Investing refers to the buying of shares (bought at a price) and the selling of shares (sold at a price). With the passage of time investing has become a vital part of business as a major portion of overall business activity. To invest in the financial market, means that you are to put your money in the bank in order to have the possibility of earning interest on it. To understand investing properly, it is important to know what it is all about. Here is a simple overview of investing.

Investing can be of two types: active and passive. In active investing, one makes investments on an ongoing basis and expects future income from those investments; in passive investing, you put your money in a trust and expect a certain amount of income in future years from that fund. Active investments may include stocks, bonds, mutual funds and real estate properties. On the other hand, passive investments may be in bonds, mutual funds, CDs, insurance policies, stocks, currency pairs and commodity markets.

There are different types of investing. One is general investing wherein you put all your savings, stocks, bonds, funds, etc. into one big investment and make that big investment grow over time. This is the most common type of investing in terms of asset allocation.

Another type of investing is known as concentrated investing wherein you put a smaller amount of money into more numerous investments. This is used for medium-term and long-term investments. Many people also put their money into real estate property and stocks, as these investments provide long-term gains.

It is very important that a person decides what type of investing he wants to do before doing so. This decision must be based on the investor’s long-term goals and strategies. If an investor does not have a plan, then his decisions will always be unpredictable and could turn out to be a total waste of time and money. The best thing to do is to take time and assess yourself so you know what you really want to do.

An essential part of investing is the way you handle your assets and your dividend. Dividends paid by corporations are considered to be income or profits. In the case of personal investments, a dividend is considered to be the income or profit obtained through the services of an individual. In either case of an investment, dividends are given for having done the services and not for the stock price. Remember that both dividends and stock prices fluctuate, and the amount you receive may change from time to time.