Dear OP,
Let me tell you an amusing tale, during the second reign of Main Sb, he was forced to do something very daring, he tested the nuclear arsenal in Chagai despite the American pressure, we as youth were very jubilant in-fact our nuclear testing was celebrated across the entire Islamic world, but there were following implications,
- Both east and west imposed Sanctions on Pakistan, be it Americans, Europeans or Japanese, they all imposed sanctions and stopped all the aid.
- Pakistan's economy at that time was very closed and compare to today very small one, just like now we also were in the middle of IMF program, and the situation got so grave that Pakistan did not had dollars to repay interest on those foreign loans, so the infamous scheme 'Qarz uttaro mulk sanwaro', was launched.
- Governor State Bank said the economy is near collapse and Sartaj Aziz, then finance minster didn't know what to do about it, so Ishaq Dar was given finance portfolio, now the solution that he proposed was also very drastic, freeze all the foreign currency account, so 10 Billions $ were frozen (Maybe the biggest heist in history of the world).
- Pakistanis themselves lost confidence in their economy, and capital was flying out of here, rather then foreign investment coming in.
- KSE lost almost 30% of its value, and index was I think around 700 points.
It was early 1999, I was around 22 years of age, at that time I had around Rs 10,000 of saving from my own pocket money, one day I saw an add from NIT, and decided to invest the money in it. My savings at that time would be equivalent to 300 to 400 US $, so I got the address I took the public bus from Rawalpindi to Islamabad (Route # 1), the address was at the china chowk, Blue area which was on the service road between the constitution avenue and Fazl-e-Haq road, but for hour and half I just could not find their office and when eventually I did found out it, it was closed.
I came back home and during the night I kept thinking about this deal, and eventually got the cold feet and decided not to invest my savings in NIT, at that time the NIT unit was I think around Rs 7, but I let this opportunity pass me by.
Then regime changed, Musharraf Sb came 9/11 happened, as horrible as implication for that incident were to follow, it was very profitable at that time, Shaukat Aziz was finance minster, he was financial genius, the economy got recovered the sanctions got lifted, so began half a decade worth of prosperity.
KSE index started to climb new heights, now that index is around 23,200 points on 1/8/2013, now the amusing part is lets suppose if I would not chickened out of that deal, how much those Rs 10,000 in 1999 would have being worth today, an educated guess is more then Million Rs.
So the moral of story is, if you have the savings what should one do with it, Become consumer or investor?
In my opinion consumerism is one of the silliest thing that Musharraf Sb gave to Pakistan, today there is a race going on of upgrading to next level, be it mobiles, clothes, home appliances, rides, homes......... you name it we are trying to get higher faster bigger of everything regardless of things already in our possession, its never ending vicious cycle, where one discards perfectly fine thing that is fulfilling the purpose it was designed for and is not broken anyway, we still want to go ahead and upgrade to next level, that's consumption and is waste of resources.
So investing is the only option, but I think first of all you should really read all the material that you can find on the subject of investment, be it in equities, directly or indirectly through Mutual funds or be it property, study it thoroughly and then make up your own mind on which way to go, and after all the deliberations go with your own instincts.
After you gone ahead with the investment, there are two possible outcome, either you will make some or loose some, both will keep you in good stead, lets suppose you make something its very exhilarating to earn extra through the grace of Almighty & being smart.
Now lets suppose if you loose something, its better if you are to loose anything that you loose it now when you have no added pressure and parents are there to support you, rather then loosing later when you will be responsible for own family and stakes will be much higher.
But for God sake never follow the example of idiots on these forums who are teenagers pretending to be something else, and squandering their parents hard earned money on constant buying and selling of vehicles, of all the ways to earn money the hardest one is buying and selling vehicles, and fraught with high risk, so keep away from it.
Faisal