Study on determining the financial literacy level of university students: East Black Sea sample

Because of financial crisis, individuals deal with economic problems as a result of the complicated state of financial markets, development of internet technologies, launching new financial tools into the market and facing conflict of interests in global countries. At this point the need for protecting the financial consumer and investors emerges. The protection of financial consumer and investor from financial market risks is possible with adopting financial literacy. Financial literacy is defined as possessing sufficient amount of information in financial issues and displaying financial attitudes and behaviors in the light of this information. This study focuses on examining the relationship between demographic features of university students in East Black Sea Region and their level of financial literacy, and also testing the financial literacy level of students acting in accordance with monthly budget, using credit cards and retrenching regularly. Within this context, 1240 students participated in the survey. According to the findings of the study; males in terms of gender, married people in terms of marital status, students studying in faculty of economics and administrative sciences in terms of the departments they are enrolled in, elder people in terms of age and final year students have a higher level of financial literacy. Furthermore, as old age, educational level and income increase, financial literacy increases. Individuals that act in accordance with the budget they make and retrench regularly is advantageous in terms of financial literacy level. However, generally participants have a low of level of financial literacy.