© 2020 JETIR May 2020, Volume 7, Issue 5 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
JETIR2005288 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 1104
Financial Literacy and Investment Behaviour : A
Study on the Working Age Population of India
Deepika Mehra, Dr. Kavita Indapurkar,
Student, Professor
Amity School of Economics
Amity University, Noida Uttar Pradesh, India.
Abstract : Financial literacy means the knowledge and the efficient skills required for a person to make effectual and well-informed
decisions regarding his personal finance. With the increasing number of new age financial products people sometimes it becomes
difficult for a layman to assess and effectively understand the risks and returns associated with different types of instruments.
Therefore, it is necessary for an individual to choose a well suited financial products by assessing its pros and cons. The paper seeks
to assess and show the level of financial literacy and knowledge among the working age population of Delhi. This study also aims
to find out whether there is a significant relationship between financial literacy and individual’s behavior towards investme nt in
various products.
Keywords: Financial Literacy, Financial Products, Awareness, Investment Behavior, Stock Market Participation.
1. Introduction
The importance of Financial knowledge and literacy lies in the sense that it helps an individual to have basic
knowledge of financial terms both basic and sophisticated and thus apply this knowledge in making effective
and informed decisions about the personal finance. A well-informed investment decision ensures good returns
in the future. Studies have recorded that individuals with remarkably lower levels of financial literacy face
problems in financial planning for self and family, i.e issues such as savings, borrowings & lending, inflation,
time to money value, interest rate etc. which are essential for choosing well suited financial products.
Overtime the Indian financial system has changed considerably as it has become more organized and complex.
Indian financial system now possess complex and sophisticated financial products and it can sometimes prove
to be a hindrance for a common man in assessing the risk linked with these new aged financial products. It
shows that individuals and households and can make well informed decisions ensuring their long term
wellbeing through higher and steady returns.
Behavior of an individual towards investment is usually the skills required to make right decisions while
choosing a financial product or a mix of financial products. It has been observed from studies that investment
always plays an important role in one’s lie no matter of their sex, age, religion etc. since human differs in
actions , same goes for the perception about investing their money. Different people have different wants and
have different motives for their investments. People today can make a lot of choices of where to invest and
how much to invest depending upon the different financial products today available in in the Indian and
international financial markets.
So, now the questions arise as to what is the significance of the concept of financial literacy in India? In India
or for that matter mostly people invest in plans that are short term in nature or buy assets in order fulfill their
goals. However, these investments ends up giving them meager returns and therefore less benefits. In India
according to a global survey, about 76% of the total population does not have basic financial knowledge i.e
non understanding of basic financial concepts. It has been observed that the overall financial literacy score is
much less than the rest of the world and this trend is more or less consistent. However this can hamper the
growth rate of an emerging country like India if people do not channelize there savings adequately.