Unless you fancy yourself as an Active Trader or a Property tycoon, you will invest in assets through some kind of fund. The important thing to remember is not to lose yourself in the torrent of jargon, hype and drivel that seems to go hand-in-glove with the fund industry and to stay firmly focused on three things:

Have you noticed how LOOT! keeps referring to investing through funds rather than in funds, which is the common terminology? That's a very deliberate choice of wording, aimed at helping you keep your eye on what really matters: the underlying assets of the fund. The fund itself is just a piece of bookkeeping or administration of a collective investment by a wide number of investors, nothing more, nothing less. The fund is the means by which you invest; the assets in which the funds puts your money is your investment. That is the thing you need to keep foremost in your mind: the fund is a vehicle; the assets are the investment.

The most popular types of asset administration in Ireland are unit-linked funds. These are administered by Life Offices, which continue to exercise a stranglehold on the Irish market. These are issued as policies to investors for lump sums (single premiums) or regular sums (recurring premiums, or savings policies). They a realso used to administer pension schemes, which we'll examine in the next chapter.

Elsewhere there is a huge range of funds available, from Open-Ended Investment Companies (OEICs), Unit Trusts and Investment Trusts. The investment choice available from the European fund industry varies in line with the wide diversity of assets available, from Cash to China, from Gold Mining to Government Bonds. Once you've a good understanding of the likely behaviour of the assets held by a fund, it's much easier to understand what's happening to your money.