What is investing?

Investing is putting money into something today with the expectation that it will be worth more later. Instead of letting cash sit still, you use it to buy assets like stocks, bonds, or funds that can grow in value or pay you along the way.

The point of investing is to make your money work while you sleep. Saving protects your money, but over long stretches investing is how most people try to outpace rising prices and build real wealth.

It comes with a catch: investments can lose value too, and returns are never guaranteed. Learning to invest is really about understanding that tradeoff between growth and risk before you put money in.

Buying a small share of a company for ₱1,000 and holding it as the business grows over several years is investing. The hope is that share is worth more later, though it could also drop.