Author(s): Gaurav Malpani and Anupama Sharma
The study was conducted in Ajmer City (Rajasthan, India), a tier-2 city mostly comprising middle-income earners, providing a novel view on retirement planning behaviour in a demographic that is relatively underexplored. The paper explores the roles that financial literacy, income, and professional advice play in retirement saving. The objectives include examining the correlation between financial literacy and retirement savings, evaluating the significance of income in preparing for retirement, and practical testing of the outcome of seeking professional advice. Other antecedents inferred include confidence, experience and other behaviors. By employing standardized questionnaires, responses from 500 respondents aged 25 to 65 years were obtained. Various statistical methodologies related to correlation analyses, regression, and factor analysis were used to make sure the outcomes are reliable. The sample was diverse in order to obtain detailed information across the income spectrum. The main conclusions show that financial literacy and income are strong indicators that explain the retirement savings, and professional advice strengthens these effects. While conducting the factor analysis, three behavioral characteristics, namely, knowledge, attitude, and past behaviors related to financial management were identified as factors influencing retirement planning. The findings point to the importance of financial literacy initiatives as well as easily available professional advice, especially for the less affluent population. These can help enhance the state of readiness towards retirement besides supplementing the economic stability of many groups of people.