turn, predicted savings tendencies.
Stawski et al. (2007) proposed that one form of financial planning
involves information-seeking activities, defined as activities yielding
information about how to plan such as reading books on personal finance.
In the present study, these activities were conceptualized as a form
of financial education activity called self-directed education activities.
These activities were measured via two sets of variables. The first concerned
self-directed education from significant others; an example item
was “During your lifetime, to what extent did you deliberately seek out
information on personal finance from your parents/immediate family?”
The second set concerned self-directed education via media; an example
item was “During your lifetime, to what extent did you deliberately seek
out information on personal finance via the Internet?” We hypothesized
that the high return group would report more frequent engagement
in self-directed information-seeking activities than the low return
group.
The third hypothesis also concerned planning. In addition to
information-seeking activities, Stawski et al. (2007) proposed that
financial planning could involve instrumental activities, defined as
setting appropriate long-term financial goals and monitoring progress
towards them. In this study, instrumental planning was conceptualized
as a form of financial behavior and was measured as the extent to which
householders forecasted the amount required to retire. We hypothesized
that the high return group would more frequently forecast the amount
required to retire than the low return group.
The fourth hypothesis concerned other financial behaviors that have
been the foci of previous studies due to their hypothesized positive effect
on wealth accumulation (e.g., Bell et al. 2009; Hilgert, Hogarth, and
Beverly 2003). Questions were asked about various financial behavior
variables ranging from cash-flow management to health insurance
planning. It was hypothesized that, where the groups differed significantly