Do Older Investors Make Better Investment Decisions?
65 Pages Posted: 20 Mar 2006 Last revised: 11 Jul 2009
Date Written: July 1, 2009
Abstract
This paper examines the investment decisions of older individual investors. We find that older and experienced investors are more likely to follow "rules of thumb" that reflect greater investment knowledge. However, older investors are less effective in applying their investment knowledge and exhibit worse investment skill, especially if they are less educated, earn lower income, and belong to minority racial/ethnic groups. Overall, the adverse effects of aging dominate the positive effects of experience. These results indicate that older investors' portfolio decisions reflect greater knowledge about investing but investment skill deteriorates with age due to the adverse effects of cognitive aging.
Keywords: Older individual investors, cognitive aging, investment experience, learning, rules of thumb, investment skill
JEL Classification: D14, G11, J14
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Financial Literacy and Planning: Implications for Retirement Wellbeing
-
Baby Boomer Retirement Security: The Roles of Planning, Financial Literacy, and Housing Wealth
-
Baby Boomer Retirement Security: The Roles of Planning, Financial Literacy, and Housing Wealth
-
Implications for Retirement Wellbeing of Financial Literacy and Planning
-
Wealth Accumulation and the Propensity to Plan
By John Ameriks, Andrew Caplin, ...
-
Financial Literacy and Stock Market Participation
By Maarten van Rooij, Annamaria Lusardi, ...
-
Financial Literacy and Stock Market Participation
By Maarten van Rooij, Annamaria Lusardi, ...
-
Financial Literacy and Stock Market Participation
By Maarten van Rooij, Annamaria Lusardi, ...