The financial status and factors affecting personal well-being among urban poor in Kuala Lumpur

The main purpose of this study is to understand the financial status of urban poor community in Kuala Lumpur and factors affecting their personal well-being. The sampling size of this research is 1,064 respondents chosen by using systematic sampling method. The data was obtained by using self- administered questionnaires and the data being analysed by descriptive analysis meanwhile and multi regression analysis. The results shows that the urban poor community in Kuala Lumpur are having a moderate level of financial literacy possess a less effective financial behaviour, experiencing a high financial strain and adapting a moderate level of personal well-being. Besides that, the results also indicates that the financial literacy has no influence on personal well-being of the urban poor community, meanwhile financial behaviour has a positive influence and financial strain has a negative influence on the personal well-being of the urban poor community. The findings of the study suggest the government and non-government organisation such as Economic Planning Unit ((EPU), Kuala Lumpur City Hall (KLCH or DBKL), Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM), Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (CCDM or AKPK), Federation of Consumer Association (FOMCA) to make an inclusive effort and approach to improve the personal well-being of the urban poor. By understanding more about the financial status of the urban poor community, it is hoped to help them to become financial prudence and in the long-run could lead them into a good decision making while facing conflicts in financial issues and maintain a good quality of life. It is important to ensure the urban poor consumers have better financial management skills which lead them to make the right decision in order to enhance their personal well-being

The impact of Smart Money Kit on children’s financial knowledge, attitude and behavior / Mohamad Fazli Sabri... [et al]

Financial management is one of the vital requirements throughout everyday life, as one develops, the utilization of financial management recurrence would be extraordinarily expanded. Since, financial thinking could be developed, expanding the propensity for financial management and understanding financial-related awareness at a early age greatly affect encouraging future financial behavior. Hence, in this research the research group incorporated gamification and edutainment in to a tool called Smart Money Kit. The objective behind the inovation of Smart Money Kit is as an alternative financial education tool for parents, teachers and other adults to assist in educating children in personal financial management. The results demonstrated that the Smart Money Kit to be helpful regarding the enhancement of financial knowledge by 59%, positive financial attitudes by 21.9%, and better financial behaviour by 19.3% of the children. Therefore, the majority of the parents, teachers and caretakers agree that Smart Money Kit has guided their children to become financially prudent and 90% of them evidenced a huge difference in their children after being exposed to Smart Money Kit. Hence this kit has been proved to be an effective tool to educate children on financial literacy besides able to develop a positive financial attitudes and better financial behaviour among the children

Profile and differences in financial literacy: empirical evidence

The increasing cost of living in Malaysia has resulted in individuals and households being more mindful of their wealth management. Financial crises and world geopolitical issues have caused much volatility in returns and market volatility. These economic challenges have impacted the way Malaysians save, spend, manage risks and invest in order to preserve their livelihood. It is therefore vital to understand financial instruments and markets in order to better manage investments and wealth. This research aims to study the level of financial literacy among Malaysians across gender, income, age and ethnicity group. It applies a quantitative study method with a self-administered questionnaire to obtain relevant data. A total sample of 2000 respondents is obtained and results reveal that unfortunately, the majority of Malaysians possess only moderate level of financial literacy. In addition, there are significant differences in female, who are in the above the RM7000 income group, 30 to 39 years old and Chinese in terms of financial literacy. Findings from the study provide a better understanding of the level of Malaysians" financial literacy and implication on policy objectives to further strengthen this area through targeted sustainable financial education

A preliminary evaluation of financial literacy in Malaysia

Malaysians have been adversely affected by the greatly increased cost of living in the last decade. The majority of them are feeling as if they are not able to cope with the current standard of living relative to the level of income they are generating. Many have been forced to work two jobs and it is not surprising that these challenges have made them desperate and susceptible to financial fraud and falling victims to financial scams. Economic challenges have impacted the way Malaysians save, spend, manage risks and invest in order to preserve their normal daily livelihood. Among the factors for this are the lack of understanding of how best to manage their finances and financial literacy. This research aims to reveal the financial literacy of Malaysians with information regarding financial understanding, knowledge, and skills that respondents possess. It applies a quantitative study method with a self-administered questionnaire to obtain relevant data from a sample of 2000 respondents across a wide selection of: i) public sector employees; ii) private sector employees; iii) FELDA/rural area residents; and iv) youth in institutions of higher learning. Findings reveal that the majority of Malaysians believe that expenses can be higher than income and possess inadequate understanding of risks and investment

Does the Bijak Wang (Smart Money) programme benefit schoolgoing children?

