Understanding Financial Literacy and Retirement Preparedness: Examining the Mediating Effect of Staff Retirement Attitude in Ugandan Public Universities

Abstract

Pre-retirement preparation plays a key role in ensuring post-retirement sustainability. It lays a foundation for financial independence, financial protection, and reduced anxiety. This study aimed to investigate the impact of financial literacy on retirement preparedness and whether retirement attitude mediates this relationship among academicians in Ugandan public universities. The study employed an analytical cross-sectional research design. Data were collected from 298 academic staff members from selected public universities in Uganda using a structured questionnaire and analysed using SmartPLS- Structural Equation Modelling software to test our hypotheses. The findings indicate that financial knowledge and financial behaviour are key determinants of retirement preparedness, while financial skills have no significant direct impact. Retirement attitude partially mediates this relationship. These results show that behavioural and perceptual aspects of financial literacy are major predictors of retirement preparedness, casting doubt on the generalisation of retirement attitude as a psychological mechanism of influence. Ugandan Public universities should develop and implement retirement planning interventions, provide financial counselling, and behavioural strategies as necessary policies to limit early pension savings withdrawals and strengthen a long-term saving culture. This work builds on the literature on retirement planning by supplying the first empirical evidence in the context of a low-income country, particularly in the under-researched academic sector of Uganda. It further contributes to the theoretical dialogue by analysing the mediating effects of retirement attitude in rigid structural conditions.