It's called investing. There are, basically, two ways this works.

1. You can spend your money on something that will, you hope, be worth more in the future. Thus, when you sell it later your money has made more money for you.

2. At any given time there are people who have extra money, and people who need some extra money. Since most of these people will not know each other (in which case they might just help each other for free), it has become the custom for people who have money to lend it to those who do not through a middle-man who knows both parties. Since there is some risk involved to the lenders (the borrowers may not repay the debt ) and, since the middle-man wants something for his effort, it is customary to charge a fee for the privilege of borrowing. This makes investment very easy, but not as profitable, once you find a middle-man to help. Many of these middle-men work for banks. Thus, you can loan your money to a bank (deposit it in a savings account or a CD) and the bank will, eventually, return your money and a little bit extra. They can afford to do this because they are loaning your money to someone else, and charging that person more than they are giving back to you.

Good luck and good interest rates.

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