A Study of Factors affecting the Investment pattern of Individuals with special reference to Investors in Belagavi City

Investment behaviour is shaped as much by circumstance and psychology as by pure financial calculation, and this study set out to understand how a group of individual investors in Belagavi actually go about deciding where to invest their money. A structured questionnaire was administered to 107 respondents who are either active investors or otherwise participate in financial markets, covering their demographic background, the instruments they currently hold, and psychological drivers such as risk tolerance, loss aversion, and reliance on advice. Chi-square tests were used to check whether age, income, and educational qualification are associated with an investor's self-reported knowledge of different financial instruments. The results describe a fairly young, moderately risk-averse investor base that still leans heavily on Fixed Deposits even as interest in equity and mutual funds grows, and one that mostly prefers taking advice over deciding on its own. Age, income, and qualification were each found to be significantly associated with investor knowledge of specific instruments, which suggests that financial literacy is unevenly spread across this population and that more targeted investor education could meaningfully improve decision-making.