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The Gap Between Knowing and Doing
A familiar conversation plays out in countless Indian households.
“I should start investing.”
“After the appraisal.”
“After the wedding.”
1 October 2026
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“Once things settle down.”
Except things rarely quite settle down. Investing keeps getting postponed. And one of the most expensive words in personal finance turns out to be a simple one: later.
India’s challenge is not awareness alone. It is converting awareness into action.
The SEBI Investor Survey 2025, covering more than 90,000 households across 400 cities and 1,000 villages, found that 63% of Indian households, approximately 213 million, are aware of at least one securities-market product. They know mutual funds exist. They have heard of SIPs. They broadly understand that investing matters.
Yet only 9.5% of Indian households, approximately 3.21 crore, invest in the securities market.
That gap between awareness and participation is striking. Part of it can be explained by procrastination: waiting for more money, greater certainty or simply a better time to begin.
Too Many Choices, Too Little Action
Behavioural science helps explain why people delay decisions that are clearly in their long-term interest.
One reason is procrastination bias: the tendency to postpone actions that involve effort or discomfort today, even when they may deliver benefits later. Investing requires decisions, paperwork and, importantly, a willingness to deal with uncertainty. Putting it off is easier.
Then there is choice overload.
Psychologist Barry Schwartz explored this in The Paradox of Choice. As the number of options increases, choosing can become harder rather than easier. Faced with too many alternatives, people may delay the decision or avoid making one altogether.
That matters in investing.
India’s mutual fund industry offers hundreds of schemes across numerous categories. For an experienced investor, that provides choice. For someone investing for the first time, it can also create confusion.
The SEBI Investor Survey 2025 found that 74% of non-investors cited product complexity and information gaps as barriers to investing.
More choice, in other words, does not automatically make the first decision easier.
When Research Becomes Delay
A February 2026 working paper from the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Psychological Biases in India’s Retail Mutual Fund Segment, examined behavioural biases among retail mutual fund investors.
Among the biases it identified was regret aversion: the fear of making a decision that one might later regret.
That fear can show up in very ordinary ways.
“I’m still researching.”
“I want to understand it better first.”
“The market looks too high.”
Sometimes these are perfectly valid concerns. But sometimes research becomes a way of postponing the decision itself.
The search for the perfect fund, perfect entry point or perfect level of certainty can end up delaying a perfectly reasonable first step.
What Delay Actually Costs
Delay has one cost that cannot be reversed: lost time.
Consider two investors who invest the same monthly amount but begin ten years apart. The investor who starts earlier gives each contribution more time to potentially compound.
The eventual outcome will, of course, depend on actual investment returns. Those cannot be predicted or guaranteed. But the underlying principle is simple: an investor can neither manufacture additional years later nor recover time already lost.
Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Returns are not guaranteed and will vary with market conditions. This illustration is for investor education only and is not a return projection.
There is another encouraging side to the story.
The Bain & Company How India Invests 2025 report found that salaried investors showed a relatively high allocation to mutual funds, particularly through SIPs. Separately, the Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund Passive Investors Survey 2025 reported that 85% of passive-fund investors surveyed intended to remain invested for more than three years.
The implication is worth noting: once investing becomes a habit, continuing it may be easier than taking that first step.
The Intention-Action Gap
The SEBI survey offers another revealing number.
Among non-investors who were aware of securities-market products, 22% said they intended to invest within the following year.
They have crossed the awareness barrier. They have even formed the intention.
What remains is action.
This space between intending to do something and actually doing it is where procrastination thrives. Every month spent waiting is another month in which money has less time to work.
The challenge, therefore, is not necessarily to know everything before beginning.
It is to know enough to begin sensibly.
What Investors Can Do
Do not wait for the perfect moment. Markets rarely provide an unmistakable signal that it is time to begin.
Start at a manageable level. A modest investment that actually begins can be more useful than an elaborate plan that remains on paper.
Reduce the number of decisions. Trying to compare every available product can make the first step unnecessarily difficult.
Remember that the first decision need not be the final one. Investment amounts and portfolios can be reviewed as circumstances, goals and understanding change.
Seek help where needed. An appropriately registered investment professional or AMFI-registered mutual fund distributor can help investors understand products and make more informed decisions.
The objective is not to eliminate every doubt before investing.
It is to prevent the search for certainty from becoming a reason to do nothing.
Sources
Securities and Exchange Board of India (2026), Investor Survey 2025 – Main Report, January 2026, Key Findings 1 and 2 and Chapter 4.
Schwartz, Barry (2004), The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, Harper Perennial, Chapter 2, pp. 19–41.
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (2026), Psychological Biases in India’s Retail Mutual Fund Segment, Working Paper IIMK/WPS/673/FIN/2026/01, February 2026.
Bain & Company (2025), How India Invests 2025, December 2025.
Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund (2025), Passive Investors Survey 2025, October 2025.
NJ INDIA INVEST PRIVATE LIMITED
AMFI REGISTERED MUTUAL FUND DISTRIBUTOR & SIF DISTRIBUTOR (ARN 0155)
Disclaimer: This is partner content published as part of Outlook Money’s association with NJ Wealth. The views expressed are those of the author. This article is for investor education and does not constitute investment advice. Securities-market investments are subject to market risks. Read all relevant documents carefully and consult an appropriately registered financial professional where required.
Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.
