Saving and investing is all about putting money aside. Whilst saving tends to be about putting aside money for the short to medium term, investing is more about putting aside money for longer periods of time.

Having savings or investments may make it easier for you to:

• Cope financially if you lost your job or couldn't work.
• Take your first step onto the property ladder.
• Have that dream wedding.
• Afford to have children.
• Fulfil your dreams of retiring early.

This section is divided into two main parts, although don't forget, many people both save and invest money at the same time.

• Saving - this tends to be a short to medium term way of putting aside money, and is lower risk. It's often easy to get to your money, but the rates of return you get tend to be lower than investing over the longer term.
• Investing - this is more about putting money away for a longer period of time. You often can't touch your money for a number of years, or if you do, you have to pay a penalty. However, investing - rather than just saving money in a savings account - is riskier, as your investments could fall in value and you could risk losing everything. The benefit for this higher risk is that the amount of money you could make is sometimes higher than on most savings accounts.

Investing is also not right for everyone. To help you decide if you want to save money rather than invest money, or to decide if you want to do a mix of both, you'll need to ask yourself some key questions. Our what's right for me? section may help you.

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