Everybody knows that they need to invest their money to see it grow, however there are a lot of people who are not comfortable in risking their money in investments. Fortunately there are ways that you can invest with very little risk. In general the less risk the lower your return will be but in a lot of cases a low return on a safe investment is the best option available.
The only way to invest without any risk at all to your capital is to put it in a savings account. This is an account that open with your bank and works just like any other bank account. The reason that there is no risk here is that your deposit is actually insured so that even if the bank fails you will still get your money back. The downside is that as investments go savings accounts are not all that useful. They pay very low interest and your money will grow very slowly.
There are other ways that you can invest your money with very little risk to your capital that will get you a better return than a savings account. These would include things like money market accounts, certificates of deposit and guaranteed investment certificates. These investments pay more interest than you would get on your savings account and really only come with the risk that the bank could fail. Since they are not protected by insurance there is a small risk of this happening. That being said the risk is very low and other than that there are no other risks.
In some cases the bond market can also offer you a way to invest with very little risk to your capital. However in this case you are going to have to be very careful. How much risk is involved will depend on who issued the bond. The safest are bonds that are issued by the federal government and if you are looking for a low risk investment this would be your best option. Other bond issuers will have higher interest rates but also more risk. There are other risks with bonds that may come into play if you are an active trader like interest rate risk but this is less of an issue if you hold the bonds to maturity. Bonds can be very complicated and it is usually best to invest in a bond mutual fund rather than individual bonds.
One option that not a lot of people consider when they are looking at ways to invest with little risk is derivatives. That would be futures and options. Most people think of these as high risk investments and they can be, however they can also be used to reduce your risk on other investments. Obviously you have to know what you are doing to use this approach since getting it wrong could expose you to a great deal of risk.