LITERATURE REVIEW
This section reviews past studies on the financial knowledge and
spending habits. Firstly, the overview of spending habits and financial
knowledge were described and followed by the definition of financial
knowledge, the clarification on financial education, planning and
management. Lastly, the relationship between financial knowledge
and spending habits were also described in this chapter.
Overview of Spending Habits
In the past year, the issue of financial management such as low
savings, indebtedness and bankruptcy has drawn much attention.
According to (Gutter et al., 2010), the individuals are already exposed
to various methods of handling personal finances at an early age,
which can often lead to the development of poor habits. The authors
mentioned that financial behaviors were positively related to social
learning opportunities in which those youths score higher on the
social learning opportunities when they budget and save than those
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2
who do not budget and save. Since they are financially Independent
from their parents, they have to be responsible in dealing with
financial challenges such as paying bills, creating budget and using
credit card for the first time in their life. They will experience how to
deal with such kind of challenges until they become an adult and has a
job.
The desirable or risky financial behaviors such as spending habits
is depending on the individual’s actions. Although it may be
influenced by the external factors such as government policies or
economic conditions, it is actually depending on decision made by an
individual (Robb and Woodyard, 2011). According to (Bunn and
Rostom, 2014), household debt has played a role in affecting
consumption in which it gives impact towards household’s financial
stability. The same authors added that households are more likely
suffer with payment difficulties and also encounter with lower or
negative income and high interest rate when their levels of
indebtedness are high. Although it becomes more and more difficult
to change a habit because that habit has become more and more
natural to who we are and how we act, however if the financial
awareness increasing among people on how important of financial
knowledge that may give benefits to them, they will not be suffer
those financial difficulties.
Overview of Financial Knowledge
The ability of people to achieve successfully in financial
management such as spending their money wisely depends on their
level of financial knowledge. Financial knowledge is vital to learn and
well-understand for an individual to make a better financial decision
making as to avoid some difficulties such as low savings and failure
in managing debt and loans. Lack of financial knowledge will also
drive to poor in budgeting and poor long-term financial planning. In
reality, the basic parts of financial knowledge concepts actually have
been part of human accomplishments for a very long time and have
been anticipated throughout history. There are various concepts and
definition of financial knowledge.
DEFINITION OF FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE
Nowadays, the essential life skills either for individuals or
business is having knowledge and ability to save, invest and borrow.
Thus, it is important for every individual to know financial knowledge
even it is a basic one. There are various definitions provided by
several researchers in the literature that stated by (Taft et al., 2013), in
which firstly, personal financial knowledge is considered as concepts
of personal financial management skills and information. Next, the
ability of people for knowing conditions, practices, rules and norms
required for performing financial duties which are involves a wide
range of daily activities such as managing and controlling the credit
card, preparation of budget, purchasing insurance and investment. In
addition, the increasing of awareness and knowledge related to
financial instruments and their application in business and personal
life also can be referred to financial literacy.
In addition, financial literacy also can be defined as for knowing
financial products that include the meaning of a stock and a bond, the
differentiation of fixed and an adjustable rate mortgage as well as
knowing about financial concepts such as inflation, compounding,
diversification and credit scores. The same authors added that
mathematical skills or numeracy are also include in financial literacy
in order to make financial decision and engagement effectively in
certain activities such as financial planning (Hastings et al., 2013).
Hence, it can be concluded that financial knowledge has various
definitions that the consumers can relate to their daily financial
activities as well-understanding and well-developed skills in financial
management is necessary for better financial planning.
FINANCIAL EDUCATION
The ability of people to achieve desirable behavior in their
financial management depends on their understanding on how
important the financial education is. The main purpose of financial
education is to assist consumers in acquiring the basic knowledge and
skills in order to have a better understanding the choices that they
choose (Ambuehl et al., 2014). In addition, the study shows that the
researchers believed financial education can contribute to provide and
improve financial literacy so that it can motivate consumers to behave
in the most desirable financial behaviors and enhance financial well-
being among consumers. In other words, the study suggests that
consumers will be able to increase their ability in managing their
money and perform financially better than those who do not receive
financial education (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2014).
