Term deposits won't give best returns, investment expert warns

In the long haul, a term deposit meant investors could end up with as little as a half or a third of the money they could have had by investing in "say a good share fund," she said.

"Investment risk is a good thing for people who know what they are doing," she said, at the launch of her new booklet: Snakes and Ladders, a guide to risk for savers and investors.

Some people bailed out of international shares after being bitten between 2000 and 2003. Sometimes investments dropped heavily from one year to the next, but if people stayed in share funds for 10 years, they almost never lost money.

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