So, you’ve decided you want to invest some of your hard-earned cash. But choosing exactly what to invest in can seem daunting. After all, there are many different types of investments and potentially thousands of choices within each category.
Each type of investment has its pros and cons, and it often makes sense to invest in several different types of assets, depending on how long you have to invest, your appetite for risk (essentially meaning how well you cope with volatile prices), and what your end goal is.
It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but risk and reward often go hand in hand. The types of investments that potentially offer the greatest returns over the long term tend to be more volatile in price over shorter periods. Therefore, if you want higher returns, you should expect the ride to be bumpier. Investments that promise high returns but low risk often turn out to be too good to be true.
7 types of investments
Let’s start by looking at the seven main types of investments you can invest in: 카지노사이트
- Stocks and shares
Investing in stocks and shares, also known as equities, allows you to buy a small piece of some of the largest businesses today. As an owner of an individual stock, you’re entitled to a slice of the profits typically distributed through dividends or share buybacks. And you’re also able to vote on certain matters, such as the appointment of directors.
A share’s price fluctuates daily. And prices can be incredibly volatile in the short term. But in the long term, providing the underlying business is performing well, the share price will move upward. After all, the more profits a company generates or is capable of generating in the future, the more valuable each share becomes.
This type of investment obviously carries some risk. But this risk is paired with the potential for enormous returns. That’s why we at The Motley Fool believe stocks and shares are probably the best asset class for building long-term wealth. Investors can choose to pick individual stocks like we do or offload this responsibility to a professional by investing in a mutual fund, index fund, or unit trust.
RELATED: How To Invest In Stocks: A Beginner’s Guide For Getting Started
- Bonds
A bond is a form of debt that can be bought and sold like a stock. Much like a bank charges interest on loans to customers, a bondholder receives interest from the debt they have bought.
Bonds are often considered to be a safe investment, as debtholders get priority of repayment over shareholders. But this reduced risk comes at the cost of returns.
Government and corporate bonds typically provide fixed-rate interest fees that can last for several months to decades before maturity. It’s also worth noting that the price of a bond, like a stock, can fluctuate and usually drops if the underlying business is at a higher risk of defaulting on its loans. Needless to say, that can have a significant impact on an investment portfolio. 안전한카지노사이트
- Property
Property has arguably been a favourite type of investment in the UK in the last few decades. Like most assets, it comes in different flavours, such as land, residential (housing), and commercial real estate.
Typically, property investors rent out the available space for a period of time, receiving a monthly or quarterly fee in return. But the value of real estate can also vary during this time, in either direction. Should the price go up, you can enjoy some significant returns if you decide to sell or simply increase the rental amount. However, the opposite is also true.
One crucial difference with real estate is that you often need to borrow money to buy this type of asset, commonly in the form of a mortgage. That means any rental income needs to cover the interest fees of this loan before any profits can be made from the investment. And this profit margin can also become compromised should the value of the property fall over time.
- Commodities
A commodity is a basic good consumed, either because it gets eaten/drunk or when it is used to make something. Think coffee, orange juice, wheat, and rice for the former, and copper, oil, gold, and silver for the latter.
Commodity prices are mainly determined by the fluctuations in the available supply as well as demand. Consequently, this type of investment can be extremely cyclical and volatile. Even temporary shortages or problems in logistics can create wild price swings. Commodity prices often move in long cycles, being depressed for several years and then rising for a similar length of time. In terms of potential returns, commodities probably offer more than bonds but less than stocks and shares. However, it’s worth noting that a special type of brokerage account is needed to trade this class of assets, usually only reserved for professionals.
- Currencies
Many financial institutions and companies buy and sell different currencies, like the pound, the U.S. dollar, the euro, and the yen.
Some of this is pure speculation, betting that prices might move because one economy will become stronger than another. But in the case of businesses operating internationally, buying and selling currency is standard practice. Various currency contracts can be purchased that guarantee a certain exchange rate at some point in the future. Businesses primarily use investing in currencies as a risk-reduction tool. But due to the volatile nature of exchange rates, these types of investments require expert knowledge and experience to execute profitably. 카지노사이트 추천
- Cryptocurrencies
The newest type of investment on our list are cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. These are digital currencies, not issued by any government, and often developed using blockchain technology. The Bitcoin network was launched in early 2009, but there are now tens of thousands of cryptocurrencies with weird and wonderful names and widely different long-term prospects.
As this is such a new type of investment, we simply don’t know what likely long-term returns will end up being. Price returns have been spectacular so far, and we have recently seen a lot of larger investors become involved in this space for the first time. But price volatility is way more extreme than with any other asset on this list. Plenty of smart people think cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology could revolutionise every corner of the financial world. Plenty of other smart people think it’s all smoke and mirrors and destined to ultimately collapse. It could be either of these, or somewhere in between!
- Art and collectibles
Our final type of investment is probably the most diverse, and some people might not even regard as an asset class. It covers things like paintings, wine, stamps, old comic books, and so on. Essentially, it’s anything that has a value because it’s unique or there are limited numbers available.
Like some of the other more specialised asset classes, you often only discover the price when you come to sell, and long-term returns are hard to gauge. You also incur costs just by owning these assets in the form of insurance and storage. And they could get damaged and lose some or all of their value.
What should you invest in?
You probably want a mixture of different asset types to spread your risk and diversify. For most people, stocks, bonds, and property are likely to be the three main components of an asset allocation strategy to meet their financial goals. In fact, most people already have exposure to property as they own a house or may have a mixture of stocks and bonds in their pension. So, it’s useful to consider what you already have before deciding what to invest in next.
Some types of assets are very easy to buy and sell. And you can deal in pretty much any size you want, from a few pounds to a few million. However, assets like art and directly held property are a lot harder to buy and sell and typically can’t be done piecemeal.
On a similar note, some assets require virtually no effort to hold onto, whereas others require constant monitoring and ongoing costs.
For example, index funds simply track the global markets and an investor can let them do their own thing for decades. But if you own a rental property, you could get a call in the middle of the night saying urgent repairs are needed to fix a leak.
These factors need to be considered when making investment decisions. Tax is another important component. Stocks and shares and bonds are relatively easy to shelter in tax-efficient vehicles like ISAs and pensions. In contrast, other more specialised types of assets are trickier and, therefore, could be more exposed to capital gains tax.
Where to invest?
Investing is a two-sided coin. Knowing what to invest in is one face. Knowing where to invest in the other.
There are different types of investment accounts available to UK investors. Each one works slightly differently. Some are tax-efficient, helping you eliminate an often-overlooked investing expense. Others will let you buy fractional shares or provide investment advice.