Lets start off with the basics, “Investing is the act of committing money or capital to an endeavour (a business, project, real estate, etc) with the expectation of obtaining an additional income or profit.”…. so by that definition our options are potentially very large.

However, we can largely group things in several categories:

Equities

Equities or stocks are simply part ownership, shares, of a company. The simplest version of this is when people buy or sell via the stock exchange. The benefit of owning equities is:

Dividends: Periodic payments made out of the company's profits.
Growth: Ideally the price of a stock appreciates and you can sell them for profit.

Bonds

Is an instrument for fixed income (debt). Bonds are loans made by an investor to a borrower (typically corporate or governmental) for raising capital. A bond is a promise to repay the principal along with fixed rate of interest on a specified date (maturity date).

Certificate of Deposits/Term Deposit

These are interest bearing, debt instruments offered by banks. Typically its a deposit with a specified period of maturity and earns interest.

Cash Equivalents

Instruments like treasury bills and money market funds are equivalent to cash and can be easily converted into cash as and when required.

Cash

Name says it all

Alternative Assets

Alternative assets run the gauntlet, from private equity to water rights. Simply they are investments into asset classes other than stocks, bonds, and cash.

Commodities

The most notable of commodities are Gold and Silver, but there are several other commodities available to investors from wheat and corn to platinum.

Real Estate/ Property Investing (REITS/ Non Reits)

Real estate investing can take several form but typically involves the purchase, ownership, management, rental and/or sale of real estate for profit. Typically there are many flavours of real estate investing, directly or through equity like investments (REITS).