The Anxious Unwary, Prudent Risk-Averse, and Consciously Confident – Financial Goals, Competencies and Strategies of Young People Studying in Higher Education

Abstract

Our research examines the financial goals, knowledge, self-esteem, attitudes and strategies of young people studying in Hungarian higher education (N = 2557) by classifying youngsters into three groups. Anxious unwary: they are characterized by both living for the day and anxiety, they choose external control strategies, (advantageous marriage, wealthy family). Prudent risk-averse: who are thoughtful, frugal, avoid taking risks. They choose an internal control strategy: budgeting and hard work. Consciously confident: their knowledge and skills are outstanding, their confidence is realistic. They are entrepreneurial and risk-taking choosing long-term, internal control strategies to achieve their financial goals that help them grow their income.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Higher education students
• financial literacy
• goals
• strategies
• external-internal control attitude

Disclosure statement

I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, no aspect of my current personal or professional circumstance places me in the position of having a conflict of interest with this article. I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, neither I nor any individual or entity with whom I have a significant working relationship have (has) received something of value from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article. The foregoing statements are true without exception.