Many people build up decent amounts of savings as they go through life, but the vast majority of people do not have sufficient knowledge to successfully increase their wealth. This is a shame because if you make your money work for you, you can actually become extremely wealthy in the long run.

The biggest mistake you can make is to lock your savings away in a current account. This is a basic mistake that many people make, but it is important because the interest rates you will receive on this cash is minimal.

At the very least you should put this money into a high-interest savings account. Admittedly these are quite hard to find at the moment with interest rates being so low, but if you take some time to shop around, particularly online, then you can still find a few decent rates.

These savings accounts are better than current accounts, but there are still better options available to you if you really want to increase your savings. One of those options is to buy high interest bonds. These are more of a long-term investment because they often have a maturity date several years in the future, but some of them do pay very handsome interest yields every year.

Another option is to either invest your money into a mutual fund or invest in the stock market yourself. Unless you are an experienced investor I would recommend you invest in a mutual fund because it's very easy to lose money if you either buy into the wrong companies or you buy into strong companies at the wrong time.

The best time to invest in mutual funds is basically when everyone is selling. To increase the chances of you making substantial long-term gains, you ideally want to buy into these mutual funds at the bottom of the market rather than the top.

This is why I personally believe that now is a good time to start thinking about making long-term investments into these funds. Although there may be slightly more downside to come, I think the major stock markets are very close to bottoming out at the moment.

Finally if you have substantial amounts of savings you may also consider buying into the property market. Property will always be a solid long-term investment because you can enjoy capital growth and rental income if you let out the property. Again I think with property prices falling so sharply, now is a good time to pick up a few bargains because as a buyer you are in a strong position to negotiate better deals.

Whichever methods you choose, it's always important that you make your money work for you because you can achieve real financial wealth and prosperity in future years if you invest your money wisely.

In sum, the best ways to have more is to get your money to do more! The three means to achieve this are 1. Budget the money you have. Don't overspend. 2. Get out of debt. Consolodate your credit cards to lower interest cards or no interest-rate cards. Make larger payments than your minimum and stop borrowing. 3. Save and invest as much as you possibly can. Most people who save for retirement always wish they were more ambitious and saved more while they were still working. So more is always better than less when it comes to saving money.