Category: Grundlagen

Happy 2021 – Five Reasons to Focus on Your Financial Health This Year

Happy 2021 – Five Reasons to Focus on Your Financial Health This Year

In my first post for 2021, I will argue why financial health will become even more important this year. Certainly, 2020 has been hijacked by the COVID-19 pandemic on a scale we would have not imagined in our wildest dreams. As we enjoy in the first full week of 2021, the news is still dominated by the overwhelming negativity of the topic. With such a mega-event up in the air, there is the obvious risk of loosing sight of many other topics, financial health and financial education being one of them. As we all have become tired of Corona-news, it’s worthwhile thinking about things that matter beyond the pandemic. I firmly believe that taking care of your personal, financial health should be an immediate priority, for everyone. Why? Watch or read on!

To hear and read more, click here!

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There is still hope for financial education!

There is still hope for financial education!

Already some three and a half years back, I wrote an extensive article on financial education (in German). At the time, I argued that financial education needs to come from various sources: Parents, schools, Financial Institutions and others.

On might argue, that not a lot has happened since I wrote that article. The level of basic know-how on finances in the wider population remains low. E.g., 70% of respondents did not know what a mutual fund was. Let alone the difference between a mutual fund and an ETF.

At the same time, I am pleased to see that the topic of financial literacy was taken up recently in the political space. Not only did the current Austrian government include financial education in its program. It also recently launched an initiative to bring financial education in the curricula of schools.

Read more in this article in Die Presse or in the press release of the Austrian Ministry of Finance.

So, maybe, there is indeed hope for financial education! 🙂

The Emergency Fund

The Emergency Fund

In last week’s blog post, I shared a number of tips on how to manage the COVID-19 crisis in your personal finances. I had mentioned the emergency fund as an important vehicle in your financial setup to manage unforeseen disasters. Set up the right way, the emergency fund can buffer away risks of intermittent earning and buy you loads of peace of mind. The importance of having an emergency fund has been underlined by the current COVID-19 situation. But how does it really work? What is best practice?

To read more, click here!

Who shall provide financial education?

Who shall provide financial education?

In a recent post, I wrote – maybe a bit provocatively – that banks are not in charge of their customer’s financial education. Well, then: Who is or should be in charge? Obviously, two other sources of financial education come to mind – parents and school. This article explores both of these options and gives some recommendations on how to achieve this. So: Happy reading 🙂

To read more, click here!

Have banks lost sight of their customers?

Have banks lost sight of their customers?

One of the reasons for writing this blog has been to disseminate unbiased information about personal finance to an interested audience. I want to share knowledge on personal finance topics and make a difference in the world for those who are struggling with their finances. There would obviously be other sources for this information, e.g., schools – which utterly fail at teaching very practical knowledge on personal finance for a variety of reasons or e.g., banks – which utterly fail to deliver unbiased personal finance information. I want to focus on the latter today and analyze why banks are doing so poorly at catering to their customer needs.

To read more, click here!

The three stages of financial freedom

The three stages of financial freedom

The URL of my blog is myfinancialfreedom.blog. But what is financial freedom really about? Financial freedom is the third stage of a journey which fundamentally improves your financial situation step by step. The first stage is financial stability, the second stage is financial independence and the last stage is financial freedom. Financial freedom is most accurately defined such that all your expenses are covered by passive income streams. Read more about the three stages of financial freedom in this blog post!

To read more, click here!

meinefinanziellefreiheit.com will appear in English from now on: myfinancialfreedom.blog

meinefinanziellefreiheit.com will appear in English from now on: myfinancialfreedom.blog

Switching my blog from Germany to English? Really? While this may come as a surprise to many of you, I had pondered about it move for a while. Ultimately, I want to reach an audience as broad and large as possible with my blog. I believe there is a tremendous need for fact-based, unbiased information on personal finance issues. Simply put, I want to better cater to this need in English going forward. Let me thank all of my German-speaking readers for their support to date. While I hope you will continue reading my blog also in English, I look forward to having many new readers join the community.

Today’s article will lay out my reasons for switching the language of my blog from German to English—even adding an additional, English URL to reach this blog: myfinancialfreedom.blog

To read more, click here!

Sind persönliche Finanzen Männersache?

Sind persönliche Finanzen Männersache?

In meinem Artikel vor einigen Wochen habe ich meine Leser in einer Umfrage um Feedback und Anregungen gebeten. Ich danke Euch herzlich für Eure zahlreichen Rückmeldungen! Wenn ich aus der Demographie der Umfrage auf meine Leserschaft extrapoliere, ergibt sich ein ziemlich eindeutiges Bild wer meinen Blog liest: Männer zwischen 30 und 50 mit höherer Bildung, die überwiegend in einer Partnerschaft leben. Überrascht hat mich das zwar nicht, doch war die Tatsache, dass mehr als 85% Männer sind, doch sehr verblüffend. Dieser Artikel geht daher der Frage nach, ob persönliche Finanzen Männersache sind.

Zum Weiterlesen klicke hier!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Wie schon im Titel gesagt, wünsche ich Euch alles Gute für das Neue Jahr 2019! Ich wünsche Euch ein gutes Händchen in finanziellen Angelegenheiten und würde mich freuen, wenn ich diesem Händchen auch künftig ein wenig helfen kann. Denn meine Neujahrsgrüße sind mit einem „willkommen zurück“ verbunden – nach ca. sechs Monaten Pause werde ich künftig wieder wöchentlich (immer donnerstags um 8h) einen Artikel publizieren. Warum und wie es weiter geht, erfahrt Ihr in diesem Beitrag. Gerne möchte ich Euch auch um Input zur weiteren Gestaltung von meinefinanziellefreiheit.com bitten – hier der Link zu einer Umfrage!

Warum habe ich so lange nicht geschrieben?

Zwischen meinem letzten Post „Das verflixte erste Jahr“ zum Thema Abzugssteuern bei ETFs sind fast genau sechs Monate vergangen. Diese Pause war von mir weder so geplant noch hätte ich gedacht, dass sie so lange andauern würde. Im Juni und Juli 2018 hatte ich beruflich eine Menge um die Ohren, weshalb ich kurzfristig keine Artikel mehr verfasste.

Zum Weiterlesen klicke hier!