The focus of this research is to understand the financial situation of people in Malaysia, hence analyzing the impact of financial income level, savings and expenditures in financial well-being. The study also examines moderating effects of marital status on these relationships, particularly when it comes to increasing cost of living.
Data were collected through a structured online questionnaire distributed via convenience sampling, targeting B40 and M40 income groups. From the 407 households contacted, 327 provided complete and useable responses. To analyze the data, we used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).
The findings show that while income alone did not show a significant relationship with financial well-being in this study, expenses, savings and the interaction between marital status and income were significant factors. These findings underscore the multidimensional nature of financial well-being and highlight the importance of considering interactions and broader financial behaviors in understanding individuals' financial health.
The subject selection in this research is only the Klang Valley households, and therefore the findings of this study may not be applicable in other areas of Malaysia or any other different economic and culture background countries.This study employed convenience sampling technique to gather information and this may limit generality of the results by developing biases toward the sample. In convenience sampling, the participants are chosen based on their accessibility or willingness to be sampled, thus a possibility of extreme selective sampling. This can potentially lead to selection bias and other deficits rendering the findings as a whole restricted in terms of generalizability to larger population frames who may not be like this latter kind of individual.
The study seeks to find out the effects of marriage status to the income, saving and spending the theories and models on the financial position of individuals. It demonstrates how the role of family can change influence of money factors on well-being which is a lacking research area. The implications of the findings are expected to be of importance to practitioners such as policymakers, financial advisors and would be investors who are in search for suitable financial management strategies. The study contributes to the theoretical framework of financial behavior and welfare and provide policy implications at local and beyond levels.
The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2024-0701
