The Saving And Investing Consumer Behavior Analyses On The Romanian Financial Market

This article aims to provide an analysis of the saving and investing consumer behavior, that where researched in a time of changes after a severe financial crisis. The analyses purpose was to determine the reasons, or the way that the reasons would change, for buying different financial instruments, and also the way that the consumer perceives investing and saving. Different demographical characteristics and their influence on the financial behavior of the consumers were also studied. The investor behavior on the developed markets is being studied carefully for many years. The need to create financial products for each customer type, such as Generation Y, intensely investigated by various research teams, in different ways, resulting in different characteristics such as general proclivity to the marketing, advertising, consumerism, branding, environmental issues, fashion and even anxiety, begins to be felt also on the Romanian market. So, to better understand the actual degree of knowledge that the consumer have on the concepts of saving and investing and on that activities involved into this concepts is a very important step of the research. The research method is a survey based on a sample chosen with the simple random method undertaken in 2010. There were gathered 480 questionnaires. Research is not a statistical nationwide representative because of the lack of the financial and human capabilities. The developed questionnaire summarized 22 questions, in order to illustrate the way that saving and investing were seen, to see actual investing behavior and to measure the degree of trust given to the most known investing means. We expect that the methods of \"investing\" that are most known and used to be bank deposits because in Romania the risk appetite is a low one. The people’s appetite for saving activities we expect to be motivated by the need for purchasing consumer goods, and eventually buying a car or a house but not the desire to accumulate capital by making real investments such as those in financial assets. An important factor for the decision to invest should be a higher income and also the family structure. Study could be interesting for researchers because it offers an opportunity to view an analysis of the customer behavior on the financial market. The research instrument is complex, the mix and the large number of question should provide an accurate image of the way the Romanian consumer of financial products think and act on this market. The study also helps to understand consumers\' needs for practitioners, because this field is not a largely researched one. The originality of this article is given by the manner in which the questionnaire was made. The battery of questions, including a series of likert question, it should provide an accurate mirror of the know-how the Romanian consumer of financial products actually possess, the reasons on with their behavior is based on, and what are the most important characteristics that influence the purchase behavior.