From Defensive Budgeting to Capital Preservation: Financial Management Practices among School Employees

This present study investigated the financial management practices of employees at Eastern Visayas State University-Ormoc Campus, Ormoc City. It assessed how their socio-demographic characteristics influenced their spending, borrowing, saving, and investing practices. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional research design; structured questionnaires were used to collect data, and descriptive statistics, including mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's r, were used for analysis. The results revealed a fairly youthful workforce with low starting salaries, with 83.8% of the employees relying exclusively on their salaries. The results also showed that while employees made comparatively fewer investments (M = 2.72), they exhibited wise spending (M = 3.37) and saving (M = 3.36) practices through disciplined, defensive budgeting and price consciousness. In addition, they have shown an extreme aversion to debt (M = 1.77), strictly avoiding any credit networks and predatory lending sources, and used professional development and postgraduate education as investment tools (M = 3.85), instead of using the traditional financial market. Further, results revealed that married employees (p = .047) invest significantly more than their single counterparts, and those with a variety of sources saved (p = .040) and invested (p = .001) more than those with a fixed salary.   Similarly, age (p = .050) significantly influenced borrowing, while civil status (p = .047) and number of children (p = .045) significantly influenced investing attitudes.  In conclusion, despite their excellent financial management,  employees tend to be defensive when it comes to saving money because they have few sources of income; it is highly advised that they reorganize to have a variety of revenue streams.

Financial Management, Employees, Socio-Demographic Profile, Income Diversification, Debt Aversion, Capital Preservation.

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