Growth, income, stability
When it comes to investing, "growth" means that an investment has the potential to grow in value; if that happens, you might be able to sell it for more than you paid for it (of course, if an investment loses value, you could lose principal). Income comes from regular payments of money. Interest on a savings account is income. So is interest on a certificate of deposit, interest paid by a bond, and stock dividends. Stability, the third potential objective of an investment, refers to protecting your principal. An investment that focuses on stability concentrates less on increasing the value of that investment, and more on trying to ensure that it doesn't lose value. As much as we might like to, we can't have it all. There is a relationship between growth, income, and the stability of our investments. The more important one of those areas becomes, the more you may have to trade off in terms of the other two. The key is to tailor your investments according to what you want them to do for you, and to balance stability, income, and growth so that you maximize your overall returns at a level of risk that you're comfortable with.