Behavioral routines, financial knowledge, and retirement planning in Vietnam: The complementary role of digital tools

This study examines why some Vietnamese adults plan for retirement while others do not, focusing on the distinct roles of financial knowledge, everyday financial routines, financial attitudes, and digital financial engagement. Existing studies on retirement planning in emerging markets often treat financial literacy as a composite concept and give less attention to whether knowledge, behavior, or digital tools matter most. Using household-level data from the 2019 Vietnam Household Financial Technology Survey, this study shows that routine financial behaviors, especially monitoring financial affairs, comparing products, budgeting, and active saving, are the strongest and most consistent predictors of retirement-planning intention. Financial knowledge remains positively associated with planning, but its effect weakens once behavioral routines are included, suggesting that knowledge partly operates through everyday habits. Instrumental-variable estimates provide additional evidence that financial knowledge matters, although causal claims are interpreted cautiously because identification depends on instrument validity. Fintech engagement has limited direct explanatory power after financial routines are controlled, indicating that digital tools function more as enabling channels than as substitutes for habit formation. The findings contribute to retirement-planning research by shifting attention from a knowledge-first model to a capability-behavior-tools framework. For policy and practice, the results suggest that retirement interventions in emerging economies should combine financial education with habit-building mechanisms and digital features that make regular planning easier.