1.

INTRODUCTION

Personal finance is the application of the principles of finance to the monetary decisions of an
individual of family unit. It addresses the ways in which individuals or families obtain, budget,
save and spend monetary resources over time, taking into account various financial risks and
future life events. Components of personal finance might include checking and savings accounts,
credit cards and consumer loans, investments in the stock market, retirement plans, social
security benefits, insurance policies and income tax management. Financial planning (FP) is the
process of meeting one’s life’s goals, through prudent management of finances. It provides
direction and meaning of financial decisions. It allows one to understand how each financial
decision made affects other areas of his finances. By viewing each financial decision as part of
whole, he can consider its short and long term effects on his life’s goals.

Financial Planning contrasts sharply with the individual need driven approach of investment
planning as it takes into account the needs of the individual as well as the family. Financial
Planning would ordain that even before one begins considering how and where to invest his
money, it is important to identify and prioritize the wealth accumulation goals.

Successful investing does not mean sourcing the highest possible return but means placing
money with investments that satisfy one’s needs. Investors and their advisors spend much time
understanding the merits of the investment avenues available. Little time is spent understanding
the needs of each person and ensuring that the most appropriate investments are selected.

7.1 Problem Statement: seeing the growing disposable income of people and their awareness
towards future planning it becomes a tough job for the banks to know what are the preferred
areas of investment and also how and what value proposition should be highlighted to attract the
customers. Hence, the study has been undertaken to satisfy objectives as stated in section 7.2.

7.2 Objectives
1. Analyze and compare various investment options available to any investor.

2. Analyze customer behavior, while choosing the right investments.

8. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Indian Institute of Capital Markets 9th Capital Markets Conference Paper (2003):
Consumer behavior from the marketing world and financial economics has brought
together to the surface an exciting area for study and research: behavioral finance. The
realization that this is a serious subject is, however, barely dawning. Analysts seem to treat
financial markets as an aggregate of statistical observations, technical and fundamental
analysis. A rich view of research waits this sophisticated understanding of how financial
markets are also affected by the 'financial behavior' of investors. With the reforms of
industrial policy, public sector, financial sector and the many developments in the Indian
money market and capital market, Mutual Funds which has become an important portal for
the small investors, is also influenced by their financial behavior. Hence, this study has
made an attempt to examine the related aspects of the fund selection behavior of individual
investors towards Mutual funds, in the city of Mumbai. From the researchers and
academicians point of view, such a study will help in developing and expanding
knowledge in this field.

Money and Finance (2005): Managing personal finance adeptly is the key to secure a bright
future for your family. India, being a rapidly developing nation, is now open to the global market
when it comes to investing money for the growth of business. Leading global players are
featuring in the Indian economic scenario to capitalize on the huge demand for various products
and commodities. Hence, the scope for doing the business that really means is also increasing by
leaps and bounce. Personal finance management has assumed all the more relevance at present
market situation.
P. Hanumantha Raoand Vijay Kr. Mishra, (2007): The success story of any economy can
only be scripted on the basis of sound financial system of the country. Economic reform process
of 1991 had a great impact on the financial system of the country leading to the overall
development of the Indian economy. Today, India’s financial system is considered to be sound
and stable as compared to many other Asian countries where the financial market is facing many
crises. During last one decade or so, role of Indian mutual funds industry as a significant
financial service in financial market has really been noteworthy. In fact, Mutual funds have
emerged as an important segment of financial market of India, especially as a result of the
initiatives taken by the Govt. of India for resolving problems relating to UTI’s US-64 and to
liberalize tax liabilities on the incomes earned by the mutual funds. They now play a very
significant role in channelizing the saving of millions of individuals into the investment in equity
and debt instruments. This paper aims at making a critical study of the role performed by mutual
funds as a financial service in Indian financial market.

Personal Finance Management Beyond PFM Lite: How to Create the Next Generation of
Consumer Money Management (2007): The economic crisis has accentuated consumers'
hunger for effective money-management tools. Web startups such as Mint, Geezeo and
Wesabe have raised consumer expectations, vividly demonstrating how practical and simple
such tools can be for monitoring and analyzing one’s finances. But banks and credit unions
still hold the fundamental advantage of being able to pair such tools with the unmatched
ability to conduct transactions in a trusted environment. Included are a product roadmap and
detailed feature comparison and ranking of seven online-banking vendors: Digital Insight,
Fiserv, Jwaala, Harland Financial Solutions, Metavante, S1 and Yodlee. Part one of a two-
part series, this report will be followed with a second report highlighting the consumer
attitudes and behaviors.
 9. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

9.1 Research Design

The Descriptive research will be conducted with an objective analyze various options present
and analyze the consumer behavior.

9.2 Area of Study

This study will be conducted at Haldwani (Uttarakhand) as the city is developing with a very fast
pace and same is the proportion of wealth and awareness of people there, thus it becomes very
important for the people to know how to manage their wealth properly and for financial
institutions to know the interests of people and plan their strategies accordingly.

9.3 Data Source

The data required for the attainment of objectives will be collected through secondary and
primary data source.

a) Secondary data source: Secondary data will be collected from the reports provided by the
banks, stock exchanges, government, magazines and internet.

b) Primary data source: Primary data related to this study will be collected from the
customers with the help of self developed questionnaire.

9.4 Sampling Plan

9.4.1 Sampling Unit: Sampling unit will be service and business class people of various age
groups.

9.4.2 Sampling Technique: Simple random sampling technique will be used to analyze
consumer behavior as it gives each element an equal probability of getting into sample and
choices are independent of one another. The chances of biasness thus minimize.
9.5 Research Instrument

Information will be collected with the help of self developed, pre tested questionnaire.

9.6 Data Analysis

The primary data assimilated is then analyzed through the employment of frequency charts, pie
charts, bar graphs. Secondary analysis is done through cross tabulation.

9.7 Duration of Study

Duration of study will be from March 6 to April 30, 2010.

10. REFERENCES

Rao, P. Hanumantha and Vijay Kr. Mishra, (2007), Mutual Fund: A Resource Mobilizer In
Financial Market, Journal of Commerce, 12.

Pandey, I.M.,(2004), "Working Capital Management", Financial Management, New Delhi,

Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.

Anonymous, (2009), Personal Finance Management beyond PFM Lite: How to Create the Next
Generation of Consumer Money Management, Javelin Strategy & Research.

Mihir, Rakshit, (2005), "Personal finance under the emerging economic environment", Money
and Finance, 26-29(2).

www.personalfinance101.com as retrieved on February 13th, 2010.

www.mutualfundsresource.com as retrieved on February 23th, 2010.