Besides that, the financial education also contributes specifically
to employees in which they were highly valued and took positive
actions during participate the workplace financial education and thus,
resulting in better making-decision, enhance confidence when making
investment decisions and have appropriately diversifying to changed
their investment strategy or being more aggressive in their investment
choices (Garman et al., 1999). In addition, (Hilgert et al., 2003) stated
that when consumers who are well-informed and financially educated
are be able to make good and better decisions for their families, there
is possible for them to increase their economic security and well-
being. Thus, this will be able to contribute to vital, thriving
communities and thereby further foster community economic
development. This shows that financial education is important not
only to individual households and families but to their community as
well. Therefore, if household want to improve in financial practices,
they will have to increase their knowledge and experience.
FINANCIAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
Poor in financial planning and management is related to lack of
financial literacy. According to (Tungsriwong, S., Pantuak, A., and
Temsawat, 2016), budget is one of financial planning which is aimed
at planning by setting goals and controls the plan so that the set target
can be achieved. By comparing actual data with allocated budget or
prepared plans, budget planning can reveal potential problems and
helps controlling the financial planning in order to achieve the goals
that already set-up. (Tungsriwong, S., Pantuak, A., and Temsawat,
2016) also added that budget system can also use as a tool for
efficient financial management and for planning in the other aspects
of life.
Relationship between Financial Knowledge and Spending
Habits
The consumers which is in specifically, the employees play an
important role in improving of a country’s economic situations. They
are involved in financial activities and decision-making in day to day
of their life until they are retire. Therefore, in order to achieve
financial satisfaction and well-being that leads to life satisfaction, the
individuals must have an adequate or sufficient knowledge that relate
to finance. This is supported by (Sabri and Juen, 2014) who stated
that the individuals who display high retirement confidence are
financially literate and practice financial management. Based on the
previous studies, it can be seen that financial knowledge has positive
relationship with financial behavior in spending habits. As the
people’s financial knowledge increases, they will make most desirable
behavior in spending habits and avoid themselves to involve in
financial difficulties. Poor in financial literacy or knowledge will give
negative impacts towards people such as low savings of money will
give difficulties for them when they need some money to meet their
needs in critical financial situation. Thus, financial knowledge can be
said does give effects toward the consumers’ spending habits.
The Research Framework
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This research framework describes the financial knowledge is the
main point in influencing the level of spending habits. This research is
also conducted to explain where the high level of financial personal
knowledge will influence the level of spending habits in the most
desirable behavior that will lead to improve financial status.
Financial
Spending
Knowledge
Habits
Figure 1: Proposed Research Framework
METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this research was to investigate the level of
spending habits among staff of Management Faculty in UTM.
Furthermore, this study was also conducted to identify the level of
personal financial knowledge among UTM Management Faculty staff
and lastly, to determine the relationship between financial knowledge
and financial behavior in spending habits. The target population of
this study was 127 people comprised of academic and non-academic
staff who were working at UTM Faculty of Management and the
sample size was determined as 97 respondents based on Krejcie and
Morgan Table as per guidance from the Table 1 below. Those staff
are chosen for the fact that they have made various financial decision
makings and their experience and knowledge can give clearer view on
the application of financial knowledge. Ninety-seven questionnaires
were distributed and completed by the staff. The questions in the
questionnaire were adapted and modified based on the previous
survey and study which shows in table 2.
The questionnaire consisted 34 questions in four different sections
in which the first section was on list of demographic aspects including
gender, race, age, marital status, academician or non-academician
staff, monthly income, majoring field either business or non-business
and education level. The second and third section focused on the
financial knowledge level while the last section focused on spending
habits of respondents. The last three sections are summarize and the
ninety-seven responses analyzed by employing descriptive statistics,
Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regression analysis using Statistical
Package for Social Science (SPSS).
