Psychological determinants of financial preparedness for retirement.

PURPOSE: Economists predict that in the coming decades an unprecedented number of American baby boomers will enter retirement lacking adequate resources. The present investigation was designed to examine the factors that influence individuals' financial preparedness for retirement. DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 230 participants each completed a multifaceted questionnaire on their own personal retirement planning practices. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to examine the relationships among individuals' personality characteristics, their financial knowledge, and financial preparedness. RESULTS: The adopted structural model revealed that both personality constructs and financial knowledge were significant predictors of pre-retirement planning. IMPLICATIONS: The findings from this study have important implications for how educational and marketing efforts should be developed for individuals who are differentially prone toward saving.

Age differences in performance awareness on a complex financial decision-making task.

Individuals tend to be overconfident when making retrospective judgments about the quality of their decisions. However, few studies have focused on age differences in estimates of decision quality. In the present experiment performance estimates were provided by task-trained and untrained young and old individuals following completion of a series of complex financial decisions. Confidence levels were assessed by examining discrepancies between perceived and actual solution quality. Performance estimates of all 4 groups contained appreciable estimation error; however, no group showed a substantial directional bias toward underconfidence or overconfidence. Young trainees were significantly less confident in the quality of their decisions than young novices, but a comparable training effect was not found among older individuals. One's knowledge of the task, prior decision-making experience, and level of self-esteem may combine to determine the accuracy of one's retrospective performance estimates.