A Cetelem study reveals that 14% of Portuguese people do not know how much they earn per month and 15% do not know the value of their fixed monthly expenses. Percentages higher than last year (11% and 13%, respectively).
According to the same study, more consumers know exactly the monthly income (46%) than the fixed monthly expenses (35%). The study also reveals that for a fifth of the Portuguese, fixed expenses weigh more than 50% of their monthly budget.
Asked about their monthly income and expenses, there is still a large part of Portuguese consumers claiming to know the values, but not exactly. A total of 40% of respondents admit knowing only approximately how much they earn and 50% say they do not know exactly the amount of their fixed expenses.
This same study also reveals that almost half of the Portuguese (45%) spend between 25% and 50% of their monthly budget on payment of fixed expenses and a significant percentage (18%) spend between 50% and 75%.
Compared to 2014, it appears that the percentage of individuals who spend more than 75% decreased significantly, having gone from 15% to 3%. The group of consumers who spend less than 25% of their budget on expenses has expanded slightly, from 10% to 12%.
Diogo Lopes Pereira, Cetelem's marketing director, says that «with this study, we tried to understand the level of knowledge that the Portuguese have about their budget and how they manage it. In our view, good budget management is one of the biggest daily responsibilities of every family, but this is only possible if you know exactly the monthly amount of income and expenses».
The Cetelem study on Financial Literacy was carried out between the 12th and 17th of February in collaboration with Nielsen, through 500 telephone interviews with Portuguese men and women, aged between 18 and 65 years old, residing in Portugal. The maximum error is +4.4 for a 95% confidence interval.
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