The need for individuals to increase retirement savings has been widely promoted, yet our understanding of the motivations of individuals to save at a higher rate remains sparse. This paper reports the findings of a survey of 2300 retirement savings fund members and their motivations to contribute more to savings and to actively manage their investment strategy. Utilising the theory of planned behaviour, the study reveals respondent's self-reported attitudes, subjective norms and perceptions of behavioural control account for a high proportion of the variance in behavioural intention.Contrary to expectations, the study finds that respondent's risk tolerance adds little to the prediction of behavioural intention. By contrast, perceptions of planning importance and self-assessed planning preparedness (domain knowledge) are found to exert powerful indirect influences on behavioural intentions via the perceived behavioural control construct. This novel finding confirms the relevance of planning constructs and financial literacy to an understanding of retirement savings behaviour, and establishes a need to improve levels of financial literacy in society.

Consistent with the global trend to shift responsibility for retirement income provision from the public purse to individuals has been encouragement to save more and to manage investment strategy. Analyzing data from 2,300 respondents to a randomly distributed questionnaire, this article focuses on the motivational importance of social norms. The study finds injunctive social norms (what is commonly approved or disapproved of) exert greater influence than descriptive social norms (what is commonly done) in predicting retirement savings intentions. Modeling employs the theory of planned behavior, and also finds injunctive social norm has predictive primacy over attitude and perceived behavioral control. Discussion advocates a balanced approach to intervention design, and identifies opportunities for the further study of normative message framing.

The need for Australians to increase retirement savings has been widely promoted. Yet, our understanding of the motivations of individuals to save at a higher rate remains sparse. This paper reports the findings of a survey of superannuation fund members and their motivations to contribute more to superannuation and to investment strategy. The paper uses the theory of planned behaviour to focus on the important motivational influence of social norms. The study finds that spouses appear to be the primary source of social influence for retirement savings decisions. The government and employers appear to exert little influence, and financial advisors and superannuation funds take up the middle ground of social influence. Possibilities for interventions designed to influence behaviour are discussed and opportunities for further study are proposed.

A recent global trend has been the shifting of responsibility for retirement income planning from the public purse to individuals, with an associated encouragement to contribute more to retirement savings. This research investigated the influence of anticipated regret on the intention to make extra voluntary retirement savings. Results revealed that anticipated regret plays a powerful affective role in the formation of behavioural intention by conveying the influence of attitude and subjective norm to intention. Implications of the results with respect to possible interventions relating to behaviour change are considered

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