chg|%

0.1534

0.0002

0.12%

1.1063

-0.0059

-0.53%

1.4173

-0.0090

-0.63%

0.0132

0.0002

1.25%

0.2489

0.0003

0.11%

0.0014

0.0000

2.07%

0.0552

0.0003

0.59%

0.2850

0.0005

0.18%

0.7264

0.0012

0.16%

0.9039

0.0048

0.54%

0.7195

0.0052

0.73%

0.0653

0.0003

0.47%

chg|%

2,793,650

-5,900

-0.21%

209,950

75

0.04%

206,075

5,525

2.75%

438,288

864

0.20%

4,085

-10

-0.24%

497,825

-1,625

-0.33%

chg|%

23,794.41

10.94

0.05%

19,500.23

125.99

0.65%

1,915.01

3.45

0.18%

16,134.35

282.96

1.79%

2,926.59

37.99

1.32%

2,662.43

8.64

0.33%

1,239.57

8.50

0.69%

8,314.67

52.93

0.64%

419.61

3.08

0.74%

2,168.95

44.15

2.08%

3,395.87

15.15

0.45%

4,296.64

36.02

0.85%

9,570.67

89.30

0.94%

471.83

-1.52

-0.32%

602.82

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Investing in Mining Stocks, Metals and Commodities ...

Nowadays, there is a wide range of products for consumers to choose from. It is important that you take time to choose something that is suitable for you. Take a look at your goals and investment objective, what investments you already have, what you can afford, and your risk profile.

Buy only what you fully understand be familiar with the products benefits, risks, limitations and costs. Know how much you can lose in the worst case and how this may happen.Think about diversification - will the product complement, supplement or replace what you have? Or will you end up being over-exposed to a particular risk?

Read our checklist "Key questions you should ask yourself before buying an investment product" to guide you along.

Some products are more complex than others and may be difficult to understand. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has categorised such products as Specified Investment Products (SIPs). Some SIPs are listed on an exchange, for example, exchange traded funds, structured warrants and futures. Unlisted SIPs include structured deposits, structured notes, unit trusts and investment-linked insurance policies. With effect from October 2012, some investment products listed on foreign exchanges, certain collective investment schemes (i.e. some unit trusts) and some sub-funds of investment-linked life insurance policies will not be considered as SIPs provided they meet certain requirements. Check with your financial institution to find out whether a product is an SIP. For information on the requirements in place when transacting SIPs, please refer toConsumer Guideon SIP Requirements.

Bonds are a form of borrowing. They are debt securities issued by borrowers such as governments or companies seeking to raise funds from the financial markets. They are also known as fixed income securities because most bonds pay a steady stream of interest income at periodic intervals throughout the lifeof the bond. Read more..

If you invest in a unit trust or fund, your money is pooled with money from other investors and invested in a portfolio of assets according to the funds stated investment objective and investment approach. In Singapore, local and foreign funds offered to retail investors are regulated as collective investment schemes. The unit trust or fund is managed by a fund manager. Read more..

Shares are issued by companies to raise capital or financing from investors. When you buy a companys shares, you become a shareholder of the company. Shareholders are usually entitled to a share of any dividends that are declared and paid. Read more..

A traded life policy (TLP) is a life policy that has been sold by the original policy owner to an investor other than the insurer itself. TLPs are also commonly known as second-hand life policies. Read more here..

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are open-ended investment funds listed and traded on a stock exchange. Your money is pooled with money from other investors and invested according to the ETFs stated investment objective. Read more here..

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are often described as instruments that offer investors the opportunity to invest in a professionally managed portfolio of real estate, through the purchase of a publicly-traded investment product. Individuals invest in a REIT by purchasing units of the trust, similar to shares of a common stock. Read more..

A structured deposit combines a deposit with an investment product. The return on a structured deposit depends on the performance of an underlying financial asset, product or benchmark. Read more here..

A CFD allows you to speculate on future market movements of the underlying asset, without actually owning or taking physical delivery of the underlying asset. Read more here.

