FINANCIAL LITERACY AND ITS EFFECT ON PREFERENCE OF INVESTMENT AVENUES: A STUDY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

The current era backed by globalization and other several market reforms, has led to the introduction of numerous financial products at both public and private platforms. As a result, it has led to the necessity on the part of the people to understand the basics of them in order to make their investment fruitful. This brings the necessity of financial literacy, that can be understood to imply the possession of such knowledge and skills which make an individual take his/her investment decisions effectively and in a smarter way. Knowledge of personal financial management and all other basic skills to do so are usually considered to build the base of establishing financial literacy. However, what is more important is to understand the relationship that exists in between financial literacy and actual financial preference. Current study is based on the respondents pursuing their studies in the commerce stream. This study is an attempt to examine the relationship between financial knowledge, an important dimension of financial literacy and preference of investment alternatives. Further, this study seeks to understand the effect of gender upon investment avenue selection preferences of the college students.