Description

The rate at which many individuals presently save falls short of that which will enable them to achieve their lifestyle aspirations in retirement. This, combined with the social-support funding demands of an ageing population, makes the subject of retirement savings one of crucial importance to most countries worldwide. An obvious approach to improving the quality of life in retirement and to alleviating the forecast social-support burden is to induce people to save in a more effective manner. However, it is generally regarded that a good deal needs to be done to motivate people to save more and to invest more efficiently for their retirement needs. Using the framework of the theory of planned behaviour, the present research explored an extended range of psychological determinants in order to explain retirement savings behaviours within an Australian context and to test the sufficiency of the standard theoretical model for this purpose. The intent of the research was to identify the relative importance of key behavioural determinants and to relate these to intervention possibilities applied to the individual, the workplace and the general public.