How well older households manage their wealth holdings is an important determinant of their financial security during retirement, yet little is known about their financial decision-making and how this relates to their financial literacy. Our paper fills this gap by measuring financial literacy among older persons in the Singapore Life Panel and examining its association with timely credit card debt repayment, stock market participation, and age-based investment risk diversification. Most older respondents understand interest compounding and inflation, but fewer than half know about risk diversification. Almost all older credit card holders pay off their balances in a timely manner, but only 40% hold stocks; fewer than 18% with $1000+ in assets hold portfolios consistent with age-appropriate investment glide paths. We further show that a one-unit higher financial literacy score is associated with a greater propensity to timely pay off credit card balances (1.5 ppts), to hold stock (8.3 ppts), and to follow an age-appropriate investment glide path (1.7 ppts).

老年家庭如何管理自己的财富，是退休期间其财务安全的重要决定因素，但对其财务决策及其与财务素养的关系知之甚少。本文通过测量新加坡人寿保险委员会中老年人的金融知识并通过及时偿还信用卡债务，股票市场参与以及基于年龄的投资风险分散来检查其关联性，从而填补了这一空白。大多数年长的受访者都了解利息的增加和通货膨胀，但不到一半的人知道风险分散。几乎所有年龄较大的信用卡持有人都能及时偿还其余额，但只有40％的人持有股票。资产不足$ 1000 +的投资组合中，不到18％的投资组合与适合年龄的投资下滑路径一致。