Investing should be a must for all. It's a way to protect assets from inflation, and they can even grow. If you want to be financially well in the future, investing is one way to go about it. Depending on your finances, you can choose various investments to suit your financial capability.  

These investments come with various risks, so it's best to check which one of the following types of investments will be suitable for you: 

1. Silver 

One of the many commodities you can invest in is silver, as it has a monetary value too. That's why many investors consider silver as both a form of money and a commodity. Moreover, silver has become more valuable because of its industrial demand from energy, medical, and telecommunications technologies. Silver is resistant to corrosion, has electric and thermal conductivity, and is malleable, making it vital to various industries. 

As the supply of silver is falling while its demand is increasing, silver's price becomes higher. Because of such, you can use it as a hedge against inflation. It means that in times of economic crisis, rounding out your portfolio with silver reduces your portfolio's risks to be negatively affected.  

You can invest in silver in many ways: 

• Silver Stocks: This means investing in companies related to silver that produces or mines silver. The stock prices of such have comparable prices of silver. By buying silver stocks, you can trade them quickly because of the stock market's liquidity. In investment parlance, liquidity means the ability to buy or sell the security or asset quickly in its market value. That means you can easily turn silver stocks into cash. 

• Silver Bullion: If you want to own silver, buying silver bars physically is the most direct way. However, its liquidity is not as significant as silver stocks or ETFs. It's because you need to determine the authenticity and purity of the silver bullion when buying them.  

• Mutual Funds And Exchange-Traded Funds: This type of silver investment is an excellent way to diversify your portfolio. Because individual silver stocks and silver can fluctuate, these baskets of stocks can be used in silver's favor. 

2. Gold 

Another commodity that you can invest in is gold. Depending on the supply and demand's interplay, the price of gold gets affected. Because gold is like silver, which is always in demand in jewelry and other industries, its value increases even when the economy is in distress. 

For instance, during the economic downturn sometime in 2007 and 2009, stock prices decreased 36%, while gold rose 25%. This is usually true because investors turn to gold investments when the capital markets are in crisis. With such, they can keep their assets safe by investing in gold.  

Like silver, there are many ways to invest in gold as follows: 

• Physical Gold: It comes by buying gold coins or bars. When buying such, you usually pay for a premium or the costs related to how the gold bars are packed, shipped, or delivered. The level of purity of gold determines its worth in investment, while coins depend on its rarity. 

• Gold ETFs: Instead of storing gold bars or coins, investing in ETFs allows you to own gold shares from various companies. The ETFs hold your share on your behalf, and they trade it while you wait for your dividend.  

• Jewelry: With gold jewelry, you can enjoy the benefit of wearing such. However, the purity of gold isn't 100% because pure gold is too soft. That's why gold jewelry has combinations of gold and other metals to become durable. 

3. Mutual Funds 

One popular investment vehicle is mutual funds. In mutual funds, there are various asset classes and industries. As a result, the price is fair, and it's convenient to invest in. There are fewer risks, and you get to enjoy advanced portfolio management.  

Because mutual funds are traded once a day, the price doesn't fluctuate quickly. As a result, mutual funds have lower minimum investment requirements.  

With mutual funds, you can diversify your portfolio as it invests in, at least, 50 other securities. Some stock index mutual funds even have 1,000 or more stocks. 

Also, you receive dividends from mutual funds, and you can use these to repurchase shares. By doing this, you can grow your mutual funds investment.  

Because you pay a small fee for the professional portfolio manager, you won't have to trade stocks or bonds. The professional manager will be the one to do this as a way to manage your portfolio. 

4. Exchange-Traded Funds 

An exchange-traded fund or ETF trades like a stock by having a bundle of investments. It's also similar to mutual funds which are cheap and help with portfolio diversification. Unlike mutual funds, ETFs have the characteristic of stocks which you can trade. Thus, you can buy and sell them on your own.  

When you buy an ETF, you're also buying various assets without buying them individually. Here's how ETF works: 

• First, an ETF provider considers the baskets of bonds, stocks, and other assets. The provider uses a unique ticker to track the index. 

• Next, you can buy shares from their baskets like buying shares from companies.  

• You can then trade throughout the day or whenever you want to sell or buy the ETF. 

What's even more remarkable about ETFs is that they have lower fees of around 0.53%, unlike 1.42% of the mutual funds. As a result, you can gain more from your capital. 

Conclusion 

When you have enough extra money to invest, don't stick with one investment vehicle only. There are many options out there, and it's best to have more than one investment type. That way, you can diversify your portfolio.  

You can invest in commodities like silver and gold as they can secure your assets in times of economic crisis. Another is mutual funds and ETFs which earn more gains while balancing your investment portfolio, 

Please don't waste your money by merely saving them in banks; let them grow by investing.