If you're new to investing then an area you may want to research about is bonds. Bonds are a great, relatively safe way to invest your money and get a return. Basically a bond is what you get when you loan a company or industry money for a certain amount of time at a certain interest rate. After the loan time is run out then you cash the bond back in to the company and they give you back what you loaned them plus the interest rate. In a way you're acting like a bank to them, but you're giving them a lower interest rate than what a bank would so it's adventageous for both parties.
The down side of bonds is you will have to pay taxes on the amount of money that you made. Many people avoid getting into bonds for this reason, but if they know where to look then they can avoid this altogether. It's called tax free bonds, or tax free municipal bonds. Basically if you purchase bonds from a government entity or certain organizations then you can get away with not having to pay taxes on the bonds. This is great news and is a fantastic way to invest your money. Not only will government entities always be able to pay back the money, but at the same time it will be 100% profit as you don't have to pay any money back to the government since that's who you were loaning the money to.
If you have money sitting in a bank account consider investing them in some tax free municipal bonds.