Table 1. Krejcie and Morgan Table for Determining the Sample Size
Table 2. Summary of Research Measurement and Analysis
Objectives
No. of
Items
Analysis
Spending Habits
14
Mean and
Standard
(Garman et al., 1999).
Deviation
Financial
Knowledge
12
Mean and
Standard
Deviation
The Effects
-
-
Correlation
and
Multiple
Regression
FINDINGS
Demographic Profile
Table 3 reports the demographic profiles of Management
Faculty’s staff.
Frequency
(N)
Percentage
(%)
Gender
Male
40
41.2
Female
57
58.8
Race
Malay
84
86.6
Non-Malay
13
13.4
Age
20-30 years old
19
19.6
31-40 years old
58
59.8
41-50 years old
17
17.5
51-60 years old
3
3.1
Marital
Status
Single
31
32.0
Married
62
63.9
Divorced
3
3.1
Widowed
1
1.0
Staff
Academician
68
70.1
Non-Academician
29
29.9
Monthly
Income
RM2,000-RM3,000
20
20.6
RM3,001-RM4,000
53
54.6
RM4,001-RM5,000
17
17.5
RM5,001 and above
7
7.2
Majoring
Yes
60
61.9
Business
No
37
38.1
Education
Diploma
16
16.5
Level
Degree
33
34.0
Master
24
24.7
PhD
25
24.7
Table 3.: Respondents Demographic Profile
Table 3 provides the information background of the respondents.
It can be seen that the majority of the respondents are female and
Malay is the race of the majority of the staff who responded to the
questionnaires, in addition, the results also indicate that most of the
respondents are between 31 to 40 years old and only a small number
of respondents are at range of 51 years old and above. Further, most
of the respondents are married and are academic staff. The result also
shows that income of the staff per month mostly are between
RM3,001 to RM4,000. Lastly, the respondents are mostly from
business major and have a degree level of education.
Cronbach’s Alpha Test Result
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Reliability test was conducted for both variables. This study found
out that the measurement for the level of spending habits and financial
knowledge of the staff of Management Faculty are reliable with
Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient reported of 0.74. This indicates that
both variables are highly reliable.
Level of Spending Habits among Management Faculty Staff
The following Table 4 reports the mean and standard deviation of
each item related to the level of spending habits of respondents.
Table 4. Spending Habits
Description
Mean
SD
Before I buy something I carefully consider
whether I can afford it.
4.51
0.561
I tend to live for today and let tomorrow take
care of itself.
3.52
0.980
I find it more satisfying to spend money than
to save it for the long term.
3.53
1.191
I am prepared to risk some of my own money
when saving or making an investment
3.91
0.867
I keep a close personal watch on my financial
affairs.
4.15
0.808
I set long term financial goals and strive to
achieve them.
4.27
0.729
I pay my bills on time.
4.33
0.760
I paid credit card bills in full and avoided
finance charge.
3.95
0.713
I reach the maximum limit on credit card.
3.12
1.023
I have too much debt right now and had to cut
living expenses.
2.99
1.212
I had a weekly or monthly budget that I follow.
4.02
0.736
I set money aside for saving.
4.16
0.746
Money is there to be spent.
4.14
0.707
I expect to have any major expenses for
things like a new car, special vacation or a
home improvement project over the next year
or two
4.28
0.875
Total
3.92
11.908
Table 4 illustrates the results of the analysis on the level of
spending habits among Management Faculty staff. Fourteen items
were used to measure the level of spending habits. Among these
items, respondents are mostly considering carefully whether they can
afford or not before they buy something which is scored the highest
mean (4.51), followed by their ability to pay their bills on time with a
mean of 4.33. In contrast, the item that have too much debt and had to
cut their living expenses scored the lowest mean (2.99). This indicates
that, most of the respondents are doing well in managing their
spending and have low level indebtedness.
