Financial Literacy in Practice: An Empirical Assessment of Finance Professionals' Personal Financial Management Behaviour
Padukkage Don, Madushanika (2026)
2026
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202604136207
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202604136207
Tiivistelmä
This thesis investigated whether financial literacy influences the everyday personal financial behaviors of finance professionals. Hence, the analysis examined the areas of whether financial literacy is related to everyday personal financial management behaviors of finance professionals, which behaviors are strongly connected with financial literacy, and what other elements influence the behaviors.
The study was narrowed only to finance professionals. The financial professionals were defined by completed finance related studies, finance professional qualifications, and job roles involving regular financial decision making. The theoretical framework combined the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Financial Management Behavior Scale. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) explained factors affecting the behaviors called "attitude," "subjective norm," and "perceived behavioral control." The Financial Management Behavior Scale (FMBS) is supported to capture six key behaviors of budgeting discipline, emergency planning, insurance adequacy, debt management, long term retirement planning, and saving/investing consistency.
A structured quantitative questionnaire was distributed via Webropol. It was kept open from 5th to 14th March 2025. After screening, 182 complete responses were selected as the final sample. Measures of the survey covered financial literacy, TPB determinants, the six behavioral domains, overall satisfaction, and financial well being. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and simple regressions were conducted to analyze data in Excel.
Financial literacy was higher in the sample. Overall financial behavior was moderate. A positive relationship was found between financial literacy and overall behavior. The strongest literacy and behavioral relationship occurred in debt management. Retirement planning showed the weakest relationship. Among TPB dimensions, perceived behavioral control is related most strongly to overall behavior. The impact of attitudes and subjective norms was comparatively lower, compared to perceived behavioral control.
These results indicate that financial literacy supports better financial behaviors. But factors such as to the extent to which the behavior is evaluated positively or negatively by the professionals, the perceived social pressure on them to act perfectly, and the perception of ease or difficulty of performing the behavior also influence on behaviors. Financial professionals’ impression about their own financial well-being was moderately positive.
Study limitations include self reported data and limited time frame. Future researchers could compare TPB between finance professionals and general non finance populations.
The study was narrowed only to finance professionals. The financial professionals were defined by completed finance related studies, finance professional qualifications, and job roles involving regular financial decision making. The theoretical framework combined the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Financial Management Behavior Scale. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) explained factors affecting the behaviors called "attitude," "subjective norm," and "perceived behavioral control." The Financial Management Behavior Scale (FMBS) is supported to capture six key behaviors of budgeting discipline, emergency planning, insurance adequacy, debt management, long term retirement planning, and saving/investing consistency.
A structured quantitative questionnaire was distributed via Webropol. It was kept open from 5th to 14th March 2025. After screening, 182 complete responses were selected as the final sample. Measures of the survey covered financial literacy, TPB determinants, the six behavioral domains, overall satisfaction, and financial well being. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and simple regressions were conducted to analyze data in Excel.
Financial literacy was higher in the sample. Overall financial behavior was moderate. A positive relationship was found between financial literacy and overall behavior. The strongest literacy and behavioral relationship occurred in debt management. Retirement planning showed the weakest relationship. Among TPB dimensions, perceived behavioral control is related most strongly to overall behavior. The impact of attitudes and subjective norms was comparatively lower, compared to perceived behavioral control.
These results indicate that financial literacy supports better financial behaviors. But factors such as to the extent to which the behavior is evaluated positively or negatively by the professionals, the perceived social pressure on them to act perfectly, and the perception of ease or difficulty of performing the behavior also influence on behaviors. Financial professionals’ impression about their own financial well-being was moderately positive.
Study limitations include self reported data and limited time frame. Future researchers could compare TPB between finance professionals and general non finance populations.