Geldanlage: Zehn Dinge, die ich als Anfänger über ETFs gelernt habe

Ten essential lessons I learned about ETFs as a novice investor:

When I first started investing my own money, the focus of my financial strategy was to spend as little as possible. While my brother loaded up on mixed packs, I kept my money to myself. Eventually, all my earnings, with few exceptions that paid fixed interest, ended up in my savings account. It may not come as a surprise that I grew up as a classic left-green humanities student, more interested in US political affairs than my own financial matters.

That changed when I had to reorganize my private pension last year. After all, that was what I had been focused on since completing my degree in 2008, with a portfolio based on equity funds. It was sold to a friend, who naturally assured me this was a very safe idea. I didn't think twice and signed on the dotted line. I quickly filed the annual overview post without giving it much thought.

Even a savings book would have done more than that. The fact that I started looking more closely last year was probably due to switching to Business Daily. It's impossible to ignore one's finances eventually. Just turning 42, I discovered that after more than 15 years and more than 20,000 euros in contributions, I had only made 1,000 euros in profit. Despite the equity markets doing quite well during that time.