Introduction

People save and invest for various purposes: for holidays, home improvements, cars, deposits for house purchase, children’s education, old age, and general security. Some of these are shortterm objectives and others long term.The single biggest long-term objective is usually the provision of a retirement income. The time horizon of the investment will influence the nature of the investment. Savings for a holiday are unlikely to be put into a risky investment such as shares. Saving for a pension is unlikely to be in low return investments such as bank or building society accounts.