Beliefs and Financial Behavior Analysis in Mexican Context

Governments and financial institutions have been concerned about education regarding financial education and promoting the inclusion of all socioeconomic levels. In Mexico, a national survey (2015) found that 63.4% of people do not keep a record of their expenses and of the people who carry it, 63.8% carry it mentally, this exposes the need to analyze the phenomenon to contribute to the health and welfare of workers in a sustainable manner. The lack of financial education and interest in it not only by institutions but also individuals, coupled with uncertainty and precariousness in current wages, underemployment, lack of retirement plans and savings in young people who are not candidates for a pension, are manifest elements of the need to develop skills and competencies in the management of personal finances is a pressing need before the time according to these young people with the lack of a plan in their old age. Kahneman (2003) and Ariely (2015, 2016) indicate that economic behavior is not limited to being rational and that this can be explained through psychological perspectives, as can be seen in their contributions in decision-making that refer to a uncertain context where people act with information biases through heuristics. We proceeded to carry out an investigation with 200 volunteer participants, in which the beliefs about money and its management were explored, the behaviors identified as productive and risk behaviors, as well as the financial organization patterns of the individuals. It was identified that the main factor that is related to risk behaviors is reputation, in the case of indebtedness, the prejudice and resistance to talk about money and the lack of savings with the tendency towards immediate satisfaction and difficulties for postpone the reward.