Investment-linked insurance policies (ILPs) have both life insurance and investment components. Your premiums are used to pay for units in investmentlinked fund(s) of your choice. Some of the units you buy are then sold to pay for insurance and other charges, while the rest remain invested. Read more here..

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Types of Investments - MoneySENSE

Investment or investing means that an asset is bought, or that money is put into a bank to get a future interest from it. Investment is total amount of money spent by a shareholder in buying shares of a company. In economic managment sciences, investments means longer-term savings.

It is a term used in business management, finance and economics, related to saving or deferring consumption. Literally, the word means the "action of putting something in to somewhere else" (perhaps originally related to a person's garment or 'vestment').

The major difference in the use of the term investment between the economics field and the finance field is that economists refer to a real investment (such as a machine or a house), while financial economists refer to a financial asset, such as money that is put into a bank or the market, which may then be used to buy a real asset. Advisors, who tell people how to manage their investments, might say that even when an investment is losing money because of bad times, not to give up and withdraw it. Instead, wait for the situation to improve. This is a risk for each person to decide.

The investment decision (also known as capital budgeting) is one of the fundamental decisions of business management.

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Investment - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Welcome to PowerPictures - our rapidly expanding line of professional stock photos with over 20 million images to choose from! Whether you are looking for visually-stunning photos for your next marketing campaign or eye-catching pics for your website or presentation, weve got what you need for very low prices. All images are supplied in the popular JPEG file format and are available in both lower resolutions (suitable for websites and presentations) and various higher resolutions (suitable for print applications).

We also provide a sophisticated search engine that is designed to show you the best results for whatever you are searching for. Not just good photos that happen to use the words you searched on, but actually great photos, sorted to first show the best, most relevant, inspirational, motivational and powerful pictures that other people like you have purchased in the past. And, as you know, that really helps when youre short on time!

The pictures you see below are just small thumbnail pics of some of our (much bigger) images we offer for purchase and immediate download. (Just click on any thumbnail pic to enlarge it, learn more about it and/or buy it.) But dont just look on this page. The pictures you see below are just the tip of the iceberg. Using the search tool (above) youll find a total of309,183Investmentimages and photos for you to choose from!

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Investment Images - Photos - Pictures - CrystalGraphics

Key Message

Without investment, sustainable development is impossible. Well planned, high quality foreign investment in developed and developing countries can help make current economic practices more sustainable. Inappropriate investment, however, can undermine communities and the environment, as well as domestic development strategies. IISD examines how the rules and institutions that govern international investment flows can be improved so as to help developing countries, in particular, attract the sort of investment that promotes sustainable development.

Brazil has developed a new model investment agreement, the Cooperation and Investment Facilitation Agreement (CIFA). Unlike traditional bilateral investment treaties (BITs), which are geared towards investor protection, CIFAs focus less on investor protection and more on institutional arrangements and agendas for investment facilitation and cooperation. They promote amicable ways to settle disputes and propose state-state dispute settlement as a last resort. Notably, CIFAs do not include provisions on investor-state arbitration.

CIFA negotiations were launched in 2013. Between March and May 2015, Brazil concluded the first three agreements, with Mozambique, Angola and Mexico. Negotiations with Malawi are reported to have been concluded, and Brazil is also negotiating with Algeria, Chile, Colombia, Morocco, Peru, South Africa and Tunisia.

IISD has prepared unofficial English translations of the two first CIFAs, to draw attention to the new model that Brazil has been promoting in recent years. Download the English translations of the Brazil-Mozambique and Brazil-Angola CIFAs here.

IISD applauds the UNCITRAL Secretariats establishment of a Transparency Registry that will function as a repository for the publication of information and documents in treaty-based investor-State arbitration. This important step follows the entry into force of the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (the Transparency Rules) on April 1, 2014. The Transparency Registry will contain information on the commencement of an arbitration, and make available a wide range of documents, including transcripts of hearings; orders, decisions and awards of the arbitral tribunal; and submissions to the tribunal. The UNCITRAL Transparency Rules are an integral part of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules and will apply on a default basis to UNCITRAL investor-State arbitrations conducted under investment treaties concluded after April 1, 2014.

