Investment & Need of Investment

The money you earn is partly spent and the rest saved for meeting future expenses. Instead of keeping the savings idle you may like to use savings in order to get return on it in the future. This is called Investment

• One needs to invest to

  1. earn return on your idle resources
  2. generate a specified sum of money for a specific goal in life
  3. make a provision for an uncertain future

When to Start Investing

• The sooner one starts investing the better. By investing early you allow your investments more time to grow, increases your income, by accumulating the principal and the interest or dividend earned on it, year after year.
• The three golden rules for all investors are:
1. Invest early
2. Invest regularly
3. Invest for long term and not short term

Invest for long term and not short term

• One may invest in:
1. Physical assets like real estate, gold/jewellery, commodities etc
2. Financial assets such as fixed deposits with banks, small saving instruments with post offices, insurance/provident/pension fund etc or securities market related instruments like shares, bonds, debentures etc.

Short & Long Term Options for Investment

• Short Term:
1. Savings Bank Account
2. Money Market or Liquid Funds
3. Fixed Deposit with Banks
• Long Term:
1. Post Office Savings
2. Public Provident Fund
3. Bonds
4. Mutual Funds