Easy Office
LCI Learning

Investment and Saving: What sets them Apart?

Rahul , Last updated: 19 August 2016  
  Share


Although people generally confuses between saving and investment, they both are not same. Knowing the difference and what to choose between saving and investment can really help you to reach your financial objectives. While saving you put your finances into the safest place and product that allows you to assess your money anytime. On the other hand, if you invest then it has a greater chance of losing money. Unlike tax saving investments where your investment helps you to save income tax and support you with other benefits. To understand saving and investment in much crisp way we can describe it as “keeping aside a part of your income can be termed as saving and investment can be termed as putting the money in financial product to earn returns and grow your wealth”.

The other important factor that set apart saving and investment is, savings are usually used to meet the short term need. To meet the unexpected expenses and to become financially secured against any emergency situation people generally tend to save money. However, investment generally demand a longer period of six months or more. The investment plans are designed to provide returns and grow your money over a period of time. If an individualis planning to save money for a long term then one should go for tax saving investment plans. Here we have mentioned a tabular form of tax-saving investment plan to give you a brief knowledge about it.

Tax Saving Investment Plans

National Saving Certificate(NSC)

Investment period – 5-10 years

Minimum Investment- Rs100

Maximum Investment- No upper limits

Interest Rate-For 5 Year schemes 8.5% annually, for 10 years scheme 8.8% annually.

Senior citizen saving scheme(SCSS)

Entry Age- 60 years

Minimum investment- Rs1000

Maximum investment- Rs15lac

Maturity period- 5 years

Return rate- 9.3% per annum

Recurring Deposit(RD)

Minimum investment- For state bank Rs500, for post office Rs10

Maximum investment- No upper limits

Interest rate for Post office RD- 8.4%

Post office monthly income scheme(MIS)

Minimum investment- Rs15,000 per annum

Maximum investment- Rs4.5lac

Maturity period-5 years

Interest rate- 8.4%

KisanVikas Patra(KVP)

Minimum investment- Rs1000

Maximum investment- No upper limits

Tenure- 8 years 4months

Interest rate- 8.7%

Public Provident Fund(PPF)

Tenure- 3- 15 years

Interest Rate- 8.5%

Minimum investment- Rs500

Maximum investment- No upper limits

The risk and returns involved in saving and investment is the another difference between them. While saving don’t generate returns over years. Even if you keep the money in a saving account, it will provide a negligible rate of return. Whereas, money invested in different products like stock, mutual funds, gold etc. is subject to more risk but has the potential to grow over time. These type of investment can prove to be a good asset as it can give you higher returns in future. If an individual invest wisely then money can multiply, so that you can reap good profit over time.

If we talk about liquidity then your savings are proved to be more liquid asset as they can be assessed any time. However in case of investment it is different. It takes time for the money to reach your bank account after you decide to sell your investment. While one invest he/she expect to grow it in value with years. Since the value may fluctuate it is best to invest money that you probably won’t need in the near future.

Saving and investing are both crucial to ensure you reach your financial goal in short, medium, or long term. You can sell your investment whenever the market condition are favorable. While investing one should fix the goal, time horizon and risk factor involved in it. You can only get the most of your money only when you properly understand both the term saving and investment and how to use it. Balancing out both the saving and investment can help you to be financially sound and be prepared to face any emergency. Yet relying solely on investment can be risky and could leave you without easy asses to ample money at time of an emergency situation.

You can now check online about the different tax saving investments plans and choose the most suitable plan according to your own comfortability.


Published by

Rahul
(Executive)
Category Others   Report

2 Likes   7021 Views

Comments


Related Articles


Loading