World Bank Land and Poverty Conference, 24-28 March, 2014 IISD participated at the annual World Bank conference on land and poverty issues. We participated in the panel, The African land policy initiative: Advances made and next steps, on 25 March. IISD was also a guest speaker at the Swiss reception, providing insights into how IISD's investment programme is supporting efforts by governments and parliamentarians to improve investment in land, water and other natural resources.

IISD has been breaking new ground on investment and sustainable development issues since 1998.

Investment is critical for sustainable development, which requires fundamental changes in how we produce, distribute and dispose of goods. Today this kind of change must come mainly through investment in new technologies and new processes that can replace unsustainable practices. In developing countries, where domestic sources of capital are scarce, foreign direct investment plays a significant role.

But not all investment leads to sustainable development, and not all of the global rules and institutions relating to international investment have been conceived through a sustainable development lens. IISD's work on investment and sustainable development focuses on this critical linkage, and provides new approaches to ensure that investment law and policy will make a positive contribution to sustainable development.

Thematic Priority and Research IISD's work on investment is built upon a track record of solid research on emerging issues and key developments. Our priorities include: Agriculture, Water and Investment; Mining and Investment; Clean Energy Investment; Chinese Outward Investment; and Institutional Reform.

Investment Law The law that applies to transnational investments consists of a complex bundle of international and domestic law and contracts between investors and states. It is important to understand the relevance of each, as well as their interrelationship.

Investment Dispute Settlement Investment treaties allow investors to sue state parties directly through investment arbitration. This is a powerful tool allowing investors to challenge a wide range of government conduct, including environmental and health measures, as well as many other public interest measures.

Capacity Building The highly qualified international lawyers of IISD's Investment Program advise on international investment treaties and contracts, with respect to investment negotiations, implementation and disputes.

Annual Forum of Developing Country Investment Negotiators Annual Forums for Developing Country Investment Negotiators is as a place where developing countries can freely consider and develop their own negotiating priorities and goals in relation to international investment treaties.

Investment Treaty News IISD offers a free reporting service on international investment law and policy. It covers issues relating to international investment protection treaties and contracts, as well as investment disputes and their policy implications.

Read more here:
Investment and Sustainable Development

Investment Property on LoopNet.com

The range of properties available on LoopNet for real estate investors is wide. You can choose among a number of investment real estate categories such as Multi-family, Office, Industrial, Retail, Land, Hotel & Motel, Senior Housing and Residential Income.

Multifamily Multi-family investment real estate will be of interest to residential business owners. Multi-family properties range from upscale garden-level residences to expansive mobile home communities. Customers interested in managing commercial housing will find a huge diversity of properties to choose from.

Office Not all "commercial" investment property is considered an "office," even though it may very well house office space for the tenant. The Office category denotes strictly office space. So, businesses in need of a warehouse, storefront, venue or housing can find property more suitable for their needs in a different category. LoopNet's wide array of office space includes entire business parks as well as small office condos.

Industrial Industrial property provides space for businesses to manufacture their product as well as manage their company. Industrial investment property can range from manufacturing factories to office showrooms and cold storage facilities. Featured facilities can accommodate big businesses with a full industrial park or satisfy small groups with a simple warehouse.

Retail Many businesses need a storefront to operate. Buying retail property is a great real estate investment. LoopNet features free-standing businesses as well as mall storefronts. Even caveats like vehicle show-rooms, restaurant kitchens and care facilities are all included in LoopNets vast selection of storefronts.

Land Owning land is still a sound investment. By strategically investing in this option, you can either hold onto it for the perfect time to re-sell when a neighborhood starts undergoing development. It also can be advantageous to invest in your own property when launching a new and expanding industry. LoopNet offers plots of land for every type of building site offered.

