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Finance and Financial Management Commons

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2015

Focus groups

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Full-Text Articles in Finance and Financial Management

Discussions On Long-Term Financial Choice, Kuan Kiat Cheah, Douglas F. Foster, Richard Heaney, Timothy Higgins, Barry Oliver, Terry O'Neill, Roslyn Russell Dec 2014

Discussions On Long-Term Financial Choice, Kuan Kiat Cheah, Douglas F. Foster, Richard Heaney, Timothy Higgins, Barry Oliver, Terry O'Neill, Roslyn Russell

Terry O'Neill

We analyse focus group discussions about long-run (retirement) financial decisions, and explore
the extent to which participant responses are related to the oft-used behavioural explanations of
financial choice. We find that persons of all ages understand the importance of long-term savings, but
face many challenges in preparing for retirement. There is mixed support for a range of associated
behavioural explanations. Complexity, relevance of decisions, and uncertainty come up repeatedly in all focus groups, irrespective of the age of the participants. The use of heuristics, confidence, costs
of mistakes, mental accounting, and the importance of social interaction appeared of less immediate …