The term 'ethical investment' can mean different things to different people. Before you invest, work out what it means to you.

If you want to invest your money in an ethical or sustainable way, one of the biggest questions you’ll need to think about is whether you invest along ethical and socially responsible lines or are more interested in environmental and climate change issues. If it’s an ethical approach you favour, that normally means some companies will be excluded from range of businesses it will invest in, whereas other investment funds may put money into a wider range of companies, but try and influence how they behave. There’s no right or wrong approach, it’s entirely down to you and how you feel.

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Unless you're happy to see your investments yo-yo, spreading your money between different types of investment is a shrewd move.

I was watching a TV programme the other day which featured a couple who had been advised to put half the money they planned to live on during their retirement into one investment fund. The fund, which they’d been told was low risk, lost over half its value. Although their example is extreme, most of us, when we start investing, tend to pile into one type of ‘asset’ (an asset is just a name for the type of investment – such as shares, property, etc). But by doing that, you may be taking on far more risk than you realise.

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We often talk about saving and investing in the same breath, but they’re not the same and it’s worth understanding why.

The last couple of years have made us realise that both saving and investing can be pretty risky. But despite the disappearance of a handful of well-known banking names, there’s still a big difference in the type – and levels – of risk involved in saving versus investing.

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