Articlediamond2020

An exploratory study of financial well-being among Malaysian households

Nurul Shahnaz Mahdzan · Rozaimah Zainudin · Mohd Edil Abd Sukor · Fauzi Zainir · Wan Marhaini Wan Ahmad

47 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Asian Business and Economic Studies

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the financial well-being (FWB) of Malaysian households and to construct a subjective FWB index with present and future time perspectives. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 1,867 respondents across five major regions in Malaysia. Adapting the InCharge Financial Distress/Financial Well-being (IFDFW) Scale by Prawitz et al. (2006) and the method of computing an index by Devlin (2009), this study develops an FWB index using subjective measures that include future time perspectives (retirement). The index was employed to measure the FWB across low-, middle- and high-income groups and socio-demographic characteristics. Findings This study finds evidence that Malaysians' FWB is at an average level (46.8). Middle-income households' FWB (46.1) flanks between the financial well-being index (FWBI) levels of the low-income (37.4) and high-income households (58.7). Across age groups, education levels and employment sectors, the FWB of Malaysians significantly varies, although not across different ethnics, religions, zones and residential areas. Overall, the results suggest that the detrimental effects of FWB are perceived by all Malaysian households nationwide regardless of their religion, ethnicity and residential areas. Practical implications The results of this study complement the other well-being indices used by policymakers and may serve as a useful input for government and policymakers for them to formulate appropriate strategies to promote higher FWB of Malaysian households based on their socio-demographic characteristics. Originality/value This study used primary data and developed a subjective FWB index that leverages on people's perceptions of their own financial well-being while including present and future time perspectives. The main contribution of this paper is to construct an index that is easily interpretable and that complements the existing FWB indices, and to identify the segments of society that have low vis-à-vis high FWB.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 47 citations exist upstream.

References

1970Determining Sample Size for Research Activities 2006Institutions and the Resource Curse 2001Volunteer Work and Well-Being 2002Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being?1993The relationship between income and subjective well-being: Relative or absolute?2017Financial well-being: A conceptualization and research agenda 2004An Exploratory Framework of the Determinants of Financial Satisfaction 2009Pathways to life success: A conceptual model of financial well-being for young adults

Cited by

2022Role of Social Capital and Financial Wellbeing in Reaching Successful Entrepreneurial Financial Performance: A Moderated-Mediated Model of Financial Intelligence

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.