Factors influencing students' spending habits in Malaysia

The spending habits of students nowadays has become a major concern in our society in view of the increase in bankruptcy cases and social problems among younger generation in Malaysia which are often associated with their financial instability due to poor individual financial management. This study aims to know the factors influencing the spending habits of students and to fill the knowledge gap on their spending. In this study, dependent variable is spending habits, and four independent variables have been determined, namely product usage and purchasing power, social status, promotional approaches and prestige. The
respondents of this research are college students currently studying at the colleges located in Klang Valley, Malaysia, The method used is a Quantitative Approach by survey through questionnaires which are adapted for this study in addition to questionnaires adopted from previous researchers of which the Cronbach Alpha Coefficient value is greater than 0.70. A total of 384 samples of the questionnaires have been collected manually and via e-mail from the college students, age 17-22.
The significance of data has been determined using Descriptive Statistics, Normality Test, Frequency Test, Validity Test, Factor Analysis, Reliability Test and Multiple Regression Analysis. This study has concluded that prestige factor, promotional approaches and social status are factors which influence the spending habits of the students, whereas the product usage and purchasing power do not have significant influenced the students' spending habits, but there is an indirect factor influencing the spending habits because it is correlated to prestige factor and promotional approaches. Nevertheless the results of this research only reflect the finding from limited students in Klang Valley, further efforts to conduct the research on a national basis would be beneficial, which should include students in
rural areas, small town and other cities to reflect the demographic composition of Malaysia.