Hotel & Motel Multi-family properties host extended stay tenants. Hotel & Motel investments provide business owners with hospitality properties for short- and long-term vacation or residential stays. This type of investment property is available in a variety of locations and star ratings.

Senior Housing Assisted living is a very specialized industry. The building style is specific toward only that purpose. LoopNet has an abundance of assisted and congregated senior living facilities in our investment real estate listings.

Residential Income Single-Units and smaller residential investments are featured here. Businesses interested in working with sections of a residential development or just a few units will be interested in the investme

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Investment Property and Investment Real Estate For Sale

Explore Careers Accounting Consulting Entrepreneurship Finance Investment Banking Overview Skills & Talents Getting in the Door Job Options Salaries Links & Resources Facts & Trends Top Firms Job Market Outlook Life as an Analyst Life as an Associate Contact Lists Investment Bank List Trip to New York Human Resources Management Marketing Non-Profit Operations Research Strategic Planning

Welcome to a comprehensive web site on investment banking careers. Investment Banks help companies and governments issue securities, help investors purchase securities, manage financial assets, trade securities and provide financial advice. The top investment banks including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are said to be in the bulge bracket.

Other investment banks are regionally oriented or situated in the middle market (e.g. Piper Jaffray). Others are small, specialized firms called boutiques which might be oriented toward an industry vertical, bond-trading, M&A advisory, technical analysis or program trading. Firms have lots of different areas and groups within them. In most firms, there is sales and trading which works with owners of securities, investment banking which works with issuers of securities (firms and governments) and capital markets which goes in between the other two.

Further Information on Investment Banking

Best Resources

Investment Banking Career Links

Blogs

Investment Banking Videos

From the Movie: Wall Street

[Blue Star has gone from 24 to 16 1/2 in a very short time]

Gordon Gekko: Fox, where the hell are you? I am losing MILLIONS! You got me into this airline and you sure as hell better get me out or the only job you'll ever have on the Street is SWEEPING IT! You hear me, Fox?

Bud Fox: You once told me, don't get emotional about stock. Don't! The bid is 16 1/2 and going down. As your broker, I advise you to take it.

Gordon Gekko: Yeah. Well you TAKE IT!

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Careers-in-Investment-Banking.com: Your Guide to ...

Significance Investment is the value of machinery, plants, and buildings that are bought by firms for production purposes.

Investment plays six macroeconomic roles: 1. it contributes to current demand of capital goods, thus it increases domestic expenditure; 2. it enlarges the production base (installed capital), increasing production capacity; 3. it modernizes production processes, improving cost effectiveness; 4. it reduces the labour needs per unit of output, thus potentially producing higher productivity and lower employment; 5. it allows for the production of new and improved products, increasing value added in production; 6. it incorporates international world-class innovations and quality standards, briging the gap with more advanced countries and helping exports and an active participation to international trade.

Composition

Although capital accumulation takes place in many institutional sectors of the economy (firms, households, public sector,), a narrower definition is used in national accountancy.

Investment is just new capital accumulation in business (both private and state-owned).

Household by convention do not invest, even if it does exist a capital accumulation in cars, computers, electric appliances, etc. that we include in their "cumulative bundle".

Public expenditure is partly devoted to roads, railways, infrastructure, buildings (as for schools, hospitals,). All this is clearly capital accumulation whose utility will last over time. Still, it is quite a common practice for investment in public sector being considered zero by convention.

Investment is classified according to the degree of directness with which it is linked to current and future sales:

1. inventories stock of finished goods, semi-manufactured goods, and raw materials in commercial premises, storehouses and producers' plants; 2. equipment for direct production of services and goods; 3. transport and auxiliary machineries; 4. office and general endowment for indirect workers and management; 5. any long-lasting improvement in those items; 6. industrial plants and service buildings; 7. other buildings.

In today's world, investment in immaterial assets is getting more and more important, as with the case of expenditure in Research & Development, human capital, software and other areas.

