Financial Literacy: The Influencing Factors Among Youth

Abstract

Malaysia, like all other countries throughout the world, became a victim of the COVID 19 epidemic. Based on the Malaysia's Insolvency Department 2021 statistical data, the alarming increase of individual bankruptcy cases were caused by failure to pay personal loans, instalment purchases, and credit card debt especially amongst youth. This is concerning because it implies that young Malaysians are still oblivious to their financial circumstances. Hence, the goal of this research is to investigate the level of financial literacy among youth, as well as the relationship between financial knowledge, financial behaviour, financial attitude, and familial influences on financial literacy. A non-probability convenience sampling method was used to gather information from 181 respondents. The findings of the study show that financial knowledge (p=0.000), financial behaviour (p=0.000), and family influence (p=0.000), are significantly associated to financial literacy, the dependent variable in this study, with the exception of financial attitude (p=0.418). Time constraints, insufficient independent variables covered, questionnaire development, respondents' honesty, and respondents' inequity were some of the challenges encountered while conducting this study. The most significant limitation is the sample size, which does not represent the population of Malaysian youth. The findings of this study have broad implications for a wide range of stakeholders, including university students, curriculum developer, parents of students, and future researchers. In this study, the factors that influence financial literacy among youth were examined, and it was concluded that the youth literacy level was moderate. The findings of the study will also help to support the National Strategy for Financial Literacy, which runs from 2019 to 2023.