Aging is a global issue affecting countries including Malaysia. From an economic perspective, the government
encourages elderly to be financially independent for as long as possible. To what extent the elderly is financially
dependent is well documented but only few studies focus on an ethnic disparity perspective. This paper aims to
identify the predictors of financial dependency among older Malaysians from the three ethnic groups. Data from
an area study in Malaysia involving 806 older persons who participated in face-to-face interviews was used.
Results showed that more than half of the respondents are financially independent while 44% depends on their
children, sons or daughters in law, friends, neighbors or government financial assistance. Age and employment
status were significant predictors of financial independence across all ethnic models. The study showed that there
are different predictors of financial dependency by ethnic group and the result calls for different intervention
strategies for the various ethnic elderly in achieving financial independence in old age.