A survey on household money management has found that 55% of the population are worried about their financial future, with 19% saying that they worry about their financial prospects very much.
ĠEMMA, the government’s financial capability education platform, published its findings on research carried out between May 29 and June 5, based on 405 respondents, to gauge attitudes and perceptions towards personal finance in a COVID-19 context.
Overall, 83% of respondents said they felt in control of their financial situation, 41% that they always planned monthly expenditures and 28% that they sometimes planned.
Conversely, almost a third of Maltese adults said they do not make plans for their month to month expenses.
Women (77%) tended to be more inclined to plan than men (61%), while separated people or single parents (53%) were the most likely to always have a financial plan in place.
Only 44% of respondents said they had enough money to last three months in case of an emergency, while 18% said they only had enough funds to last them less than a month.
This marks a slight decrease from findings published in the previous survey in April, where 47% indicated they had funds to last three months and 21% less than one month.
While 59% of respondents said their financial situation had not altered over the past three months, 32% said it had deteriorated, with 9% indicating it had improved slightly.
Around half of respondents believe that now is the right time to commit to major financial purchases, such as furniture or electronics. This figured dropped significantly from where it stood at 68% in the previous survey, to 50%.
Half of respondents also said they had not been able to save any money over the past three months, with those aged 45 and over facing the most difficulty in saving during this time.
Analysed by region, Gozitans (63%) were most able to save compared to those living in other districts, while those who described themselves as "single" also had the highest response to saving at 61%.
Three-fourths of all respondents said they did not have a retirement pension plan other than what is provided by the government, a figure which remained in line with previous findings.
Those aged 34 and under were less likely to have a private pension plan than other age groups, while a majority (86%) of all respondents said they had no intention of starting a retirement plan in the next three months.
Overall, respondents considered themselves to be familiar with money management, with 20% reporting they were "highly knowledgeable" and 42% "slightly or quite knowledgeable". Those aged 35-44 accounted for the highest number of positive responses at 73%.
In response to the crisis that came with the COVID-19 pandemic, 48% of respondents said they weren't inclined to save for a rainy day, with 40% replying in the affirmative.
Replies indicate that younger age groups were more likely to save, 61% of 18-24-year-olds, than their elders, with just 27% of over 65s.