Influence of financial literacy on management of personal finances in a young household/Finansinio rastingumo itaka jaunimo asmeniniu finansu valdymui.
Navickas, Mykolas ; Gudaitis, Tadas ; Krajnakova, Emilia 等
Introduction
The relevance of the study: In the last decade the concept of
personal finance has been tangled a lot by famous economists such as
Lusardi, A. (2008/2013); Mitchell, S. O. (2010) or by different
organizations: OECD (2012), Lithuanian Bank (2012/2013) and others. The
importance of personal finance management became very clear after global
financial crisis in 2008. A considerable part of households faced
financial difficulties, as they have lost part of their income, due to
lost jobs and did not had enough savings to pay out the mortgage. The
value of accumulated capital in long-term solutions has dropped
significantly. E.g. OECD has estimated that the losses of pension funds
in OECD countries to be 5.4 trillion USD or about 24% of the value of
assets in these countries in 2008 (OECD 2011). The returns of pension
funds in Latin America and Central Europe in 2008 were two-digit
negative. These numbers indicate that lots of people suffered from
financial crisis. Recent experience shows, that it is very important to
have sufficient financial management skills and financial literacy
knowledge starting from the young age. These financial planning mistakes
done in the first stages of independent life can be difficult to be
corrected in the future, so their financial decision making has high
impact not only on their current household economic well-being, but also
influence the future. These are the main reasons why the subject of the
article is young households aged between 18 and 30. Young households in
Lithuania combine almost 1/3 of a population in Lithuania (Lithuanian
Department of Statistics 2013). In the paper it will analyze what other
effects financial literacy does to personal finance management.
Moreover, it will be discussed how financial literacy level can be
improved.
The novelty of the study
Almost no scientific analysis has been made in Lithuania on
personal finance management and financial literacy. Authors that do work
in this subject usually analyze it only partially: Vitunskien?, V.
(1997) analyzed households' economics; Rakauskiene, O. G., et al.
(2007) investigated saving behavior models of different genders; Bikas,
E., et al. (2010) researched behavior of investors. Financial
supervisory authorities are starting to pay much more attention on the
financial literacy education, main issues related with personal finance
planning (e.g. setting minimal own capital criteria's for lending,
supervising quick (or fast) short-term lending products supervisory;
benchmarking investment management of investment risk of private second
and third pillar pension funds, etc.), starting public PR and marketing
campaigns on financial literacy education. This shows the mean that
responsible management of personal finance and saving from the early
stage of life inevitable. Authors of the paper did not find any similar
study which was made about Lithuanian young households. The research
analysis young Lithuanian people approach towards various saving ways
and the results will be compared with similar foreign researches.
The object of the paper is personal finance management and the
importance of financial literacy in Lithuanian population part between
18 and 30 years old.
The aim of the study is to define the main concepts and importance
of personal finance management and financial literacy using comparable
analysis of the scientific literature. Also to examine the level of
financial literacy and personal finance management skills of young (18
to 30 years old) Lithuanians and compare the results with foreign
countries experience.
The tasks of the study are:
1. To analyze the scientific literature in order to define the main
concepts, importance of personal finance management and financial
literacy.
2. To create the questionnaire based on foreign scientists
researches and Lithuanian specifics, and to evaluate the level of
financial literacy and personal finance management skills.
3. To survey Lithuanian population between 18 and 30 years old.
4. To compare questionnaire results with similar results of foreign
researches
5. To analyze what causes the current level of financial literacy
and personal finance management skills in Lithuania and what measures
would increase its 'level.
The methods of research are: systematic, logical and comparative
analysis of literature and generalized statistical data that was
collected in online survey using descriptive Lithuanian population
statistics.
1. Theoretical background
In this part authors analyze significance of others researches that
examined concept of personal finance management and financial literacy.
Also shows the importance of these factors in everyday life and
describes the methods that were used for analyzing practical research.
1.1. The concepts and understanding of personal finance management
Analyzing the concept of personal finance it is easy to encounter
various approaches towards this subject, as there are lots of authors
that study this theme (see Table 1).
Analyzing these various concepts and models authors can come to the
conclusion that most of the authors use one theoretical approach towards
management of personal finance (ex. only incomes and expenditures, only
savings, etc.) and there is no systematic attitude towards this
approach.
As Klimaviciene and Jureviciene (2008) suggests, we can contract
all the approaches to one fundamental equation and name personal finance
simply as (Fig. 1).
