Let’s start Investing! But how?

You have some money saved up but you don’t know what to do with it. People are telling you the best way to make money is to invest it, but you don’t know how. Here is a quick guide in what you can invest your money in:

• Cash
• Fixed interest securities (Bonds)
• Shares
• Property

Cash: 

This is probably your most common investment option that people choose. Putting your money into a savings account or a fixed deposit to earn interest is a relatively safe way to keep your money while earning a little interest. The emphasis in today’s age is the “little” though. Interest rates are not what they used to be and banking charges continue to go up meaning you have to put down a fairly big amount to earn reasonable interest in most cases. Remember to always check which bank can offer you the best return on your money before investing your money with them.

Fixed interest securities (Bonds)

This is a debt instrument that investors use to loan money to a company in exchange for interest payments. It gives you a  specified rate of interest that does not change over the life of the instrument do that you know what you are getting out of it. The face value is returned when the security matures. Agreeing a rate of return s a great way in assuring you will earn what you want to over a period of time, but the risk comes in that interest rates might change during the time in an unfavorable manner towards your bond, which means you could end up making a loss.

Shares

Another favorite in the investment options available to individuals. This is often referred to as having stock in a company as you are buying into a certain company. In a very simplistic explanation can be that when you buy shares on the Johannesburg Security Exchange (JSE) and a company does well or the country as a whole does well on an economic level the value of your shares will rise. You can then sell these and will have made a profit. but you run the risk of a company doing badly and the shares value dropping and you making a loss.

Property

Simply, buying and owning residential or commercial property. You can then rent or lease the property you have now bought to earn a regular income. Your goal should be to sell the property for more than you bought it for but this can be influenced by several factors. The risk of buying and owning property is that this an asset that costs a great deal and will have maintenance costs as well as other costs involved that might be more than your income you are earning from it. It is also hard to get your money back quickly if you need it. Rushing into a sale in order to get the money in cash quickly, can often end up seeing you get a much lower price than if you waited for the right moment to sell it.

There are many other different ways to invest your money. Investments are something you buy or put your money into to get a profitable return. So really there are many ways to invest your money, here are a few other ways to invest your money:

• Gold, Kruger Rands
• Foreign currency
• Art and antiques

To learn more about investing your money or if you want to start investing today, speak to one of our financial advisors in order for you to get the greatest return on your investment!