You may wish to buy a house or a holiday home at some point in the future, maintain your standard of living after you retire or give your children the chance to have a good education. All such plans require savings and saving for the future takes time. Therefore, you should start it early. You should also find the right methods of saving to enable your money to grow adequately.

A very wide range of savings products is available. Here you can have an initial glance at the types of savings and investments. To find out more about the products, the best thing to do is to compare the documentation published by various banks or insurance companies and ask financial experts for advice.

Forms of saving

There are essentially two ways of investing money. You can either put your money in a specific account and leave it there to gather interest, or you can invest your money in financial instruments such as securities, which yields a profit. A distinction also has to be made between different levels of risk. Essentially, the safer the investment, the lower the interest or return at the end. This way, the possible risks of loss can also be kept in check. Therefore, the following methods of savings are placed in order of increasing risk.

Savings accounts

In addition to a normal savings account, every bank also offers individual types of savings accounts that are aimed at particular target groups with various needs and plans, such as savings plans for young people or the elderly, a gift-based savings account, a savings account with staggered interest bands or a bonus savings account.

Bonds

The term "bond", in the sense of "obligation", is used in a variety of contexts. Here it means a loaned bond, also called a security. When you buy a bond, you make a sum of money available to the state, bank or an industrial company for a particular period of time. The other party accepts the money from you as a loan. In return, you are paid an interest every year, which is your profit. At the end of the term, the state or the company pays you back the money that they borrowed from you.

Investment fund

Here is how the investment fund principle works. An investment company collects money from a variety of clients by issuing share certificates. This money, the fund assets, is invested in securities to increase the clients' money. To reduce the risk, the money is spread across different investment vehicles. Depending on the orientation of the fund and the composition of the selected investments, risk and chances of profit or loss may vary. It is up to you to decide whether to invest in low-risk or high-risk funds. If the total assets of the fund ultimately grow through gains, the value of the share certificates also rises, meeting your client's objective. Conversely, the value of your shares in the fund falls if the fund's assets shrink.

Shares

Shares are among the more risky securities, depending on the company in which you invest. When you buy shares, you receive membership and asset rights to a joint stock company. How the value of your share develops depends on various factors, such as how the business is performing, the behaviour of the other shareholders, the general mood in the sector, etc. This gives securities a certain degree of incalculability.

Pension plans

You can use private pension plans or the third pillar to save for your retirement. A distinction is made between free and tied pension provision. Free pension provision includes the types of savings described above, as well as life insurance products. Tied pension provision includes pension accounts and pension security accounts, as well as a special form of life insurance. The key point is that you cannot access tied funds again until you have retired (and in clearly defined exceptions, such as when you are buying your own home). Therefore, these long-term third pillar contributions are also tax-deductible.

Pension products are available from banks and insurance companies.