Abstract:
The purposes of this quantitative study were to examine saving behavior among people living in Pattaya City, Chon Buri Province and to compare their saving behavior as classified by personal factors, including gender, age, educational level, and status. The subjects participating in this study were 400 people living in the area of Pattaya City who were recruited by a convenient sampling technique. The instrument used to collect the data was a questionnaire. The statistical tests used to analyze the collected data included frequency, percentage, means, standard deviation, t-test, and F-test with a pre-set significant level at .05. The majority of the subjects were employees working for private companies who earned 20,001- 30,000 baht per month. Mostly, they spent monthly no more than 10,000 baht on buying goods necessary for life, giving to their parents or family members-cousins and siblings. Also, regarding the types of savings, it was found that they saved in forms of cash savings, stocks, savings bonds, gold, and jewels. In addition, it was shown that the subjects kept their savings by depositing their money in saving accounts with banks, keeping cash with themselves, or buying life insurance with a stretch payment. Furthermore, it was shown that the subjects kept aside their money in forms of money sharing and loans. The main purposes of their savings included buying assets, spending on emergency cases and in old age, respectively. Based on the results of the analysis of saving behavior, it was shown that the level of savings among the subjects was at a moderate level ( = 1.14). When considering each aspect, saving their money with banks was done by the subjects almost on a monthly basis ( = 2.10). Also, the subjects periodically saved in a form of permanent assets ( = 1.28), and they deposited their money at a regular intervals of months with credit unions ( = 1.12). Furthermore, based on the test of hypotheses, there was no statistically significant difference in the saving behavior among the subjects who had different gender. Finally, a statistically significant difference was found in the saving behavior among the subjects who had different age, educational level, status, occupation, average amount of monthly salary and debt at a significant level of .05.