The Bijak Wang or Smart Money programme is a half-day interactive workshop on money and money management targeted at children aged 10 to 12 years. The objective of the programme is to develop financial literacy through the use of an interactive games kit i.e. Smart Money Kit: Bright Kids Smart Money. This innovative programme was developed as an alternative learning and teaching tool for children to acquire personal financial management knowledge and skills with guidance from parents and adults. The kit comprises conservative board games that help to sharpen children’s soft skills in communication, strategic planning and critical thinking. Research literature has revealed that instilling money management knowledge and skills in children will impact positively on them, empowering them to manage better their finances in future. The concept behind this programme is learning through play. This programme was conducted with four groups of participants from different geographical areas. Participants engaged in gameplay with Profesor Bijak Wang and Ekspedisi ABCD which are both board games; Cuba Ingat dan Teka which is a flash card game; and Reka Tabung ABCD. All these games are highly integrated with the six basic money management concepts. As the participants play, they undergo cognitive absorption of money management concepts, which they will tend to apply in their future daily lives. Pre and post-testing using a self-administrated questionnaire was conducted to analyse the level of money management skills and knowledge the children had before participating in the programme and the level that they had acquired after they had participated in the various gameplays. The results of the post-test show that the children’s financial literacy improved with their increased acquisition of money management skills and knowledge as compared to the level they initially had as revealed by the results of the pre-test conducted. This indicates that children learn effectively through interactive learning using the Smart Money Kit: Bright Kids Smart Money. As such, parents and teachers should use innovative and creative approaches in educating children about money and money management and treat this learning as a lifelong process so children will make prudent financial decisions in their future

Does the Bijak Wang (Smart Money) program benefit schoolgoing children?

The Bijak Wang or Smart Money programme is a half-day interactive workshop on money and money management targeted at children aged 10 to 12 years. The objective of the programme is to develop financial literacy through the use of an interactive games kit i.e. Smart Money Kit: Bright Kids Smart Money. This innovative programme was developed as an alternative learning and teaching tool for children to acquire personal financial management knowledge and skills with guidance from parents and adults. The kit comprises conservative board games that help to sharpen children’s soft skills in communication, strategic planning and critical thinking. Research literature has revealed that instilling money management knowledge and skills in children will impact positively on them, empowering them to manage better their finances in future. The concept behind this programme is learning through play. This programme was conducted with four groups of participants from different geographical areas. Participants engaged in gameplay with Profesor Bijak Wang and Ekspedisi ABCD which are both board games; Cuba Ingat dan Teka which is a flash card game; and Reka Tabung ABCD. All these games are highly integrated with the six basic money management concepts. As the participants play, they undergo cognitive absorption of money management concepts, which they will tend to apply in their future daily lives. Pre and post-testing using a self-administrated questionnaire was conducted to analyse the level of money management skills and knowledge the children had before participating in the programme and the level that they had acquired after they had participated in the various gameplays. The results of the post-test show that the children’s financial literacy improved with their increased acquisition of money management skills and knowledge as compared to the level they initially had as revealed by the results of the pre-test conducted. This indicates that children learn effectively through interactive learning using the Smart Money Kit: Bright Kids Smart Money. As such, parents and teachers should use innovative and creative approaches in educating children about money and money management and treat this learning as a lifelong process so children will make prudent financial decisions in their future

