Financial literacy of pensioners and pre-pensioners: features and the problem of trust (the case of the regions of the Northwestern federal district)

In Russia, activities aimed at improving financial literacy are more focused on young and middle-aged people. The older generation is paid much less attention both in terms of information and educational activities and in the context of scientific research. The purpose of the work is to identify the features of financial literacy of pensioners and pre-retirees that should be taken into account when forming the mechanism of interaction with these socio-demographic groups. The distinctive features of the study are as follows, first, it is the selected object of analysis - the population of pre-retirement age (women aged 50-55 years old, men aged 55-60 years old) and retirees (women over 55 years old, men over 60 years old); second, the author's method of component-wise and index assessment of financial literacy; third, the suggestions for practical application of the identified features. The information base is made up on the basis of the results of a sociological survey of the population of the four NWFD regions, conducted in the fall of 2018. The survey revealed the share of pensioners and pre-retirees managing their family budget, having a reserve fund in case of unforeseen situations, and not experiencing difficulties with paying current accounts is low. The authors identified the problems of understanding the terms of loan agreements and credit obligations, low activity in savings for retirement, and ensuring the security of funds on bank cards. It is shown that the level of these problems manifestation varies depending on age and gender. It is assumed that the mentioned above problems are due to the lack of trust in the majority of financial institutions. The authors propose a mechanism to improve the financial literacy of pensioners and pre-pensioners, which is based, first, on setting the context for trust, and second, on implementing the single window principle on the basis of one institutional unit. In the future, an in-depth analysis of a wide range of financial literacy aspects in various socio-demographic groups through regular monitoring will improve the activities aimed at improving the financial literacy of the population.