This research was sponsored by Amun.com
What are the exact differences between saving and investing and why does it matter in today’s challenging economy? Let’s dive in.
Both saving and investing mean setting aside funds for the future.
- Saving money generally means that it will be available when we need it and it has a low risk of losing face value.
- Investing typically carries a long-term horizon, and is less accessible in the short-term.
- The biggest and most influential difference between saving and investing is risk. Investing exposes one to more risk and therefore more potential growth.
Savings are Becoming Less Safe
With increased inflation, saving is not what it used to be.
US Consumer Inflation, which has been steadily rising, reached 8.5% in the US in March 2022. With the average savings account in a U.S. bank offering 0.05% APY, people who hold a lot of savings are actually at risk of (and are) losing their savings slowly by simply doing nothing with it.
And it’s not just the US. The situation is the same in other advanced economies around the world. While in the past such high inflation numbers were only seen in dictatorships and third world countries, these countries as seeing inflation not seen in 40 years or longer:
- Canada 6.8%
- Germany 7.9%
- UK 9%
- Netherlands 9.2%
- Poland 12.4%
Necessities
Based on the above, it is clear that one needs to do more than just saving to grow or even preserve their wealth.
That being said, here are some common sense tips to do to ensure one’s personal finances are in order to invest:
- Pay off high-interest debt.
- Save at least 3 months of living expenses.
- Have a stable job or income stream.
- Do not borrow to invest.
- Create a monthly surplus and invest with it.
Ok now that you’re ready to look into investing, let’s take a look at some popular investment classes.
Ways to Invest
Here are some of the most popular ways to invest.
Stocks. The US’s main stock market index, the S&P 500, has historically gained 10.5% annually on average over the past 100+ years.
Real Estate. Over a shorter time frame, 25 years, ending in 2021, commercial real estate gained 10.3% annually against 9.6% of the S&P 500.
Bitcoin and Digital Assets
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have outperformed all other investment classes over the past decade. They have also been susceptible to heavy volatility.
Here you can see the price of Bitcoin on May 1 of every year since 2013. If one invested in bitcoin on May 1, 2013 and held for nine years, their investment would have grown 32,326%, even if it’s been down for the past year, and in fact down 3 years over the nine years listed.
If one invested on May 1, 2017, 5 years later that investment would have grown 2,686%.
Now let’s look at Ethereum, the 2nd largest cryptocurrency in market capitalization, and the preferred decentralized finance (DeFi) platform.
Despite a volatile course over six years, an investment on May 1, 2016 would have gained 31,008%. An investment on May 1, 2020 would have gained 1332%. This is despite 75% drops from some years’ value on the same date.
Chase Bank analysts recently called crypto to be their preferred alternative investment class, more so than real estate.
Investors who are targeting investment growth over the long-term should strongly consider adding exposure to digital assets like bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies should be considered as a part of their investment strategy.
There are many more cryptocurrencies in the market that are even more volatile. While some offer even larger gains, they also have more risk and could go to 0.
One way to add exposure without risking everything on a single cryptocurrency is through diversification. If one has to spend dozens of hours studying hundreds of cryptocurrencies, they might get lost down the rabbit hole and spend too much time and never figure out what’s going on.
One could simply buy Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Another great way to add crypto to your portfolio in a diversified manner is through Amun DeFi.
About Amun DeFi
Amun takes the guesswork out of investing by automating your portfolio. Amun does this through three carefully crafted, efficient and low-fee index tokens, DFI, PECO and SOLI.
Amun is a leading cryptocurrency issuer which aims to make purchasing crypto more accessible, and efficient.
Through their sister company, 21Shares, Amun is the world’s largest issuer of crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs). Their suite of ETPs has simplified access to crypto for both institutional and retail investors in the traditional finance community.
In a similar fashion, Amun aims to provide tokens that will make it easy for the crypto community to access sophisticated strategies that are not otherwise readily available in this space. Amun is composed of a team of entrepreneurs, engineers, and financial product developers who are uniquely placed to revolutionize cryptocurrency investing through the issuance of our broad range of tokens. Their goal is to make these tokens present a new paradigm in cryptocurrency investing and to facilitate their use.
To find out more visit amun.com.
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This content is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute trading advice. Past performance does not indicate future results. Do not invest more than you can afford to lose. The author of this article may hold assets mentioned in the piece.
