University students’ attitudes towards investing: A comparison between the United Kingdom and Finland

This dissertation is investigating the attitudes of university students towards investing. The objective is to form a better understanding of what students think about investing, what is their risk tolerance and what has affected their investing attitudes. In addition, comparing the findings of the research to the literature on the subject. The theoretical part concentrates on risk and return and on the most common investment classes available for students. It also explains investment behaviour by introducing behavioural finance and considers what earlier studies have said about investing and attitudes towards it. The earlier studies have been focusing more on households and young adults and specifically students have been left with limited attention. The data was gathered by close format online questionnaire where a total of 87 responses were gathered from the two countries. The quantitative research was then analysed and interpreted. The results suggest that less than half of the students invest but their attitude towards investing is quite positive. The risk tolerance is leaning towards risk averse rather than risk seeking and most of the students have been encouraged to invest