When you decide to work more and consequently you earn more money, you may think about the best options in order to deal with that additional money wisely. Of course, putting your money under your mattress won’t bring you more money. Usually people open savings accounts, that is to put that money aside while earning some interest rates at the same time, but the real method of growing your money on the long term is to invest it.

• Shares: if you buy shares, that means you bay a part of a certain company. If the company does profitable business, the values of shares rise, and you can either sell your shares at a good price, or you can earn an income payment from that profit, which is called a dividends. Before investing into shares, do some market research and find out which companies are profitable and which are not. The business history of each company is easily accessible via Internet.
  
  
• Investment funds: or sometimes called collective investments are made up of small contributions from different people, which are then invested in some kind of asset or assets, managed by the fund manager. This type of investment has many forms, it emerges either in the form of life assurance, investment trusts, open ended funds, or private pensions. As for the risk factors, this type of investment focuses on a wide variety of assets, therefore if one company does badly, the impact on your investment will be considerably lower.
  
  
• Bond investments: this means that you loan money to a certain company, or to the local authority. This type of investment brings you a fixed interest rate yearly, and according to the bond contract you are returned the full amount of money at a stated date, at the end of the loan period (called the redemption date). Corporate bonds are sold and bought on the stock market, so these are in a continuous movement in terms of their value rising and falling. Bond funds invest your money into different bonds, with different interest rates. However, as these are very mixed investments, you can’t expect a fixed return.
  
  
• Real estate investments: in this case you use your money to purchase a house or apartment either to become your primary residence or lease it for a monthly income. Usually when you want to buy a real estate you may not have the full purchase price of that property, therefore you have to opt for the services of a lender (bank, finance agency, or a private lender). Although this depends on the different countries’ regulations, you may expect the bank to lend you the 80% of the total value of the real estate.

Before choosing one type of investment, think clearly and define your purposes. It is also a matter of time, and how much patience you have regarding the reaching of your goals. Your goals can manifest as long term or short term plans, varying from saving for a new family house, to complete higher education, up to saving for your retirement. For beginner investors stocks and mutual funds are recommended. In order to reduce the risks, it is always a good idea to spread your money over many types of investments. In this way, if one company fails, you can still earn incomes from the others. Don’t forget to use the online calculators: on the websites of different investment funds you can type in the amount of the money you plan to invest, and you get the approximate annual income. Compare the offers, and get detailed information of these online investments.