18 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 3.1 Overview The purpose of this chapter would be an in-depth description and justification of quantitative research applied to investigate the impact of financial literacy on consumer financial decisions in Indonesia. Because of the complicated and diverse financial behaviors in Indonesia, a structured strategy is important to assess the influence of financial literacy across various consumer segments. The quantitative method is used to validate previous hypotheses from previous chapters and aims to generate concrete data that reflects current real-world scenarios faced by Indonesian consumers and the government. A quantitative approach is used to evaluate the effects of financial literacy on financial behavior among Indonesian citizens. Quantitative research is essential for identifying and understanding patterns in a large data set and is used for statistical validation (Cottrell, 2016). The research design is created to capture a broad scope of financial behaviors that are influenced by a wide variety of levels of financial literacy. It includes a survey that measures financial knowledge and behaviors to make sure that the data collected is solid and could reflect the current state of the economy in Indonesia. 3.2 Data Collection The main data collection method for this research is a structured questionnaire that is designed to measure financial literacy, financial behavior, materialistic attitudes, and impulse buying behavior. The questionnaire includes multiple-choice questions, and demographic questions to make sure the reliability of the data. The questionnaire will be based on previous chapter hypotheses: o H1: Questions about financial literacy and financial behavior to test whether higher financial literacy is relevant to better financial behavior among Indonesian consumers. o H2: Questions about materialistic attitudes to test whether higher financial literacy does not affect materialistic attitudes o H3: Questions about impulse buying behavior to explore whether higher financial literacy does not affect impulse buying behavior 19 o H4: Demographic questions (age, gender, education level, occupation, and income) to test how these factors are can affect financial literacy and behavior. The data collected from Google Forms are further statistically analyzed, which will help in tackling the major research questions. Following the data collection by Google Forms, data preparation takes place in advance so that the data can be made ready and fit for analysis, and the precision and clarity of the statistics can be well maintained. 3.3 Data Analysis 3.3.1 Data Preparation Data preparation is the most important step in the analyzing process, ensuring that the data is proper for analysis and that the results are valid and reliable. This subsection describes the procedures that the data collected from the questionnaire will go through. Regression analysis helps to quantify the impact of various independent variables on a dependent variable, providing a clear understanding of these relationships (Yulianto, 2023). 1. Data Cleaning ● Data entry errors The data from the questionnaire will be reviewed for abnormalities or errors in the input. Any inconsistencies will be identified with a thorough check across the data. Since the respondents are filling out a Google Forms questionnaire, it would be unlikely to have an inconsistency because Google Forms have an option for a question to be required for respondents to answer. 2. Data Transformation ● Classifying data into variable Some questions in the questionnaire are still answered in categorical data which must be transformed into numerical format to be proper for the statistical analysis. For example, answers to educational level, and occupation will be transformed into a numeric scale. The data will be classified into 2 groups, one being dependent and independent. Dependent variables will consist of financial behavior and materialistic 20 attitudes.