There are lots of definitions by various authors, but we could
simply call personal finance as all financial decisions and activities
that a person could make. This could include budgeting household incomes
and expenditures, savings, investments, mortgages, insurance and all
other decisions that require money. The most important factor of
personal finance management is financial planning, which should involve
analyzing the financial position and setting of short-term and long-term
goals. In Lithuanian, as well as other countries 'case, this might
be future retirement fund, children education fund, etc. But for all
this, there is a need of financial literacy, which would help understand
various financial services and make financial decisions. Looking into
all the approaches towards personal finance might seem complicated for
an individual without financial education, as such person usually does
not understands the way of managing (planning, saving, investing and
borrowing if needed) money. Model (see Fig. 1) simplifies all the
approaches and might help individuals manage these processes without
intermediaries (such as financial institutions, etc.) intervention. It
could be simple and easy way to raise public awareness to the
significance of personal finance. It is important to have good skills of
personal finance management in order to make correct day-to-day
decisions such as what to buy, what not buy. This would help to save
lots of money in the long run, as unnecessary products would be bought
not so frequently. It would also help dealing with financial services,
as even 34% of Lithuanian population does not look for other
alternatives, while searching for financial services (Bank of Lithuania
research 2012). Ability to make these decisions more responsibly would
improve the well-being of the households. The reality is that the
problem of irresponsible personal finance management is relevant not
only in Lithuania, but all across the world.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
Figure 2 shows that the financial knowledge still can be greatly
improved even in such developed countries as Germany or Norway.
One of the best ways to increase personal finance management skills
is to track a budget and fix all the incomes and expenses for each
period (e.g. month, quarter, etc.). This would also help to avoid
unreasonable purchases and save more money for investments. The research
in the article will reflect percentages of Lithuanian households that
follow their budgets.
1.2. Financial literacy's role in the well-being of households
Financial literacy is very important in each household for
day-to-day decision making, as it helps saving money, which later could
be invested or saved for reaching goals that have been set.
This includes simple decisions, such as: where to buy fast moving
consumer goods, what type of investment risk pension fund to select,
etc. But it might be beneficial not only for individuals or households,
but also for countries' economic system. However, it is easy to
observe that most of the households lack financial literacy. This
concerns not only governments, but also various researchers e.g.
Lusardi, A. (2008); Marcolin, S.; Abraham, A. (2006). Ex chairman of USA
Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan once said: "The number one problem
in today's generation and economy is the lack of financial
literacy. After logical and systematic analysis of scientific researches
authors can agree to the conclusions, that financial literacy is too low
in the larger part of households across the globe--Lithuania is not an
exception. Based on Lithuanian public opinion research results in 2009
(when 1006 respondents from 18 to 75 years were questioned) Lithuanian
society also lacks financial literacy (Spinter Tyrimai 2009). In order
for households to make day-to-day decisions correctly they should know
the basic concepts of personal finance, such as: compound interests,
investment risk and its management during short and long term periods
(e.g. eliminating risk while approaching retirement age). Understanding
these concepts would help to eliminate most frequent incorrect decisions
(e.g. investing into wrong financial instruments, pension, mutual funds,
etc.) Investing into foreign stocks or bond markets, mutual or hedge
funds at the acceptable and understandable investment risk level could
be great example how in the long run responsible management of personal
finances brings more money into economy, which leads to higher spending
and raises GDP. What is more, individuals' decisions affect
countries well-being by adjusting the interest rates and inflation.
Responsible management of financial resources is beneficial not only for
households, but also for the whole country. In order to make correct
decisions appropriate level of financial literacy is needed. E.g. in
2002 Lithuania started pension system reform, by establishing 2nd pillar
pension funds. However, the long term financial resources for funding
2nd pillar were not planned properly. During financial crisis the
premiums to 2nd pillar pension funds were reduced (see Gudaitis 2009 for
details) and it is still not restored to the previously planned levels.
Social Insurance agency ("SoDra") debt has already reached 10,
3 billion Litas. Such big debt comparing to total Lithuanian debt might
lead to enormous pension cuts for future retirees, so responsible
hoarding of money and financial planning for future old-age pension is
inevitable. The role and importance of financial literacy leads to a lot
of discussions about management of personal finance and there are a lot
of authors both inside and outside Lithuania that contributed to this
field of work, such as: Annamaria Lusardi (2010), Olivia S. Mitchell,
Luigi Guiso, Maarten van Rooij, Ausra Klimaviciene (2008), Daiva
Jureviciene (2008) and others.
