Financial Literacy as a Life-Saver: Moderating the Contribution of Behavioral Biases towards Investment Decisions

The assumption of investor rationality had been central to developing an understanding of financial markets and decision outcomes. But the formation and consequent burst of tech-stock bubble changed the paradigm and shifted towards the behavioral interruption aspect of investor psychology. The study aimed to investigate the relationship of two heuristics and one emotional bias with financial decisions and the moderating effect of financial literacy on the said relationship. Primary data is gathered through questionnaire from 208 clients of national savings. Moderation analysis was done and the effect of biases on the financial decisions was found significant enough. Furthermore, financial literacy moderates this relationship positively only for heuristics but no moderation found for selfcontrol. The policymakers can design their financial instruments and strategies by keeping in view the implication of biases on investor’s decision. Moreover, periodic financial literacy sessions can be arranged to create awareness among investors and advisors