Financial investments in shares, obligations and other financial instruments are not considered as "investment" in a macroeconomic sense nor in national accountancy. The same is true for real estate exchanges of used buildings (both residential and non-residential).

When considering the issue of the creation and diffusion of innovation through investment, a crucial distinction should be made between complementary investments and competitive investments.

Determinants

At firm level, investment is determined by expected benefits as well as funds, both in term of availability and cost (interest rate).

Benefits relate to the effects of investment in terms of increased value added, reduced costs, larger production, higher competitiveness. Hence, profits are expected to be higher, too. The value over time of these benefits (and profits in particular) are compared to the investment costs.

The temporal profile of costs and revenues will be important in the decision whether to undertake the investment or not.

In many decision processes and routines, the value over time of benefits will be discounted through a subjective interest rate to keep into account time distance and uncertainty. In others, the decision will be based on more strategic and vital arguments. A new vision of the competitive environment and of the global trends can bring to invest in surprising directions.

Funds for investment can be obtained thanks to the following items:

1. self-financing, in turn due to: 1.1. cumulated past profits; 1.2. injection of new financial capital from the owners; 1.3. amortization, i.e. accountancy allowance for past investment, considered now as current costs but not corresponding to any current expenditure; 1.4. extension of equity by new shareholders, as it happens with relatives sending remittances to home business;

2. loans from banks and other financial institutions: 2.1. long-term credit at fixed or variable interest rate in domestic or foreing currency; 2.2. short-term credit; 2.3. micro-credit in the case of very small business;

3. capital market finance, through the emission of obligations as well as through the issue of shares in the stock market (primary market). The following price fluctuation do not directly have any impact on financing the firm. But it is true that further new emissions of shares often require positively-oriented capital markets.

4. seed money and expansion capital for new firms provided by venture capitalists and private equity funds;

5. public funds and incentives for investment from international, national, regional, local institutions.

However, the empirical evidence of microdata shows that investment - at micro level - is infrequent and lumpy. There are periods in which firms decide not to invest and periods of large investment episodes. For better understand the issues at stake see this paper.

Investment expenditure is a bet on future. If the bet is lost, the product does not find a remunerative market and much of the investment expenditure turns out to be a sunk cost that cannot be recovered. In the extreme case, investment is irreversible. Coupled with true uncertainty, irreversibility becomes a fairly important determinant of investment levels across industries, as this paper points out.

In the IS-LM model, interest rates are considered the unique determinant of investment. In fact, interest rates play three distinct functions:

1. they influence the discounted value of net benefits over time; 2. they determine the cost of loans from banks and the required rate of return for the owners and financing institutions; 3. they set the economic climate both for financial and real markets.

In all three function, a higher interest should trigger a lower investment, since the present value of benefits will be lower, finance costs higher and economic perspectives worse.

Still, there exists investments that are not based on interest rates considerations. For instance, firms have usually a very restricted number of investment projects, carrying them out when profitability is well above zero. A small change in interest rate would have simply no impact on each investment decision, thus on aggregate level as well.

By contrast, the effect of large interest rate changes may be highly asymmetric: a strong increase of interest rate can indeed provoke a fall in investment dynamics whereas a similar decrease may fail to induce investment, if real perspective benefits are lacking.

Other determinants of investment should be considered as, for instance, present and expected consumption and export.

Saturation of productive capacity represent a key references for firms' decisions to invest. Expectations about future sales will affect investment if the current capacity is not enough to match the forecasted increase in demaned quantities and the firm is committed to fulfill all orders. Given a ratio of fixed capital to sales, the investment required would be (in a very simplified method of estimation) this ratio times the new additional expected sales.

Furthermore, new technology innovation and the need of imitating competitors' adoption of innovation can also force firms to invest, in a process of diffusion that can be boosted by a conducive tax environment, both in terms of tax breaks and pro-diffusion-of-innovation tax.