1.3. Methods of research
Even though there has been much debated about personal finances and
financial literacy in Lithuania (e.g. Rakauskiene, O. G. and Bikas, E.
(2007); Bikas, E. and Kavaliauskas, A. (2010)), not much empirical
researches has been done on the topic of the article. Research methods
that have been used by Ruskyte, D. et al. (2013) can be also used while
researching young households. The authors aim--to examine the level of
financial literacy and personal finance management skills of young (18
to 30 years old) Lithuanians and compare the results with foreign
countries experience, such as Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic
and developed western countries such as Germany and USA. The
questionnaire formed for this research has been analyzed using
descriptive statistics. Respondents have been selected using random
sample. Findings of this examination have been compared to the results
of two other researches: Atkinson, A. and Messy, F. (2012), Lusardi et
al. (2010).
2. Research results
Method used for research is online survey, as it helps to reach
largest audience. Online survey was placed on internet survey pool
apklausa.lt. Taking into consideration that every citizen of Lithuania
could fill in the questionnaire for analysis we use random sampling
method. Our chosen Lithuanian population between 18 and 30 is 626
thousand citizens. Using sample calculation program authors get that for
research to be statistically relevant 384 respondents is needed (437 has
been surveyed.) Respondents' age varies between 18 and 30, but 16%
of sample have been over 30 years of age. Population that has been
studied was also sampled randomly from various cities of Lithuania. ~64%
of the sampled population was youngest households between 18 and 24
years; 20%: 25-30 years; and 16% over 30 as mentioned before. Largest
part of respondents consists from cities of two biggest cities in
Lithuania: Vilnius and Kaunas (~65% of all respondents).
2.1. Households budgeting
Every person or household that have money coming in usually also
faces responsibilities that come with independent life. Most of the
households have to pay bills such as rent or mortgage, buy food and has
other daily life expenses. There are two basic principles why conduction
of a budget is important. Firstly, it shows whether you are spending
more that earning and secondly how much can you allow to spend on
various items. Crucial part of budgeting - to have a goal in mind (e.g.
paying out mortgage quickly, new car, retirement fund, etc.) as it helps
physiologically and gives more control to consumer on his day-to-day
decisions. However, it is not always easy to follow a budget, as
professional marketing can make high impact on individuals' with
lower financial literacy level decisions for higher expenditures. Not
only economists have noticed and analyzed the importance of budgeting
(Barigozzi et al. 2009) but also participants of the financial sectors
such as service providers or supervisory authorities.
A lot of various budget management programs have been implemented,
such as BudgetPulse, Serenic and others, but most of them are
concentrated towards American society and almost unused in Europe. In
Lithuania, biggest retail banks (e.g. SEB bank, Swedbank) also try to
implement tools in their electronic banking systems, dedicated for their
clients to control household budgets. As the results of the research
shows, only ~32% of our sampled population tracks their budget, even
though average income of examined population is ~1700 Lt/month after
taxes, which almost equals Lithuanian average (1731 Lt after taxes) and
even ~58% of the sampled population earn below average wage of
Lithuania, they still do not budget to their income. And according to
OECD research in 2012 a lot of member states have the same problem (see
Fig. 3). In order to increase number of households that budgets their
money, level of financial literacy in Lithuania and OECD countries has
to be raised. With a support of government, banks in Lithuania try to
upgrade this number with implementation programs mentioned before. And
as Krajnakova, E. and Vojtovic, S. (2011) mentions: development of
science and education has to be raised to top priorities of state.
Financial literacy basic concepts have to be taught even in elementary
school. This would raise society awareness to financial illiteracy and
help increase its' level. So, budgeting incomes and expenditure is
the most important factor of personal finance management and in order to
do it correctly financial literacy knowledge is vital. Unfortunately, as
research comparison shows financial literacy level is still very low
both in OECD countries and Lithuania. In order to increase this number
education program has to be implemented.
Not budgeting money leads to lower saving and investment rates,
lowers the possibility of having retirement plans, etc. So all in all,
budgeting is very important part of household personal finance
management as it raises countries' competitiveness in the long run,
with more money fluctuating in the economy.
2.2. Borrowing
After global financial crisis in 2008 government increased
regulations on long term borrowing, such as mortgages or leasing.
