FAQ'S

Savings are short-term and are used for emergencies and purchases, and can be done without much research. Investments are made to achieve bigger goals like building wealth, funding education, buying a house, etc. They often require long-term commitments and market research.

Investing is an effective way to put your money to work and potentially build wealth. Smart investing may allow your money to outpace inflation and increase in value. The greater growth potential of investing is primarily due to the power of compounding and the risk-return tradeoff.

It's recommended to start investing money once you have at least $500 in emergency savings, paid off high-interest debt, have a topped-up emergency fund, and if you don't anticipate needing a lot of cash in the next few years, you may consider investing more.

One budgeting model many experts recommend is the 50-30-20 rule—putting 50 percent of your budget toward needs, 30 percent toward wants and 20 percent toward saving and investing for future needs and goals. Of that last 20 percent, consider investing whatever you don't expect to need for at least a few years.

• Cash

• Fixed interest

• Barter/negotiation 

• Purchasing items that are expected to increase in value 

All investments carry some degree of risk. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds can lose value—even their entire value—if market conditions sour. Even conservative, insured investments, such as certificates of deposit (CDs) issued by a bank or credit union, come with inflation risk. You won't lose more money than you invest, even if you only invest in one company and it goes bankrupt and stops trading. This is because the value of a share will only drop to zero, and the price of a stock will not go into the negative.

• Crypto Currency

• Shares/Stocks

• Bonds

• Real Estate 

• Art