Summary

The October 1994 MacroMonitor Marketing Report illustrated the correlation between changes in life stages and changes in financial needs. We examined financial initiation activity—that is, incidence of obtaining financial products and services—that occurred at approximately the same time that the households made the life-stage transition. We thus gained an understanding of how financial needs change as households transition into a new life stage.

This month's analysis widens the scope of MacroMonitor's retail financial needs paradigm. By analyzing the incidence of ownership of representative financial products and services, we gain a perspective on the level of penetration of financial needs at different life stages. By comparing the incidence of ownership throughout the life stage with the level of initiation of financial activities during the transitional period, we also gain a perspective on how levels of financial needs vary as households move through the life stages.