Abstract Population ageing and rising longevity pose profound challenges for sustaining financial security in later life. Within this context, self-employed workers often fail to undertake appropriate action in financial planning for retirement, posing significant risks to their long-term well-being. This issue is particularly pressing given the sizable proportion of self-employed workers in many countries. Neglecting to act may lead to heightened economic vulnerability and older-age poverty. Accordingly, policy attention to ageing workforces’ financial needs is growing. This research’s primary aim is to investigate the role of psychological factors in financial planning for retirement among self-employed workers. Additionally, we compare factors with those of employed counterparts to determine whether pathways to financial security in old age differ between groups. This study incorporates two exploratory surveys, involving British ( N = 407) and Dutch ( N = 411) samples, and a follow-up confirmatory survey with British participants ( N = 395). Respondents answered questions on financial planning for retirement and psychological predictors, including retirement self-efficacy, future time perspective, attitude toward retirement, and financial inertia. Multigroup path analysis consistently showed across all samples a positive association between retirement self-efficacy and engagement in financial planning for retirement. Despite structural differences in employment and pension systems, we observed only minor group differences, suggesting that planning involves similar psychological processes across employment types and contexts. These findings contribute to debates in social gerontology and ageing research and may inform more inclusive retirement policies and financial education strategies for ageing populations.
Shabrina et al. (Mon,) studied this question.