What kind of return can I expect?
In terms of performance, and taking the medium term view, direct investment in UK equities has consistently outperformed most other types of investments, particularly building society and other forms of deposit accounts.
You can get two kinds of return on your investment in shares - capital growth as the value of your shares rise - and income as the shares pay dividends to investors. Both of these should rise to reflect a company's continuing prosperity.
In bank or building society savings accounts, your money simply earns interest over the years at whatever the current rate happens to be - the original capital sum you have invested remains the same, although its purchasing power actually declines over the years because of inflation.
But shares are risk investments - their prices can go down as well as up. Over the long term the trend is upwards - even the dramatic rises and falls of the late 1980s did nothing to undermine the continuing upward trend in the performance of ordinary shares.
So the message is clear: investment in a sensible spread of shares over a reasonable period will typically yield significantly higher returns. As a client of an APCIMS investment manager or stockbroker, you have real choice in organising your investments.
Some shares offer a relatively high immediate income, others are geared more to future growth of both capital and income. You get to define the balance between security and risk, income and growth, through your professionally constructed portfolio of stocks and shares.