FACTORS AFFECTING FINANCIAL DISTRESS AMONG MALAYSIAN YOUNG WORKING ADULTS IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Nowadays, the dominance of the savers, spenders and investors has shift from middle-age working adults to young working adults in Malaysia, which means that they are the major contributors to the economy in Malaysia. However, it is found that many of them are having financial distress problems in their life, who eventually declared as bankrupt persons. In this case, it is increasingly urgent for academicians, Malaysian young working adults themselves and Malaysian Government to understand the financial behaviours and financial literacy levels among Malaysian young working adults. The final aim of this research is to determine and figure out the factors affecting financial distress among Malaysian young working adults in Malaysia.

The online survey is the research instrument to meet the overall research objectives in this research. The questionnaire to be used in this research is measured by categorical multiple choices and Five Point Likert Scale with four factors as independent variables including saving behaviour, spending behaviour, investing behaviour and financial literacy is adopted and updated from some past researches to explore their relationships toward financial distress as the dependent variable among Malaysian young working adult. After that, the researcher will examine how this factors can affect the financial distress. The sample in this research uses three hundred and eighty-five Malaysian young working adults as respondents.

Eventually, the findings of this research have shown that the saving behaviour, spending behaviour, investing behaviour and financial literacy in Malaysia are not separated but there are variations among the Malaysian young working adults in Malaysia. It is revealed that there is a negative significant relationship between saving behaviour and financial distress, a positive significant relationship between spending behaviour and financial distress, a positive significant relationship between investing behaviour and financial distress, but surprisingly there is no significant relationship between financial literacy and financial distress.