The increasing number of individual bankruptcy among youth under 35 years old has becoming a trend in Malaysia. Youth in Malaysia has experienced financial stress at the early stage of their life. Many of them were living beyond their means, trapped with emotional spending, impulse buying and “buy-now-pay-later” behaviour. Their reckless spending habits and relax attitude towards debts has contribute towards the increasing number of non-performing loan and failure to repay their credit card debts. The lack of financial literacy among youth has also contributed to poor financial management and they tend to accumulating debts faster than their income. Failure to settle off their debts and lack of financial literacy has caused many youth in Malaysia to be declared bankrupt at young age. The purpose of this study is to examine the perception of working youth in Selangor towards the factors contributing to individual bankruptcy. This study uses 211 respondents of youth who aged between 23 years old to 40 years old who work in Selangor. This research was based on the data obtained from survey questionnaires. The data was analysed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The result shows that credit card debts, non-performing loan and financial literacy have contributed to individual bankruptcy among working youth in Selangor. The findings of this study also reveal that the financial literacy was the main contributing factor towards individual bankruptcy. Implications on this study will enlighten and contribute to positive social exchange between many parties including the youth, the government and its agencies and the financial institutions regarding strategies that can be used to reduce the individual bankruptcy cases among youth in Malaysia.