Nowadays, banks or other institutions before borrowing money must
thoroughly look into individuals' financial history, to make sure
that the client is solvent. But borrowing smaller amounts of money is
still very easy in Lithuania, as you can do it in 5 minutes in a post
office or shopping center. But the interest combined with other costs is
very high (Bank of Lithuania 2012) and reaches 216%, as well as
insolvent clients' number. Moreover, according to Bank of Lithuania
(2012), even 36% of fast credits are taken by young people up to 25
years old. These numbers shows that part of Lithuanian youth cannot
manage their money responsibly and tends to take quick loans. Our
research also grounds this fact, as mentioned before two thirds of
sampled population does not track their budget. 6 % of all the
respondents at the end of month do not have enough money and borrows
them. And from part that tracks their budget 19% says that at the end of
month they have balanced budget, which means, that their saving rates
equals 0. This means that this part of population has no retirement or
emergency fund and might borrow money in such situations as vehicle
breakdown, health problems, etc. Respondents have been asked whether
they have borrowed money in the last 12 months to make ends meet.
Surprisingly, even 55% have faced this problem. On the other hand, only
9% of the population used consumer or quick loans to make ends meet,
while 18% used their old savings and 28% borrowed from family or
friends. The numbers indicate that Lithuanian households tend to trust
less in financial institutions and are more likely to borrow from
friends. Authors predict that it is due to relatively high interest
rates of lending products, which are offered by different financial
institutions. Comparing these results to the same question asked in OECD
countries shows that borrowing from financial institutions to make ends
meet in Lithuania numbers are among the lowest in the world. And they
are much smaller than other post-Soviet countries such as Poland or
Estonia (see Fig. 4).
Even though, Lithuanian saving rates are not high, but young
households tends to avoid borrowing from financial institutions and has
an ability use older savings or borrow from friends and family. This
indicates that when people lack money, they do have enough financial
literacy to make correct decisions while borrowing money. In the long
run it helps to save money for interest paid and makes positive impact
on personal finance management.
2.3. Savings and investments
Saving is a big part of personal finance management and it requires
high financial literacy skills. Lusardi, A. (2010) has indicated how
important it is as people need to save money in order to have emergency
and retirement funds. But saving rates are increased in the long run,
when people invest in various financial instruments. Although, it
requires risk, but it could be spread with investments into different
sectors or even completely eliminated. Not understanding importance of
investing and risk shows low level of financial literacy. Lithuanian
case shows that too many people tend to hold their money in deposits
(26% of the respondents) and even more in a bank account (47%). These
numbers indicate that Lithuanian population has free money, but they
hoard it instead of investing. Bank of Lithuania research (2013)
indicates very similar percentages. Worth mentioning, that ~25% has at
least once invested in investment funds or dealt shares. But the
difference between these two groups shows that investment numbers can
still be improved. Larger scope of financial investment instruments can
increase these numbers, as research made in Chile (2011) shows that
individuals with more knowledge about the pension system are more likely
to have additional financial savings. Other example could be
derivatives, as only 1, 4% of the sampled population uses derivatives,
while it is much more popular in USA. Even 47% of population has not
heard about derivatives and 21% about mutual funds. This again indicates
that people lack financial literacy and knowledge about potential
investment destinations. Raising public awareness about various
financial instruments and their importance would definitely increase
investment rates. Ability to invest correctly and gain highest returns
is the most difficult part of personal finance management, as it needs
very high level of financial literacy. Research indicates that
investment numbers are very low in Lithuania and it must be improved. It
can be done with various financial literacy education programs or
introduction with more financial instruments.
2.4. Financial literacy evaluation
To measure Lithuanian financial literacy level four practical
questions were constructed. Each question helps to compare results to
similar questions asked by foreign researchers (Lusardi, A.; Mitchell,
S. O. (2004-2013) and OECD research in 2012). Analysis of this part of
the research helps to understand where specific financial literacy
knowledge can be used and how it helps to manage personal finance. Every
question had 3 or 4 possible answers, with addition answers of:
"don't know the answer" or "don't know what
these concepts mean".
Respondents were asked to calculate simple interest for 5 years
deposit with interest rate calculated on the annual basis of 3% (deposit
of 1000 Lt). 67% of sampled population answered correctly, saying that
deposit will return more than 1030 Lt after 5 years. The idea of the
question was to see whether individuals understand simple concept of
interest rates. In everyday decision making this helps to evaluate all
possible alternatives and choose the best one, based on the highest
returns.
Unfortunately, one-third of the population failed to make this
calculation correctly. Similar question has been asked by Lusardi, A.;
Mitchell, S. O. (2004-2013) in their research and 67% of the sampled
population (N = 7417) answered correctly. So, comparing Lithuanian and
American sampled populations, authors can say that there is no
difference in understanding of interest rates in these states. This
indicates that the problem of low financial literacy is spread all
around the world.