Investment in real estate new developments and rejuvenation of existing areas are better understood in operations like urban regeneration.

Impact on other variables

Cumulated investments over time give rise to capital, opening the path to improvements in production conditions.

Production capacity, potential productivity, cost effectiveness, production and process quality will be all increased by properly-oriented investment. Export competitiveness should also rise.

Employment can fall if a labour substitution investment prevails with real output growing less than physical productivity. By contrast, other kinds of investment and economic situations give rise to an increasing employment. The quality and composition of employment also depend on the investment directions. For instance, green jobs significantly depend on wide investment in green sectors and technologies.

As a GDP component from the current domestic expenditure side, investment has an immediate impact on GDP. An increase of consumption rises GDP by the same amount, other things equal. Moreover, since income (GDP) is an important determinant of consumption, the increase of income will be followed by a rise in consumption: a positive feedback loop has been triggered (between consumption and income) by investment.

Because of this mechanism, imports will grow as well. More directly, investment is often directed to foreign machineries and goods, with an immediate increase of imports.

Long-term trends

Countries differ a lot in respect to investment levels and dynamics. Some countries have heavily invested, sacrificing current consumption and triggering an export-led growth, often based on manufacturing. Others keep investment at much lower levels with an unsecure growth path.

A large-scale investment effort in clean technologies and processes is seen as a conditions for coping with climate change. The our book on "Innovative Economic Policies for Climate Change Mitigation" puts forth the proposal of a closed long-term fund to influence investment decisions of private and public bodies.

Business cycle behaviour

With its short and violent fluctuations, investment is a clear source of the business cycle.

During economic expansion, investment grow at a much faster pace than consumption or GDP, usually irrespective of interest rate movements.

On the contrary, the influence of interest rates on investment can be important at turning points. At peaks, consistent increase of the interest rate would drastically worsen the costs of existing loans for past investment. Disappointment from demand grow may combine with this effect to reduce investment dynamics.

Investment often peaks earlier than GDP, triggering a negative income-consumption multiplier, thus prompting a new recessionary direction.

At trough, low interest rates may be one of the very few good news for firms. Thus, combined with positive expectations, investment may start growing from the very low level at which they were.

Positive expectations toward the economy may also bring leading firms to invest earlier than the trough. In so doing they may even invert the business cycle.

On the other hand, investment in machinery may instead follow the lower trough, since the first recovery may simple use the existing, not-fully exploited capital.

Changes in government, with opposition going to the power, can exert an important effect on raising or abating the expectation of business in terms of the overall economic environment and for specific actions.

Needless to say, business cycles have many sources and paths, thus wide discrepancies with the previously presented scenario can arise.

Data

Investments, Consumption and the other GDP components (1946-2007) for 171 countries

Investment data from 136 countries: a long term time series Capital stock time-series for 22 countries Data for all the variables in IS-LM model EU data for all the variables in IS-LM model (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Switzerland and other 13 European countries)

Formal models

An interactive map of how the economy works according to a basic macroeconomic scheme: the IS-LM model

A new approach to business fluctuations: heterogeneous interacting agents, scaling laws and financial fragility

Recognizing Investment Opportunities at the Onset of Recoveries - a neural net to model investments in novel fields of economic activity, when firms recognize the emergence of a new technological pattern

Investment in electricity generation and its determinants

Related essays

An empirical investigation of reasons and determinants for investment in Turkish manifacturing firms

Estimation of a dynamic discrete choice model of irreversible investment

High-Tech Start-Ups and Industry Dynamics in Silicon Valley

The economics of ex ante coordination

Do R&D investments affect export performance?

The Role of Financial Market Imperfections and Uncertainty in Investment of Rice Mills in Vietnam

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Investment: a key concept in Economics

Generally, an "investment company" is a company (corporation, business trust, partnership, or limited liability company) that issues securities and is primarily engaged in the business of investing in securities.