Level of Personal Financial Knowledge among
Management Faculty Staff
The following Table 5 shows the frequency and percentage of the
general level of respondents’ personal financial knowledge.
Table 5. The General Level of Personal Financial Knowledge
Description
Level of
Knowledge
Frequency
(N)
Percentage
(%)
The general level of
personal financial
knowledge.
Very
46
47.4
Somewhat
41
42.3
Not Very
8
8.2
Not at all
2
2.1
Based on the Table 5 most of respondents are very knowledgeable
in their personal financial, followed by the respondents who are
moderate in financial knowledge. In contrast, only a small number of
respondents are not knowledgeable at all.
Table 6 and 7 report the mean and standard deviation of each item
related to the level of financial knowledge of respondents.
Table 6. The Influential Sources of Financial Education in Making
Financial Decisions.
Description
Mean
SD
Parents
2.65
1.354
College / University
2.90
1.141
Friends / Colleagues
1.91
1.032
Personal readings/ seminars/ workshops
/ classes
3.90
1.168
Personal experience
3.63
1.372
Total
3.00
6.067
Table 6 illustrates the results of questionnaire that require
respondents to rank the sources of financial education in making
financial decisions from the least influential (Rank 1) to the most
influential (Rank 5). Based on the table, most of respondents agreed
that personal readings, seminars, workshops and classes are the most
influential sources with the highest mean (3.90), followed by personal
experience with the mean 3.63. On the other hand, friends or
colleagues item shows the lowest mean which is 1.91. This indicates
that the staff more favor towards their personal readings, seminars,
workshops and classes in order to gain their financial knowledge..
Table 7. The Level of Financial Knowledge
Description
Mean
SD
With the financial knowledge I had, I can identify
and plan my financial goals.
4.58
0.537
I know that I have to ensure there is money set
aside to cover emergencies.
4.56
0.558
I know that I have to ensure there is enough
insurance to protect myself, my family and my
financial assets.
4.38
0.653
Due to the financial education, I started
contributing to the retirement plan.
4.18
0.692
Due to the financial education, I increase the
amount of my retirement contribution.
4.31
0.769
Because of the financial education, I am more
confident when making investment decision.
4.23
0.669
With the financial knowledge I had, I can find
ways to manage or reduce my debt.
4.35
0.678
I know that an investment with a high return is
likely to be high risk.
4.29
0.721
I know if high inflation means that the cost of
living is increasing rapidly.
4.47
0.647
It is usually possible to reduce the risk of
investing in the stock market by buying a wide
range of stock and shares.
4.16
0.731
Total
4.35
6.655
Based on the Table 7, the staff agreed that they can identify and
plan their financial goals with the financial knowledge they have. This
can be seen as the first item shows the highest mean of 4.58. Apart
from that, the second item shows the mean that almost the same
which is 4.56. That means the respondents know that they have to
ensure there is some money set aside for emergencies. In contrast, the
least of respondents agreed that it is usually possible to reduce the risk
of investing in the stock market by buying a wide range of stock and
shares with the lowest mean of 4.16.
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5
The Relationship and Effects of Financial Knowledge
towards Spending Habits Among UTM Management
Faculty Staff
Table 8. Correlation between Spending Habits and Financial
Knowledge
Spending Habits
Financial
Knowledge
Spending
Pearson Correlation
1
.198
Habits
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
0.005
N
97
97
Table 8 shows the results of correlation between spending habits
and financial knowledge. The result indicates that the level of
financial knowledge has positive relationship with the level of
spending habits.
Table 9. Multiple Regression of Financial Knowledge and Spending
Habits
R
R Square
Adjusted R
Square
B
p-value (Sig.)