As our research shows, even 26% of the young age population holds
their money in deposits in financial institutions such as banks, credit
unions, etc. One of the most important choices while choosing deposit
details is whether its' interest will be simple or compound. In the
long run compound interest gives much higher returns. It is also vital
while choosing retirement plans, etc. To understand the concept of
compound interest individual has to have better financial literacy
knowledge, but in return this might lead to much higher saving rates. To
see how many people can understand the principle of compound interest we
asked another question: How much money you will have after 2 years if
compound interest rate is 10% and is calculated on the annual bases
(deposit of 1000 Lt)? Unfortunately, only 43% respondents answered
correctly (1210 Lt). But comparing results to similar question asked by
OECD in 2012, we can see that these numbers are among the highest. Only
Norway (54%) Germany (47%) and Hungary (46%) has higher numbers in
understand of compound interest concept, while other CEE countries such
as Poland and Estonia have lower numbers of 27% and 31%. These
researches show that financial literacy level is very low not only in
Lithuania, but also in OECD countries.
The next question was constructed to analyze whether respondents
can understand basic elements about money value and inflation. They were
asked does their purchasing power rises or drops if inflation is 3% and
the interest rate on their deposit 2%. Surprisingly, only 60% were
correct, whereas according to the same Lusardi, A.; Mitchell, S. O.
(2004-2013) research 75% of Americans were correct. So in Lithuania
there is slightly lower level of understand principle of inflation. As
this is one of the basic financial literacy questions it again shows
that Lithuanian society lacks financial literacy and it highly
influences management of personal finance. The last question required
highest knowledge of financial literacy, as respondents were asked
whether corporate bonds or stocks usually give higher returns in the
long run. Only 44% answered correctly while saying that it is stocks.
What is more, from all of the respondents, which have studied, 42% has
an education in areas such as management, economics, finance,
mathematics, etc. So given the assumption that all of them should have
been correct, then only 13% of respondents who did not study higher
education or did studied in other areas were correct. Or other
assumption can be raised--that even higher education in areas such as
economics, management, etc. does not assure high level of financial
literacy knowledge, which is even more shocking.
Each of these four questions, analyzed above provides useful
information. The responses to them can also be combined to an average
financial literacy score which is 53.8%, which seems to be worrying. All
these results indicate that financial literacy knowledge is low in young
Lithuanian households. And as analyzed literature shows around the
world, many people are also financially illiterate.
Conclusions
After systematic, logical and comparative analysis of literature
and survey of Lithuanian population between 18 and 30 years old it is
clear that financial literacy influence on personal finance management
is very high. After comparison of questionnaire results with foreign
authors' researches conclusion can be made that not only
Lithuanian, but also OECD and USA countries lacks financial literacy.
The research has shown that young households do not know the basic
concepts of financial literacy, such as simple and compound interest.
This effects their decision making, while choosing mortgages, leasing,
bank deposits, retirement funds, etc. In the long run these decisions
can combine into huge amount of money and this is the reason why
financial literacy education program has to be implemented. Tendency
towards inflation is also very clear-even 40% of the population does not
understand how inflation affects their purchasing power, which is also a
sign of very low financial literacy level. As results show, there is a
part of Lithuanian young age society that has money to save and invest,
but only 44% know the basic difference between stocks and corporate
bonds, which means, that even though people have money to invest, they
lack knowledge to do so. Despite all the observations made by
policy-makers or researches made by scientists these is still very
little done to raise the financial literacy of young households. So,
lack of financial literacy means that households cannot manage their
personal finance properly, spends a lot of money because of impulsive or
unnecessary buying, which eventually leads to lower saving rates and
lower investment returns. Moreover it might reduce countries'
competitiveness in the global market in long term perspective. Countries
that will introduce and improve financial literacy education programs
for people of all types of age will be much better-off in the long run
comparing to the countries which will not make it.
Caption: Fig. 1. Equation of personal finance (Klimaviciene,
Jureviciene 2008)
http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/btp.2014.04
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Mykolas Navickas (1), Tadas Gudaitis (2), Emilia Krajnakova (3)
(1) ISM University of Management and Economics, E. Ozeskienes g.