An investment company invests the money it receives from investors on a collective basis, and each investor shares in the profits and losses in proportion to the investor's interest in the investment company. The performance of the investment company will be based on (but it won't be identical to) the performance of the securities and other assets that the investment company owns.

The federal securities laws categorize investment companies into three basic types:

Each type has its own unique features. For example, mutual fund and UIT shares are "redeemable" (meaning that when investors want to sell their shares, they sell them back to the fund or trust, or to a broker acting for the fund or trust, at their approximate net asset value). Closed-end fund shares, on the other hand, generally are not redeemable. Instead, when closed-end fund investors want to sell their shares, they generally sell them to other investors on the secondary market, at a price determined by the market. In addition, there are variations within each type of investment company, such as stock funds, bond funds, money market funds, index funds, interval funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Some types of companies that might initially appear to be investment companies may actually be excluded under the federal securities laws. For example, private investment funds with no more than 100 investors and private investment funds whose investors each have a substantial amount of investment assets are not considered to be investment companieseven though they issue securities and are primarily engaged in the business of investing in securities. This may be because of the private nature of their offerings or the financial means and sophistication of their investors. For additional information on these types of private investment funds, please refer to Hedge Funds in our Fast Answers databank.

Before purchasing shares of an investment company, you should carefully read all of a fund's available information, including its prospectus and most recent shareholder report.

Investment companies are regulated primarily under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the rules and registration forms adopted under that Act. Investment companies are also subject to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. For the definition of "investment company," you should refer to Section 3 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the rules under that section.

Excerpt from:
SEC.gov | Investment Companies

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Making an investment is a way to increase the amount of money an investor has by placing the money in a financial security. This can be investment in anything that potentially grows in value like stocks, bonds and bank accounts. Investment can be risky, but the possible gains often outweigh potential risks in the minds of avid investors.

Investment is a way for people to accumulate enough money to buy something very expensive. This can be a house, a car, a college education, or retirement. Investment is more than just saving. It makes money work for you by growing. If you do not invest, the buying power of your money decreases as inflation makes everything more expensive. Investment also provides emergency money in case of an unexpected expense from the loss of a job, medical costs or an accident.

Most people who earn a paycheck have investments. This can be as simple as opening a checking or savings account at a local bank. Many workers take advantage of employer sponsored 401k plans to invest for retirement. Others start their own IRA accounts for retirement. These types of accounts take advantage of tax deductions and exemptions as well as investing in securities. These are usually mutual funds containing stocks, bonds and money market funds. All of these investments have the potential to grow in value and pay interests or dividends.

Different types of investments offer different risks and rewards. Just about everyone has a bank checking and savings account. There is no risk to these investments, but they only pay a few percentage points of interest per year. Only short term money needed for immediate expenses should be invested in them. Certificates of deposit and money market accounts are also commonly owned. They pay a few more percentage points of interest per year and also have very little risk to investment principle. However, they require higher balances and time commitments. Emergency money is often invested this way so it is safe and available if needed.

There is historically higher potential for long term gain using bonds and stocks for investment. Bonds primarily pay dividends that are like interest but less predictable. The dividend amount tends to be a little higher than CD and money market accounts, but there is more risk involved. Stocks offer the greatest potential for long term investment growth. This makes them the riskiest types of investment. Stock share prices can rise and fall dramatically in the short term. However, historically stocks outperform other types of investments over many years. This is why long term investment for retirement tends to weigh heavily in stocks. Stocks and bonds are most commonly owned by individual investors through mutual funds. They bundle many stocks and bonds together.

Financial advisers recommend investing in a variety of financial securities. This mitigates losses in the event of a sudden dramatic economic downturn while optimizing financial gain in good economic times. The amount of risk in an investment portfolio depends on the time frame of the investor. Young people with many years until retirement can keep a large portion of their money in aggressive stocks since they have time to outlast short term fluctuations in stock prices. However, investors approaching retirement age should shift a majority of their money into conservative bonds, certificates of deposit and money market funds so they are not devastated by a sudden economic collapse.

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What is Investment? | eHow