[charlesdm]

Saving money is the beginning of being poor. Investing it, however, is not. You don't actually need a ton of capital to make decent income off of compound interest (capital gains), which is taxed at a lower tax rate (or not taxed at all in some countries). If your money is working for you, you shouldn't have to worry too much about saving on purchases.

That said, a lot of people are completely stupid with money. Some people will try to save money by cutting expenses everywhere and then, for example, proceed to overpay €10-20-50k on a house. Or not negotiate high random fees, ever.

[scotu]

Investing is also not as easy as saving. How does someone goes from no-invesment-knowledge to not-loosing-money in investment (and possibly "decent income off of compound interest")? Just trusting the bank guy?

[charlesdm]

Rule 1: Never trust the bank guy. With the exception of perhaps private banking (though fees are high there), if those people really knew how to make money, they wouldn't be working at a (consumer) bank. They'd raise a $10-20-50m fund and make a killing for their clients and themselves. It's that simple.

Either you go with low fee index funds (i.e. Vanguard S&P500, which tracks the market and will require the least amount of effort) or you learn about investing by putting in the time to understand things properly (which might lead to higher returns but can take a lifetime).

[superdog683]

one can spend end less amounts of time on "investing"

i like macro-economics and treat it as a hobby.

others that may have little interest in the subject could take a simple route.

25% gold/silver 25% blue chip dividend or index fund 25% property or rental 25% in your business or hobby, if you spend/invest in what you know and like will usually do well same with work do what you have passion and ability=success

if #3 and 4 dont apply just put 20% gold/silver and 80% in 10 different good dividend paying blue chip. why gold and silver?? because inflation protection against fiat currency. another note now not the time to by stocks, now is time to sell. buy after next correction.

[scotu]

bank guy: I somehow suspected that

thanks

[markdog12]

This is a great book, Four Pillars of Investing - https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portf...

[scotu]

thanks

[lukego]

You could consider the Bogleheads investing start-up kit: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_investing_s...

[tamana]

I see you are in Europe. In USA it's overpaying $100K-$500K for a house.