The terms ‘saving’ and ‘investments’ are often used alternatively, but what they really mean is vastly different in many ways. Understanding the difference between savings and investments is the first step towards financial literacy. So, what do these terms mean exactly? Are Savings and Investments the same?
Savings
Saving is the money that we put aside,
often gradually, so that it is readily available when needed. Growth of the money
is not the purpose of saving. The money is kept aside not for it to grow, but
for a certain short-term need.
This short-term financial goal could be
buying a car, down payment of a loan, security deposit for a rental space, an
emergency corpus, or even the expenses for the next few months. The money saved
is highly “liquid” – it is easily and immediately accessible. Generally,
savings are parked in liquid financial instruments like bank saving accounts,
short term FDs, etc. where there is little or no financial risk of the saved
money being wiped out and where the money is accessible immediately.
One of the downsides to such savings is
that it often reduces the “value of the money saved” or “the purchasing power
of the money saved” as the interest earned might not exceed the rate of inflation;
which means that the actual value of the savings might reduce if the inflation
is high. However, as we have said before, the purpose of saving is not to grow
the corpus but to have a pool of easily accessible money.
Investments
An investment is when you keep your money
in financial instruments with the goal to help it grow. Investments are
generally done in bullion (gold, silver, etc.), equity instruments like shares,
mutual funds, etc., real estate, debt instruments like bonds, debentures, Fixed
Deposits, etc. It is debatable whether real estate (meaning real estate not for
own consumption but for rental/lease purpose) is a sound investment. Generally,
the residential rental yield in India is less than 2% (or lower in case of
metros) and does not justify the inflated real estate valuations. Also, real
estate is highly ill-liquid and the asset appreciation might not be as high as an
equity based investment.
Purpose of an investment is to increase the corpus over a period. Also, investments have certain pre-defined short term (buying a car, child’s education, annual vacations, etc.) and long-term goals (retirement corpus, child’s marriage, etc.). Generally, these instruments tend to be for a mid to long term duration as the real growth and the magic of compounding starts to kick in after a few years of consistent investing. Investments also constitute a certain risk and requires a sound knowledge of various financial instruments, regulatory and taxation rules, economic micro and macro trends. Hence investment is best done by professionals like a wealth managers.
Discipline, commitment and consistency is required for a sound investment portfolio that meets your different financial goals (setting these goals as early as possible is crucial). Also avoiding emotional decisions is also important.
One has to save in order to invest money to
earn returns; but not the other way round.
So, are you saving for your short term
needs and investments?
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