I’ve barely been home for a minute in our apartment and Switzerland, and he immediately pounces. “I did a tremendous amount of reading this weekend, and I have a plan. I think we need to add more stocks to our portfolio! We now have insurance, financials, construction but let’s also go for consumer goods and maybe tech?”
I sigh, inaudibly, because I don’t want to dampen his enthusiasm. We have been together for two years and my soon-to-be husband is a tremendously smart, ambitious (and sweet) man. Very successful in business, and he even studied economics. But aside from “some stuff for my retirement,” he has never set foot in the world of investing.
A non-traditional relationship we have, on that front. I have been investing for several years. Through trial and error (and lots of conversations with investment experts), I have a lot of peace of mind around my investments. Nothing exciting. Brave every month in broadly diversified long-term funds.
No, then my partner. He has been converted to the investment faith since late 2022.
“But Puck, so it’s true that if we invest, long-term and widely diversified, we can get an average of 7% return per year on that? So that means we can double our assets in 10 years?”
Yes. Yes, you can. Nor can it. Because you too know: past results are no guarantee. But I am stoic when it comes to my investments. I look at historical data, learn from the experts, and keep going rigidly. Regardless of what the economy does.
I understand his enthusiasm, and his fear of missing out. Many conversations we have. There are some 40,000 companies in the stock market worldwide that you can invest in. Not to mention all the ETFs, funds, and other types of investments such as real estate, gold, crypto, crowdfunding and pigeons (yes, really, there are people who invest in pigeons!). All those products together form a giant haystack. You’re not going to find 5 pins in that as a private investor anytime soon. Much smarter is to buy big pickings from the haystack. For example, by investing in funds or ETFs. He knows it, but it’s like a child discovering that there’s a candy store around the corner: you still want most to try everything! Only to come home nauseous after a few visits and think, “for me only 2 licorice.
Would you also like to discover more about investing? Start by creating a free profile with Elfin and get your first small actions that you can pick up on your own to discover more about investing.
