A Study on Financial Literacy of Malaysian Degree Students UNE ÉTUDE SUR LES CONNAISSANCES FINANCIÈRES DES ÉTUDIANTS MALAISIENS

Abstract: Interest in exploring the issues of personal finance, particularly money management, has tremendously increased in recent years due to the society's awareness on its importance. Money management skill is a vital element in disciplining them to achieve a quality life as working adults because students spending habits in campus will influence the way they manage money throughout their lives. Looking at the previous literatures from researches outside of Malaysia reveals that financial literacy among students is needed to curb any future problems that may arise due to lack of knowledge on individual financial management. This research stresses on the importance of financial literacy among students, by looking into the student's background, financial attitude, financial knowledge and family. The data obtained from questionnaires and secondary data were analyzed using SPSS version 12.0. From the data analysis, majority of students do not practice proper money management skills. Hence, researchers hope there will be measures taken to step aside this scenario. The recommendation and limitation were also included to assist those future researches who are interested to study further on this topic. Key words: personal finance; financial literacy; Malaysia Resume: Ces dernieres annees, l'interet a etudier les questions de financements personnels, notamment la gestion de l'argent, a enormement augmentegrâce a la sensibilisation de la societe sur son importance. La competence de gestion de l'argen est un element vital pour eux de mener une vie de qualite en tant que des adultes qui travaillent, car les habitudes de depenses des eleves dans le campus vont influencer sur la facon dont ils gerent l'argent tout au long de leur vie. Les etudes anterieures de recherche a l'exterieur de la Malaisie montrent qu'une certaine connaissance financiere est indispensable chez les etudiants pour enrayer les problemes futurs qui pourront se poser en raison d'un manque de connaissance sur la gestion financiere individuelle. Cette recherche souligne l'importance des connaissances financieres aupres des etudiants, en examinant le profile de l'eleve, ses attitudes financieres, ses connaissances financieres et sa famille. Les donnees obtenues a partir des questionnaires et des donnees secondaires ont ete analysees en utilisant SPSS version 12.0. De l'analyse des donnees, on peut constater que la majorite des eleves ne possedenet pas de leurs propres outils de gestion financiere. Par consequent, les chercheurs esperent qu'il y aura des mesures prises pour changer cette situation. La recommandation et la limitation ont egalement ete incluses pour aider les recherches ulterieures interessees par une etude plus approfondie sur ce sujet. Mots-cles: financement personnel; connaissances financieres; Malaisie 1. INTRODUCTION Categorized as one of the developed countries, Malaysia is not missed being one of the regions whereby financial literacy level is at the bottom end. Prior to millennium era, percentage of society knowledge on issues such as budgeting, saving, investing and insuring were minimal. Of course, in this millennium era, topics and subjects on financial management are fast growing in our society. There are so many books, seminars and institutions that provide information on basic financial management catering to those who want to improve their financial standing. In fact, financial institutions are actively promoting their range of services which include investment consultation and other areas attached with proper financial management. However, those who do read on the subject matter or seeking for professional advise are normally professionals, semiprofessionals or those who are familiar with money management. There are almost no programs or seminars targeting those of children and young adults. As a consequence, the familiarity level on finance among these young groups is very limited except for what they learned thru experience, family or even peers. …