A Comparative Study of Investment Pattern of Salaried Individual Investors in Western India

Abstract

Investment is an activity of giving available funds for the specific reason to any financial institution with the intention to use it as a capital for creating wealth. Individual s investment decision is related to rational behavior of the investor. Investment objectives and priorities newlinediffer from person to person. Investment tools include shares, mutual funds, fixed deposits, debentures, post office savings, insurance schemes, real estate, gold and silver. Certain investments may be risky and investors do invest as per their risk bearing ability. An individual investor also called as Retail Investor or Small Investor is the one who purchases small amounts of securities for themselves, as opposed to an institutional investor. he term investment portfolio refers to the various assets of an investor which are to be considered as a newlineunit. Portfolio management is a systematic activity to achieve the expected financial goal, according to the decided plan. In our study, the salaried investors in Maharashtra in general belong to middle and higher income group whereas among the salaried investors in Gujarat, the female contribute more proportion in higher income. The salaried investors of Maharashtra community rarely use the non institutional sources. Salaried investors in Maharashtra in general belong to middle and higher size of portfolio. The portfolio structure of salaried investors in Maharashtra shows that bank deposits and gold are the favored destinations of investments. The investment pattern of salaried investors in Gujarat also shows that financial investments are less preferred compared to real sector investment. The mutual fund returns for salaried investors of Maharashtra and Gujarat proved to be attractive newlineboth in nominal and real terms. The most preferred option is Bank deposit for majority of salaried investors of Maharashtra and Gujarat. We conclude from our study that the salaried investors of Gujarat should have a comprehensive financial plan.