The world of money

Question 2: Suppose over the next 10 years the prices of the things you buy double. If your income also doubles, will you be able to buy less than you can buy today, the same as you can buy today, OR more than you can buy today? Answer: same This case seems to be clear – when you earn 1000 …

Question 3: Suppose you need to borrow $100. Which is the lower amount to pay back: $105 or $100 plus three percent? Answer: $100 plus tree percent I have to be honest, I simply couldn’t believe, so many adult people would have problems to give the correct answer to that question. And it’s even harder to understand in Romania, where …

It’s the essence of being a successful investor. Invest in a stock at a low level and to sell it at the top. To achieve this, financial institutions let nothing untouched. Hundred of people spending thousands of hours feeding millions of company- and economic-data into computers. Besides this fundamental approach, we have also the technical analysis where the focus is …

Currently, my ‘inbox’ is working overtime while I’m sleeping. Dozens of reports titled ‘outlook for stocks 2016’ or ‘market perspectives 2016’ make their way into my box overnight. The right strategy for 2016 is probably in mind of many investors, so this ‘outlooks’ and ‘perspectives’ are just in time. Before we start to take a look into the markets for …

‘Never think about money, never work for money. Always think about the product, always work for the product’. Nicolas Hayek, the founder of ‘swatch’, gave that answer, when asked about his secret of success in 1992. On that day in the swiss alps, ‘swatch’ celebrated the sale of 100 million watches. The company was founded only 9 years ago. The …

‘I didn’t order that!’ – or how to avoid a nasty surprise You probably remember the Champions League final 1999 in Barcelona between Bayern Munich and ManU. With two goals in the last seconds, ManU turned the game upside down and won the trophy. As it was bad enough for the german players or fans, for one Bayern-assistant, it was …

In case you intend to invest your money into stocks and ask your banker for a way to do so, you get to a high degree of certainty the answer: ‘Invest in a mutual fund’. A mutual fund pools the money of you and thousands of other investors and – this is the banker’s best argument – this money is …

Summer 1929 – New York In the ‘Roaring Twenties’ – a period of powerful economic growth and profound cultural change from 1920 to 1929 – the national wealth in the US doubled. The Dow Jones rocketed, thereby creating many new millionaires and stock trading became America’s favorite pastime as investors could make a quick killing. Many invested their life savings …

In previous chapters, I raised a lot of questions about China, now we try to find the answers. Is a stock market crash in China likely? Yes, almost for sure. Is a global economic crises likely? Yes, and the risk is rising. I have never been to mainland China, but several times in Hong Kong before the handover and after. …

A financial health study by Wells Fargo revealed that 44% of people would rather discuss death, religion or their health than their financial situation. Now this figure is valid for the US and it’s even higher in the german speaking part of Europe, where for instance the monthly salary is kept very private even among longtime friends. For Romania, this …