文献信息：文献标题：A Study of Personal Financial Planning Process and Socio-Economic Decision-Making in Households（个人理财规划过程与家庭社会经济决策研究）国外作者：S Shah，AS Bhatt文献出处：《Social Science Electronic Publishing》,2016字数统计：英文2308单词，13376字符；中文4089汉字外文文献：A Study of Personal Financial Planning Process andSocio-Economic Decision-Making in Households Abstract In the current era, planning of finance is assuming extreme importance as myriad financial products are available and individuals’ demands are increasing. Personal financial planning is a process which outlines one’s financial objectives and takes financial decisions in a manner that his goals are achieved. The process of financial planning and decision-making in household has been studied independently by various researchers. However, these are essentially intertwined in nature. In view of this, the researchers have undertaken the task of understanding whether individuals followed the Personal Financial Planning process consciously and whether this was linked to household decision-making, especially in the social and economic areas. This paper also examines gender inequality in household decision-making and how household decision-making evolves with time. The study was conducted in the Ahmedabad district of Gujarat, and a sample size of 196 respondents was selected on judgmental basis to meet the objective of the study. The response rate was 78% (n=150) which is considered to be acceptable for a research study. The sample size was equally split between males and females. The survey was carried out in June- July, 2014.Analysis has been done by using Analysis of Variance(ANOV A), Binary Logistic Regression and Chi-square.It was found that age influences components of Personal financial planning (PFP) like determining one’s financial objectives, knowledge of finance, satisfaction regarding current economic status, and retirement planning. Likewise, gender, income, education, profession and marital status affect various components of PFP. It was also found that household economic and social decisions were related to income and investment of the respondent. Further, it could be inferred that in a household, males held more bargaining power in taking economic decisions, while females exerted more influence in taking social decisions.Key-words: Personal financial planning, financial objective, household economic decisions, household social decisions1.IntroductionHousehold financial management is that activity which is concerned with planning and controlling finances of individuals and households. The concept ‘personal financial management’ is of immense interest to researchers, academicians and policy formulators in the context of global economic crisis and financial inclusion in developing countries. As in the case of a nation or business institution, finance plays a crucial role in the life of an individual, to rich or poor. Mobilisation of finance and its wise and efficient deployment play a strategic role in the well-being of a nation or institution and at the most in the case of a person who is the base or starting point of any economic activity. Personal finance as a branch of economics deals with budgeting, saving, investing, borrowing, lending, insuring, and diversifying.Personal financial planning denotes the process of determining whether and how an individual can meet life goals through the proper management of financial sources.(CFP Board, 2005) Financial literacy and financial well-being are mutually related with each other (UNDP and PFIP, 2010). Financial well-being is the ability to have wealth to serve life - to have the financial means to comfortably attain whatever personal goals one has to enjoy an acceptable lifestyle. Sociological research data indicate that fourfactors strongly predict happiness and overall well-being in most cultures: health, economic status, employment, and family relationships. People are happier when they are healthy, employed, married or in a committed relationship, and financially secure. There is a relationship between an individual’s ability to do something (competence) and well-being (both self-perceived happiness and economic well-being). Well- being is, at least in part, a product of competent behaviour enacted consistently over time. Financial capability and financial competence therefore influence a person’s well-being. The opportunity accorded to people to engage with the formal financial system and how well they manage the money they have will influence their standard of living and the standard of living of those for whom they are responsible.Like never before, researchers, public authorities, community groups, industry associations and international organisations, are initiating financial literacy programmes and want to understand how people can become financially literate, or in other words, have the knowledge, understanding, skills and competence to deal with everyday financial matters and make the right choices for their needs.2.Literature Review2.1.Financial Literacy & PlanningVery few articles and research papers were found those have founded identical theories of personal financial planning. The term personal finance is having its root in micro-economics, finance and behavioral science as this area originated from home economics to various finance theories to behavioral finance. An Individual, as a consumer, is a rational being who tries to use his or her money income to derive the utmost amount of consummation or utility from it. Consumers want to get "the most for their money" or, to exceed their total utility as per ‘Maximisation of utility’ theory. Money is scarce in nature and due to this, consumers tend to be rational in their purchasing decisions. A consumer would spend his money on the best possible purpose or product and only when needed that guarantees optimum utility or a complete sense of satisfaction.Considering the importance of financial literacy, in RBI-OECD Workshop onFinancial Literacy, Bengaluru, in March, 2010 Sri Pranabkumar Mukerjee, Hon’ble Minister for Finance in his speech narrated “Financial literacy and education plays a crucial role in financial inclusion.” He further added that research and existing literature in financial literacy have typically associated an individual’s knowledge of economics and finance with his financial decisions related to savings, spending, borrowing, retirement planning, or portfolio choice. Today, financial competence has become essential due to complex choices and, while the policies need to enable access, the responsibility for saving and investing for the future primarily lies with the individuals. Another study by Miller M., Godfrey N., Levesque B. and Stark E. (2009) discussed the importance of financial literacy for consumers in developing countries, especially in the context of the global financial crisis.The authors stated that financial literacy was an active process, in which communicating information was only the beginning: empowering consumers to take action to improve their financial well-beingwas the ultimate goal. This study presented empirical evidence on thevalue of financial literacy programs and made a case for further research in determining the most effective financial literacy tools, programs and public policies, especially in the context of developing countries. Lusardi A. (2001), a world famous financial literacy scholar and academician, in her article ‘Financial literacy around the world: an overview’ stated that in an increasingly risky and globalised market-place, people must be able to make well-informed financial decisions.2.2.Socio-Economic decisions in householdHousehold decision-making affects many choices with important consequences including the distribution of income, allocation of resources, allocation of time, purchase of goods, and fertility decisions. If there is gender inequality in household decision making then this affects the