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An investment is an asset or item acquired to generate future income. Investing money in assets that appreciate over time is a practice that many people use to generate wealth. An item appreciating over time simply means that its value has increased. Investing is oriented toward potential growth, which means there is always some risk involved. There are cases when investments fail to generate revenue or depreciate over time. When an item depreciates, it has lost some value. A good example is investing in a company that eventually goes bankrupt. Risk is the easiest way to differentiate between investing and saving. Saving is the act of accumulating money for future use, whereas investment is the act of leveraging money for a potential future gain, or return on investment.

Investing doesn't always require a lot of money to get started. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to begin investing is letting a robo-advisor do it for you. Several online financial planning services use automated bots to invest users' funds in diverse portfolios. Some will even allow you to adjust how involved you want to be in the investing process, which gives beginner investors the option to learn more or the freedom to be hands-off. Other popular strategies for new investors include investing in the stock market, buying real estate, enrolling in your employer’s retirement plan (many US companies even offer a 401k match), and investing in mutual funds. These are just a few of the ways you can allow your money to work hard for you. Your own research will help you find other avenues that may work even better for you and your family.

A dividend is a regular payment paid out to investors who own shares of a company’s stock. Businesses pay these dividends out per share of stock held. For example, if you own 20 shares of a company's stock and they give US$5.00 in annual dividends, you will earn US$100.00 per year in bonuses. That example is a simple way to figure out what sort of rewards you can earn from a particular stock. Companies usually pay dividends quarterly, though some pay monthly or semi-annually; it just depends on the company. Some companies don't pay them out at all. On a side note, investors who don't want to spend a lot of time researching and picking individual dividend stocks to invest in may be interested in dividend mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. These funds contain many dividend stocks within one investment, and they distribute dividends to investors from those holdings.

A stock represents the portion of ownership you possess in a particular corporation. The amount of stock the owner has entitles them to a corresponding number of profits and assets of that company. An exchange traded fund (ETF) refers to a diversified security that can be sold or purchased similarly to a stock. An ETF is passively managed to track a particular commodity or an array of securities. A mutual fund is made up of a collection of professionally managed investments in assets, such as bonds and stocks. The goal is to produce capital gains for each of the investors.

Debt involves borrowing money directly that is paid back monthly with interest. Collateral will be put up as a guarantee for the lender and can include real estate, insurance policies, or equipment that could be used as payment if the borrower defaults on the loan. Equity refers to obtaining money through investors who will then own a portion of the company or business they have put money into. The owner will not need to make payments in the same manner as with a loan; instead, some of the business' profits will be allocated directly to the investor.

Trading is the practice of executing buy and sell trades to capitalize on the price variance. There are two key strategies: active trading and day trading. An active trader executes 10 or more trades per month capitalizing on trends. Active traders hold positions for a short period of time based on an anticipated target price. A day trader never holds a position overnight - all stocks purchased are sold on the same day. Investing is a long-term strategy where the trader builds wealth by holding positions for years. Gains are associated with interest, dividends, or stock splits — these are often reinvested in the same account growing the base investment value. Investing is often associated with retirement savings in 401K and IRA type accounts.