18, LT-44254 Kaunas, Lithuania
(2) International Business School at Vilnius University, Sauletekio
al. 22, LT-10225 Vilnius, Lithuania
(3) University of Alexander Dubcek in Trencin, Studentska str. 3,
91150 Trenctn, Slovakia
E-mails: 1navimyko@stud.ism.lt (corresponding author);
2tadgud@gmail.com; 3emilia.krajnakova@tnuni.sk
Received 03 September 2013; accepted 08 October 2013
(1) ISM Vadybos ir ekonomikos universitetas, E. Ozeskienes g. 18,
LT-44254 Kaunas, Lietuva
(2) Vilniaus universiteto Tarptautinio verslo mokykla, Sauletekio
al. 22, LT-10225 Vilnius, Lietuva
(3) Alensandro Dubceko universitetas Trencine, Studentska g. 3,
91150 Trencinas, Slovakija
El. pastas: 1navimyko@stud.ism.lt; 2tadgud@gmail.com;
3emilia.krajnakova@tnuni.sk
Iteikta 2013-09-03; priimta 2013-10-08
Mykolas NAVICKAS. Student of economics in ISM University of
Management and Economics. Author of 2 scientific publications. Spheres
of interests: financial literacy, personal finance, microeconomics,
macroeconomics, international economics, corporate philanthropy.
Tadas GUDAITIS. Doctor of social sciences (economics), Associate
Professor at International Business School at Vilnius University. Author
of more than 10 scientific publications published in Lithuania and
abroad. Currently author is making postdoctoral research
"Life-Cycle funds system simulation model development and
implementation in defined contributions pension accumulation system in
Lithuania". Postdoctoral fellowship is being funded by European
Union Structural Funds project "Postdoctoral Fellowship
Implementation in Lithuania". Spheres of interests: social
economics, old-age pension systems, pension funds, personal finance
management, financial literacy.
Emilia KRAJNAKOVA. Doctor of social sciences, Assoc. Professor at
University of Alexander Dubcek in Trencin, the Faculty of
social-economic relations, the Department of management and development
of human resources.
Author of more than 120 scientific publications, published
domestically and abroad (Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Russia,
Serbia). Spheres of interests: financial literacy, labour market,
economic sociology, human resources management, employment policy,
social mobility, migration.
This work was partly supported by project "Promotion of
Student Scientific Activities" (VP1-3.1-SMM-01-V-02-003) from the
Research Council of Lithuania (Mykolas Navickas). This project is funded
by the Republic of Lithuania and European Social Fund under the
2007-2013 Human Resources Development Operational Programme's
priority 3.
Table 1. Approaches to personal finances (according to
Lithuanian Department of Statistics 2013; Lusardi 2008;
Rakauskiene, Bikas 2007; van Rooij et al. 2011; Klimaviciene,
Jureviciene 2008; Charupat et al. 2012; Gambacorta, Marques-Ibanez
2011)
Approach Researchers
Households Lithuanian Department of Statistics
incomes and
expenditure
Saving Lusardi, A.; Rakauskiene, O. G.;
Bikas, E., banks
Planning van Rooij, M.; Lusardi, A.; Alessie, R.;
Jureviciene, D.; Klimaviciene, A.
Investing Financial Institutions, Bikas, E.
Lifecycle Charupat, N.; Huang, H.; Milevsky, M. A.
Lending Gambacorta, L.; Marques-Ibanez, D.
Fig. 2. Countries with high financial
knowledge points (Atkinson, Messy 2012)
Albania 45%
Armenia 46%
Czech Republic 45%
Estonia 61%
Germany 58%
Hungary 69%
Ireland 60%
Malaysia 51%
Norway 40%
Peru 41%
Poland 49%
South Africa 33%
United Kingdom 53%
BVI 57%
Note: Table made from bar graph.
Fig. 3. Part of researched population, which has a
household budget (Atkinson, Messy 2012)
Albania 59%
Armenia 51%
Czech Republic 37%
Estonia 28%
Germany 22%
Hungary 31%
Ireland 54%
Malaysia 74%
Norway 25%
Peru 49%
Poland 54%
South Africa 43%
United Kingdom 43%
BVI 43%
Note: Table made from bar graph.
Fig. 4. Used credits to make ends meet at least once
in the last 12 months (Atkinson, Messy 2012)
Albania 31%
Armenia 47%
Czech Republic 11%
Estonia 22%
Germany 4%
Hungary 14%
Ireland 14%
Malaysia 21%
Norway 7%
Peru 27%
Poland 21%
South Africa 26%
United Kingdom 9%
BVI 13%
Note: Table made from bar graph.