Risk is the chance that something might not go the way you planned. When you invest money, there's always a risk you might lose some of it — but there's also a chance to gain more! Generally, investments with higher potential returns come with higher risk. Keeping all your money in one place is risky — if that one thing fails, you lose everything. That's why smart investors "diversify" — they spread their money across many different investments. A savings account has very low risk but grows slowly. Stocks have higher risk but can grow much faster.