0.198
a
0.391
0.289
0.315
0.005*
Note: *α < 0.005
The effects of staff’ financial knowledge towards their financial
habits was identified by using Multiple Regression. Based on Table 9,
staff financial knowledge is significant towards the financial habits.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Discussion based on Research Objectives
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 1:
First objectives in this study is to identify the level of spending
habits among UTM Management Faculty staff. The results indicate
that mostly respondents are considering carefully whether they can
afford or not before they buy something as well as the ability of them
to pay their bills on time. Furthermore, the results found out that most
of the respondents are least agree that they have too much debt and
thus, lead them to cut their expenses. This indicates that, most of
respondents are doing well in manage their spending and less
involved in indebtedness as they are in highly financial literate. These
findings were consistent with (Gathergood, 2012) study stated that
consumers who have self-control problems and poor financial literacy
will have excessive financial burdens that may leads to over-
indebtedness.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 2:
The second objective of this study is to identify the level of
personal financial knowledge among UTM Management Faculty
staff. The result indicates that most of the respondents are very
knowledgeable in their personal financial in which they have more
confidence when making financial decisions. This is possible as
majority of them have higher level of educational background in
business in which they were already exposed to financial knowledge
and skills.
The findings also indicate that there were several items that
respondents are mostly agree. Firstly, the finding shows that staff are
more inclined to favor towards their personal readings, seminars,
workshops and classes in order to gain their financial knowledge and
then followed by their personal experience. That means the
respondents agree that they can enhance their financial knowledge
through various sources of financial education either by their own or
provided in the workplace. This is study’s finding supports by
(Taylor, 2011) study which noted that people will have capabilities in
improving their ability to manage their finance efficiently through
employment and education.
In addition, the results also found out that staff mostly agree that
they can identify and plan their financial goals with the financial
knowledge they have. This is because they are able to create an
efficient strategy to implement, manage and control what that they
want to achieve in order to improve their financial status. The
respondents also know that they have to ensure there is money set
aside to cover emergencies. This is supported by (Klapper et al.,
2013) study found out that individuals with higher levels of financial
literacy are more likely to have greater unspent income and lower of
spending in which they will experience less negative income if they
have financial crisis that caused by unexpected economic and income
shocks.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 3:
Last but not least, the objective of this study is to identify the
effect of financial knowledge towards spending habits among UTM
Management Faculty staff. These findings suggest that both of
variables have positive relationship. The staff’ financial knowledge is
significant towards the financial habits. These result supports the
findings of past study by (Taft et al., 2013), which noted that high
financial literacy brings positive impact on individual’s ability that
relate to finance in terms of increasing savings, making purchasing
decision correctly, having proper investing, asset management,
employing insurance, debt and credit management as well as provide
understanding of the real economic situation and his or her financial
position reasonably. This will lead an individual to overcome their
stress and worried successfully even if there are financial issues.
Limitation and Recommendations
There are several limitations in conducting this study. This
research comprises a small sample size in which only it focused on
the staff of Management Faculty. Therefore, the findings cannot be
generalized to support the research. It is recommended to future
research to conduct the study throughout Malaysia so that the level of
financial knowledge of Malaysian can be identified. Thus, this will
help people to find a way to have a better understanding of financial
knowledge and skills in order to achieve their financial and life
satisfaction.
This study also recommends that related parties such as
employers, institutional and Government to increase their efforts in
providing any initiatives to people in enhance their financial
knowledge. Secondly, the answers from the questionnaires may give
some implication to the result of this study as the emotion and time
constraint of respondents will influence their feedback. Therefore, this
study recommends that the evaluations can use both quantitative and
qualitative methods to access changes in financial knowledge and
spending habits not only from employees’ perspective but also the
employers.
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... Having the best spending habits is another element that could influence financial satisfaction. Therefore, the ability of an individual to manage their own finances in order to make wiser financial decisions and improve their financial circumstances is a prerequisite for financial pleasure (Azmi & Ramakrishnan, 2018). ...
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