In the context of uncertain financial and economic situation in Russia, the question of financial sustainability and the ability of households to adapt to new challenges is becoming increasingly acute. The purpose of this paper is to present a typology of savers identified by the method of cluster analysis based on the results of a quantitative survey of the Russian population (n = 2,600, marginal sampling error +/-2 p.p.). The main hypothesis of the article is that respondents, whose savings model is focused on priority accumulation, in their pursuit of higher levels of material well-being will achieve it at a faster pace compared to those who adhere to models with priority consumption; the latter will be forced to “tread on the ground”. We identified five models of savers: two of them are characterized by the attitude to saving on the residual principle (“carefree consumers” and “conscious consumers” – 26 and 22% respectively), two are characterized by an emphasis on priority saving (“target savers” and “rational savers” – 21 and 15% respectively), one is an intermediate model, whose representatives, depending on the situation, “maneuver” between consumption and saving, while benefiting themselves (“spontaneous savers” – 15%). We found that the basic conditions of savings models, especially of the “rational saver” model, are a high level of financial status and partly a high level of education, while socio-demographic characteristics – gender, age, experience of cohabitation, presence of children – can be called indirect conditions that contribute to a more conscious treatment of income due to the accumulation of life experience. We conclude that the respondent’s choice of one or another savings model (as a set of attitudes and rules of handling income) is probably conditioned by a deeper factor, namely, financial and economic culture, transmitted from the older to the younger generation and under the influence of the example of reference groups
Keywords
income, savings, financial behavior, financial literacy, patterns of saving behavior.