Investing money these days in a banks deposit account can yield little or no return. Most banks currently offer rates of about 5%. Once you have paid DIRT on the gain, and compare that to todays leveles of inflation, you will see you might has well have left the money under your mattress !!

Here’s another example to highlight exactly the value of money on deposit.

In 1990 you put €1.00 in a deposit account. You leave it there until December 2007 and its risen to €209. However, taking into account inflation its real value is only €2.00 !!

The same sum invested into the Irish Stock Market, with dividends re invested each year, would have been worth €13,478. Allowing for inflation the shareholder would have €128.

That’s quite a difference and obviously with the stock market, there are ups and downs.

2006 was a hard year for investors with losses of about 30%.

But if you can hang on, and leave your investment there for a number of years, the benefits are obvious.