Abstract:
Personal financial management behaviour is considered one of the key concepts on the financial discipline. The present
study is aimed to identify the factors affecting to the personal financial management behaviour of lower income people.
There are four variables used in this study namely, financial knowledge, financial attitude and external locus of control
(independent variable) and personal financial management behaviour (dependent variable). The primary data were
collected through structured questionnaire from 360 lower income people located in Manmunai North Division of
Batticaloa. The collected data was analysed by using univariate and regression analysis. Based on the finding of the
study, it concludes that there is a low level of financial knowledge and financial attitude and high level of external locus
of control. On other hand, level of personal financial management behaviour among lower income people indicates the
lower level. Factors such as financial knowledge and financial attitude have significant and positive effect on lower
income peoples’ personal financial management behaviour while, external locus of control significantly and negatively
affect personal financial management behaviour of lower income people in Manmunai North Divisional Secretariat Area
