Surprisingly, investing can be as simple or as complicated as you wish to make it. Of course, you can spend hours reading financial reports from thousands of companies each year to make your decisions. An alternative would be to choose a couple of well-dispersed ETFs. Easier still: you delegate the work to us by choosing MeManaged. All you need to do is tell us how much risk you want to take with your investments. We will do the rest.
That is not true. At MeDirect, you can start investing with as little as €50. It is, however, important to have a buffer for (un)expected events like vacations, a broken washing machine, car repairs, etc.
Ideally, you would invest with money you do not urgently need. Then, the amount you invest will depend on your goals in relation to the time you have to achieve them. To acquire a new car in five years clearly requires a different approach than investing for your retirement.
Well, that depends.
1: There are costs for using the services of the bank of your choice. These are usually a service fee which is paid over the value of your portfolio and transactions fees when you place an order.
2. When investing in products like mutual funds and ETFs you pay so called ‘product costs’. These costs are charged by the product holder and are incorporated in the product’s price. So, even though you are not charged for them separately, you do pay them.
It is important to keep track of these costs as they impact your returns. For instance, you can often invest in ETFs within the same region or sector as investment funds, but at a lower cost.
If you don’t feel like keeping track of these costs, or if you are looking for someone to manage your investments for you, consider MeManaged.
Yes, investing comes with some risks. The first thing to consider is how much risk you can afford to take. This is directly related to the moment in which you need the money. Anything you might need in the upcoming years, such as savings for emergencies, a holiday or purchasing a car, should be kept safe in a savings account. Take your time when it comes to investing. If you have a longer time frame, you have a greater chance to recover from a downturn.
In addition, there is your personal comfort with risk. If you can’t sleep well at night because the value of your portfolio decreases, the fewer high-risk products you should invest in.
Even if you have invested with money you don’t need in the short term, you might end up needing to cash in a portion of it.
Generally, you can withdraw your investment within one or two days.