Household financial decision making: Qualitative research with couples

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Contents
3.3 Type 2: Cautious and Content ............................................................................................ 22
3.3.1 
Decision-making dynamics .................................................................................. 23
3.3.2 
Attitudes towards retirement planning ............................................................. 23
3.3.3 
Defining characteristics ......................................................................................... 24
3.3.4 
Case study: Debbie and Mathew ......................................................................... 25
3.4 Type 3: Organised Aspirational .......................................................................................... 26
3.4.1 
Decision-making dynamics .................................................................................. 26
3.4.2 
Attitudes towards retirement planning ............................................................. 27
3.4.3 
Defining characteristics ......................................................................................... 28
3.4.4 
Case study: Ryan and Sarah ................................................................................. 28
4 Retirement decision making .......................................................................................................... 30
4.1 Plans in place for retirement .............................................................................................. 30
4.1.1 
Saving into a workplace pension ......................................................................... 30
4.1.2 
No provision for retirement .................................................................................. 31
4.2 Inhibitors to retirement planning...................................................................................... 32
4.2.1 
Long-term decisions with long-term consequences ...................................... 32
4.2.2 
The appeal of tangible outcomes ....................................................................... 34
4.2.3 
Rejection of retirement planning ........................................................................ 35
4.2.4 
Inertia ....................................................................................................................... 36
4.2.5 
Likely reactions to automatic enrolment .......................................................... 38
5 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 40
5.1 The process of couples’ decision making ........................................................................ 40
5.2 The respective partner roles in financial decision making ........................................... 40
5.3 The existence of household decision-making typologies ............................................ 40
5.4 The individual character of retirement planning ........................................................... 41
5.5 The difficulty of engaging with pension products ......................................................... 41
5.6 Active rejection of pension saving .................................................................................... 42
5.7 The lifelong influence of inertia on retirement planning ............................................. 42
5.8 Implications of the research findings for automatic enrolment ................................ 42
References ................................................................................................................................................ 43

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