Financial planning for retirement in young adults: Interaction of professional experience, knowledge, and beliefs

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of professional financial experience on the relationships between financial knowledge and beliefs on financial planning for retirement (FPR) in young adults. We designed a domain-specific personal belief inventory comprising all important components involved in FPR. Financial professionals (n = 145) demonstrated greater knowledge of the financial retirement system compared with non-professionals (n = 382). The two groups, however, differed neither in objective nor self-rated general financial literacy. In non-professionals, higher financial literacy was positively linked to trust in the 2nd pension pillar, self-assessed competence in FPR, personal engagement in FPR, perceiving FPR as less emotionally loaded and FPR task as less complex. These predicted relationships were not found among professionals. Thus, professional experience in financial domain seems to bring a deeper and particularized insight into the pros and cons of the pension system, and consequently vacillates beliefs about FPR.