Psychological predictors of savings behavior: Contrasting the impact of optimism and burnout on self-control, achievement motivation and savings behavior

Although economic factors have dominated the literature on financial behavior and savings, there is increasing evidence that personality related factors also play an important role in savings behavior. This study explored the impact of self-control, achievement motivation, optimism and burnout on savings behavior. The study investigated the direct relationships of self-control, achievement motivation, optimism and burnout on savings behavior (the dependent variable of the study), as well as the potential mediating and moderating roles of self control and achievement motivation on optimism, burnout and savings behavior.;Using snowball sampling, a total of 272 respondents older than 18 and working at least 30 hours a week completed an online questionnaire consisting of six measures: savings behavior (measured by Executive Personal Finance Scale), actual saving (five questions developed by the researcher), self-control (Grasmick's Self-Control Scale), optimism (Life Orientation Test), burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory), and achievement motivation (Ray-Lynn AO Scale). The results provided empirical evidence that self- control and achievement motivation are positively associated with savings behavior. A significant positive linear relationship between optimism and savings behavior was observed. Burnout in general was not significantly correlated with savings behavior, but emotional exhaustion (the largest factor of the Maslach Burnout Inventory) was negatively associated with savings behavior. This study also found that self-control partially mediated the relationship between achievement motivation and savings behavior. Additionally, both achievement motivation and self-control mediated the positive relationship between optimism and savings behavior. In contrast to the positive effects of optimism on savings behavior, emotional exhaustion predicted diminished savings behavior. The latter was mediated by reduced self-control and achievement motivation. Further studies are recommended to confirm these novel findings.