Yesterday I caught my 23-year-old nephew staring nervously at his cell phone.
He was using one of those dubious "neobroker" apps.
I asked sternly what he was up to.
"I'm saving an ETF on the S&P 500," he said quietly.
My wholemeal spelt roll almost fell out of my hand.
I had to sit down.
The boy is investing his hard-earned money in American companies with no physical presence in Castrop-Rauxel?
That's literally gambling.
I asked him: "What do you do when the stock market is closed for two days? Or when Elon Musk tweets?"
He had no answer.
Pure recklessness.
I immediately took the phone away from him and deleted the app.
We then drove to the savings bank together.
We had a 2-hour consultation about a solid building society savings contract.
Closing fee only 1.6% of the building society sum.
Guaranteed interest rate of 0.25% until allotment in 18 years.
He started crying and babbled something about "inflation" and "opportunity costs".
I put a fatherly hand on his shoulder.
"Listen to me," I said gently.
"Wealth doesn't come from having more money."
"True wealth is the warm feeling that your money is safe from American turbo-capitalism in a German current account and slowly losing value."
"But it can be planned."
He finally understood.
I've never been prouder of the financial education in this country.
