First of all you need to look at your finances.
How much do you earn or your household earn each month [this should be fairly easy to determine], and how much are you spending each month.
Also where is the money that you are spending going? You want to save as much as you possibly can, but I would put a minimum at around 15-20% of the money that you take home.
You will have a lot of options with this money that you plan on saving.
It will be tempting to just do nothing with it and let it slowly grow in a bank account.
Sometimes the biggest risk in investing is not taking enough risk.
The.
1% interest you would get in a bank account simply does not cut it when inflation is 3% a year on average.
You will be losing money each year.
If you will need the money that you are saving in the near future, within 5 years, look for short, safe investments.
This includes short term bonds, certificate deposits, and money market checking accounts.
You should be able to earn 3-4% on these investments each year which means you be at least keeping up with inflation.
If you are saving for the long term do not be afraid to take a little risk.
I recommend investing in a diversified portfolio.
Over time your returns should average out to be around 10% which means your money will be growing fairly quickly even with inflation factored in.