economic well-being of women and children in the household. Blood and Wolfe (1960) in their study based on households in the Detroit area of the United States, found that comparative resources of the wife and husband were more important determinants in decision-making and power than social norms. The spouse with the greater resource base was more likely to have more decision making power. Similar studies done in lower and middle-income countriesreported different results. Research in Yugoslavia and Greece found that husband’s socio-economic resources were negatively related to his power (Buric and Zecevic 1967, Safilios- Rothschild 1967). A study conducted in India by Rammu (1988) which included urban, dual and single income earning households found that the more resources the partner brought into the marriage, in terms of education, income and occupational status, the more decision-making power he/she possessed. He also found that women who were gainfully employed exercised greater authority in all spheres of decision-making compared to women engaged in domestic housework only. However, even employed women did not succeed in negotiating a noticeable change in the allocation of domestic housework, perhaps a consequence of the timeless social norm of women doing housework. In one more study conducted in Venezuela (Lawrence and Mancini 1998) focused on decision-making concerning four subjects: purchase of household goods, change in residence, household finances and children’s education. The study found that while a majority of households made decisions jointly, more women made decisions concerning the purchase of household goods and children’s education compared to men, while men dominated decisions concerning household finances and change in residence.The process of financial planning and decision-making in household has been studied independently in the previous researches. However, these are essentially intertwined and if one wants to achieve life goals, financial literacy is a necessity. In view of this, the researches undertook the task of understanding whether individuals followed the Personal Financial Planning (PFP) process consciously and whether this was linked to household decision-making, especially in the social and economic areas. Further, there is a dearth of research related to this topic especially in Gujarat state of India. Hence, the researchers carried out the study in Gujarat.3.Research MethodologyOn the basis of review of literature and evidences from psychological studies, the present study has been planned with the following objectives:1)To analyse the effect of demographic variables on household financial planning2)To find out the relationship between financial planning decisions and economic and social decisions3)To find out the gender impact on economic and social decisionsThe study was conducted in the Ahmedabad district of Gujarat, and a sample size of 196 respondents was selected on judgmental basis to meet the objectives of the study. The total number of questionnaires distributed was 196. We received 176 questionnaires, but some of them had one or more missing responses. Such questionnaires were discarded and were not considered for further analysis. The final sample size after discarding the questionnaires with missing responses was 150. Thus the response rate was 78% which is considered to be acceptable for a research study. The respondents carried equal number of males and females. The survey was carried out in June-July, 2014. The profile of the respondents with respect to demographics like age, gender, qualification, income, marital status and household investments has been presented in the data analysis section.The research design for the study is descriptive in nature. The questionnaire constructed for the study included several questions which were continuous and categorical in nature. The survey consisted of questions that covered demographics, financial attitude towards personal financial planning, preferences for investment avenues, and purposes for investment.Definition of ConstructsThe components of personal financial planning were obtained through literature review regarding how individuals consider each component in their household financial planning decisions.•Financial Objective: Financial objectives are life goals converted into monetary terms. They can be categorised based on time period- Short term, Medium term and Long term financial objectives.•Knowledge: Knowledge of financial products, terms, financial services and financial markets required for personal financial management.•Satisfaction: Satisfaction in context to personal financial components viz. obtaining, saving, borrowing, investment planning.•Tax efficiency: Proper management of financial resources to avail various rebates and concessions thereby reducing tax liability.•Insurance Coverage: Adequate insurance coverage of life, health and property against risks associated.•Retirement Income: Availability of sufficient corpus to maintain the same standard of living in non-earning years.Data Analysis ApproachAnalysis is done using SPSS software 19.0 and Microsoft excel.Description of Analytical Tools•To find out the impact of the demographical variables on household financial planning, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOV A) has been applied for each component identified through literature review and each demographic variable viz. gender, age, income, education, profession and marital status.•To find out the association between financial and socio-economic decisions, Chi square has been applied.•To further analyse the gender impact on economic and social decisions Bivariate Logistic regression is applied where gender is taken as predictor variable and decision taker as outcome variable.4.Managerial ImplicationsThere is significant association between gender and financial objective, knowledge of finance and retirement planning, wherein males agree more to having knowledge and adequate retirement planning.•The older age group (40 – 60 years) disagree more as compared to other age groups when it comes to satisfaction, financial objective, knowledge and retirement planning processes of financial planning.•The higher income group (above 8 lacs) disagree more when it comes to deriving satisfaction from the current PFP, however, the low income group agreed more to tax efficiency as they fall in the tax exempted category.•The non-employed group had less knowledge of the formal financial planning process as compared to the salaried and business groups, and the business class significantly differed from other two groups for retirement planning component.•The marital status is related to several components of PFP, viz. financial objective, knowledge, tax efficiency, and insurance coverage and the categories differ among themselves marginally for these components. However, the divorced category was found to be lacking on the financial objectives and satisfaction part.Looking at the above findings, it became increasingly clear that the typical target group for conducting financial literacy programs would consist of young and middle-aged, females who are home-makers. But the next question was whether they are influential in household decision- making. If they are not typical decision-makers, the training shall not impact the actual decisions taken in the household. Hence, a few significant economic and social decisions of the household were identified and the role of females was studied. The analysis indicated that males play a dominant role in taking economic decisions while females play a leading role in taking social decisions of the household. Hence, the financial literacy programs while targeting the above-mentioned group should especially capture the process of PFP, with a focus on social decisions taken in the household.中文译文：个人理财规划过程与家庭社会经济决策研究摘要在当前时代，随着金融产品的大量激增，以及个人需求的不断上升，理财规划开始变得非常重要。