If you have money to spare you can save it or/and invest it. Both savings and investments serve the same purpose. They are meant for securing future gains. Yet there are some inherent technical differences between them. They reach the same goals but with different ways.
One big difference between the two is time. “Savings” is usually money you set aside for emergencies and for the short-term goals. “Investments” enable you to pay for longer-term goals such as going to graduate school or buying a better car. Investments are designed to be held for a longer term, usually at least 5 years. You need to be comfortable with tying up this money for a period of time, and should not consider investments unless you have some savings in place.
Risk and reward is another difference between savings and investments. Risk and reward are related characteristics of investments. The higher the risk of a particular savings or investment choice (risk means the possibility of losing some or all of your money), the higher the potential reward (or what you potentially can earn). Most investments are not guaranteed to return your money in full, although do offer the prospect of higher returns than deposit accounts. Returns, risk and volatility are the factors that will determine a suitable place for your savings. Savings is keeping aside some of your income that you earned today, in a different pocket for your future to secure it. This gives financial as well as mental security. So we can say that savings are without a risk (or with very low risk) but also without a reward (or very low reward).
Another difference lies in the liquidity of the fund. In case of savings in banking sector, all you need is to go to the bank and take out the money when in need of immediate requirement. In worst case, the bank may charge you any amount for the default. But if you have invested in real estate either you will have to settle with anything you can get or have to wait for a miracle to have a customer offering you good price.
As for the savings, you have few options. You can use saving accounts, money market accounts, U.S. saving bonds and CDs. And as for the investments, you also have few choices like stocks, government bonds, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, mutual bonds etc. but you can also invest in real estates and other.
If you have money to spare you can save it or/and invest it. Both savings and investments serve the same purpose. They are meant for securing future gains. Yet there are some inherent technical differences between them. They reach the same goals but with different ways. 
