Investment: Investment can be defined in finance as the purchase of item of value or financial product with an anticipation of good future returns. Generally investment means use of money in the expectation of making more money.
Investment in finance:
In finance, investment is the proper use of funds by purchasing monetary or paper assets or securities in the capital market or money market, or in liquid real assets like gold or collectibles. Assessing if a potential investment is worth it’s price is called as valuation. Shares, other equity investments, bonds these are types of financial investment. People expect these financial assets to provide positive cash flows or income and give the capital gains or losses to investor by increasing or decreasing in the value.
There is no necessary future positive expected cash flows by trading in derivatives and contingent claims, so these are not considered as assets or securities or investments. However their cash flows are those of particular securities, they are often treated as investments. Some times investments are built indirectly by intermediaries like mutual-funds, banks, pension funds,insurance companies, investment clubs, collective investment schemes. Money used to put in collective investment schemes or to buy shares or used to purchase any asset within personal finance where there is an aspect of capital risk is considered an investment.
Saving in personal finance refers to money kept aside, generally on a regular basis. When an investment is sold, investment risk may cause a capital loss at variance savings where the more limited risk is cash devaluing because of inflation. The term investments and saving are used correspondingly, which confuses this differentiation.