Financial literacy of young Rio-Grandenses university students

Abstract

The proliferation growing of credit instruments has strengthened the need of financial literacy which has assumed a critical role in enabling, making responsible decisions and the scope of financial well-being. This study aimed to verify if university students from the interior of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) are financially literate and there are differences in the average level of financial literacy when evaluated such as gender, age, marital status, ancestry, financial independence, dependents, income, source of income and education area variables. In totally, 810 questionnaires were applied in public and private university students. The results indicate that students exhibit a positive financial behavior, but less than ideal; present unsatisfactory level of financial knowledge, culminating in a medium degree of financial literacy; and they are concerned to control and pay all their credit commitments, while they not present habits to save monthly.