Naturally, when you invest your money, you hope that you will eventually get back more than you put in! However, returns are not usually guaranteed and you may not get back as much as you invested. Returns can therefore be positive, negative or zero.
Generally, you can expect higher returns from investments that tie up your money for longer periods. A savings account with a withdrawal notice period will generally offer a higher rate of interest than an instant-access account. Similarly, longer-dated bonds tend to offer higher income than short-dated bonds. And equities have historically offered higher returns than both cash and bonds over the long term.
You can get two types of returns from investments - income and capital gains (or losses). Income is money payable to owners of investments during the period of ownership (such as rent money or dividends).
For example, if you have invested in equities, the investment return will include dividends due to shareholders in the period. Dividends are one way of rewarding company owners (the shareholders) and are usually paid out twice a year.
Capital gains (or losses) are the increases (or decreases) in the value of your investments when you come to sell them compared with what you originally paid. It is important to remember that the value of many investments can go down as well as up.