Note that technically this is wrong at least if you're talking economics. In economics, what defines investment vs consumption is that the consumption value is

Note that technically this is wrong at least if you're talking economics. In economics, what defines investment vs consumption is that the consumption value is provided over time for investment instead of immediately for consumption: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_(macroeconomics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_(macroeconomics) Investment doesn't imply positive returns. A squirrel hiding nuts in a cache to survive the winter is investing instead of consuming, even though some of these nuts will spoil or be stolen making the returns negative. Note that GDP equals consumption + investment (sometimes the government and export/import components are broken down in the equation).