Retirement readiness and financial sustainability: investigating the behavioural dynamics among millennials in Malaysia

As the global population ages, the time spent in retirement has grown longer, requiring a bigger retirement nest egg to ensure financial sustainability. Despite this, many people still delay financial planning for retirement (FPR) and risk being financially impoverished. This study examines the internal and external factors that influence retirement planning efforts by developing a Retirement Readiness model (RRM) to investigate the behavioural dynamics among urban Malaysian millennials living in the Klang Valley. The RRM adopts the tripartite joint influence of Hershey et al.'s (2013) CWO model involving Capacity, Willingness and Opportunity, integrated with the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Time Perspective theory as a unified model. Based on a sample of 450 millennials, findings from the PLS-SEM analysis show that internal factors positively affect FPR behaviour through FPR intentions. In contrast, external factors positively influence FPR behaviour directly. This study also demonstrates the importance of financial socialisation, where financial lessons can be assimilated through socialisation agents to shape a person's intrapersonal financial dispositions. The empirical findings in this study provide pertinent theoretical and practical implications to support parents, policymakers, organisations, and financial advisors in altering the future state of retirement readiness and financial sustainability in a developing country.