h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Investing can be fun and doesn't mean to have to be able to follow the stock market unless you want to.

Some tips:

Hobbies:

Yes you will be surprised how many hobbies are good investments. I have quite a sizeable stamp collection that my grandfather got me started on when I was young. I spent very little on it doing swaps and trades and getting big loads of stamps in bargain bags, although when I did spend money on stamps it was on rare of complete sets of specific thing. The gross value of my collection is now several thousand pounds and continues to grow.

I also as a result of working in a Jewellers started to collect swatch watches most of these I wear but the limited edition one's are still in their origianl packaging and accumulating value all the time.

Investing can be in waht you enjoy.

Model cars/trains, books (if you have a prestine first edition 1st Harry Potter book you have a small futrune already), watches, figures of various types. Whatever you like can be a sound investment.

Savings accounts: OK so you have a little ammount of money set aside don't keep it in a jar, let it work for you. Even a small amount can gain money, the more you have the more interest banks are liable to give you for boorowing it so bear this in mind. Banks would like you to save and leave it there. The longer you commit the money for the higher the rate of interest and this is safe.

Stocks and shares: are risky but you can minimise the risk if you want. Diversify or use a unit trust, you may still lose money but the loss should be spread out a little. Don't invest more than you are prepare to loss though. You may win you may lose. If you take the risk an decide to manage the portfolio yourself. Still diversify and keep tabs on things and don't get too greedy get out on the up, before it's starts to go down.

Pension Schemes: Start young, the more you can put away the better off you will be when your country deems you too old to work any more, or even better when you've had enough and pack it in.

When your money matures: Say you have bought bonds, or some investment scheme and the money plus interest is paid to you what do you do next.

Take what you think you will need for a treat, big or small and the rest shop around and reinvest. Look to the future and realise that you won't always be earning the wage packet you are currently and every little invested now will help later on.

I just wanted to mention a few other things I've seen people collect with good success.

* coins
* comic books
* sports cards, or alternatively customizable card games like Magic, Star Wars, Pokemon, etc.
* antiques

As with all collectibles, you must be prepared to know what you are doing, or you are likely to squander your money. For this reason, it is always best to collect things you have a general interest in.

Hehe that goes without saying.