Investing in the stock market is a great way to save up for those big things in life :

your kids education, the house of your dreams, and, of course, your retirement.

There are two main ways for you to invest : active investing and passive investing.

With passive investing your money is used to buy shares in a group of companies.

This group of companies is called an index.

If these companies collectively do well, so will the index, and your money will grow.

Because passive investing requires little human intervention fees are fairly low.

However, as passive investing only matches the performance of an index, your investment does not outperform that index.

Active investing, on the other hand, means you have a dedicated portfolio manager handling your investment.

Active managers want to outperform the index.

They use your money to buy shares in companies they predict will do well, and avoid companies they think will fail.

Your manager will try to seek out good investment opportunities to really make your money grow.

The bad news is this doesn't always happen.

With active investment there's room for error, so a lot depends on finding a great manager who can pick investments better than the rest.

Because active managers are so hands-on, they also tend to charge more for their services.

So what's best for you?

If you find the idea of choosing an active manager daunting, passive investing may be the way to go.

But if you prefer to risk more to potentially gain more, an active manager may be more your style.

A good idea might be to combine both active and passive funds.

Striking a balance between the two means you may just get the best of both worlds.

By starting to invest early, we'll get your money working for you.