Determinants of life satisfaction among female-headed households in Malaysia

The general objective of this study was to determine the factors affecting life satisfaction among female-headed households in Malaysia. Five states in Malaysia were chosen through multi-stage sampling method. A total of 527 respondents were participated in this study. Descriptive analysis, independent sample t-test, One-way Analysis of Variance (Anova), and Multiple regression were used in the Statistical Package for Social Science version 22.0 (SPSS). The results show that the mean age for the respondents was 53.14 years old. Majority of the respondents were Malay followed by others, Indian and Chinese. The results show that 60.2% of them are having moderate level of financial capability, 57.8% of them in moderate level of financial vulnerability and 69.8% of them possess a moderate level of life satisfaction. Pearson correlation indicated that, personality (p= .000, b=.312), financial capability (p= .000, b=.159), and financial vulnerability (p= .000, b=.-224) has significant relationship with life satisfaction. Meanwhile, the independent sample t-test shows that higher income group has better life satisfaction compared to lower income group (t-value= -3.531, p= .000), non-savers has higher life satisfaction compared to people who frequently save (t-value= -4.277, p= .000) and female-headed households with assets more than debt has a higher life satisfaction (M=12.7660, SD=2.481). The multiple regressions show that, personality, financial capability and financial vulnerability are the significant predictors of life satisfaction among female-headed household in Malaysia.This study suggested that the findings are useful for the female-headed households, policy makers and non-governmental organizations. More attention should be given in building their self-confidence, and more control of themselves rather than being dependent on others on decision making. More knowledge and enhancement can be done on empowering the female-headed household on the modern financial instruments. By doing so, it can increase the financial capability and reduce the financial vulnerability of female-headed household in Malaysia towards a better life satisfaction

The financial status, financial problems and personal well-being of urban poor youths

The fast growing economic of Malaysia has impacted more urbanization as the Malaysians migrate to cities to seek employment and education opportunities and resulted in rising living cost. Youth plays a big role in building the nation and rising living cost is one of the financial challenges as they are unable to practice saving behaviour due to their environmental and lead to the use of exploitative lenders and to financial instability and it may leads to financial stress. This study is to to assess their current financial status, financial problems and personal well-being. This study is conducted with 500 youths from 18-40 years old living in low-cost flats with income below RM3000. The respondents consist of 48.7% male and 51.3% female; 70.2% were Malays, 13.1% Chinese and 14.9% Indian and 1.4% consisting of other races. The youths’ main saving and investment portfolio is Employee Provident Fund (EPF) with 69% and less diversification in investment. Urban youths (69%) mostly own motorcycle as asset followed by house (32%), and jewelleries (16.1%). In contrast, 54.3% of them are engaged with mortgage loans and 33.3% with personal loans; the asset to debt ratio revealed that 47% of the have debts more than asset and 34% youths are inadequate of income. The main financial problem is paying bills late (88.9%) and spirituality scores the highest ranking in personal well-being with mean 7.26. Enhancing financial literacy and molding good financial behavior need to be inculcated to the youths as a coping strategy

Smart money kit: an innovative learning tool for kids

Smart Money Kit: Bright Kids Smart Money is an initiative to raise awareness among public, especially parents and educators on prudent money management among young children. This awareness is resulting of Central Bank of Malaysia's strategy to raise financial literacy in the country among Malaysians. It is a financial education tool targeting mainly young children ages from 6 to 12 years with the objective of educating them on the importance of money and money management in their lives. This financial education kit comes with 10 interactive activities arranged according to children’s ages from the age of 6 to 12 years old. It comprises six basic units covering financial management education i.e. getting to know money, financial goals, needs vs. wants, saving, expenditure and budgeting. This kit has been in the market for the past three years and the researchers conducted an online survey among the parents, teaches, caretakers of the users to measure the impact of Smart Money Kit on their children. A total of 40 respondents have been participated in this online survey and the descriptive analysis has been performed to decode the data. The results shows that, majority of the parents, teachers and caretakers agree that Smart Money Kit has moulded their children becoming financially prudent and 90% of them seen huge difference in their children after being exposed to Smart Money Kit. Hence this kit has been proved to be an effective tool to educate children on financial management and skills, and financial literacy besides able to develop a better financial behaviour and attitude among the children