20H·

Finally 18—what now?

Hey everyone, I turned 18 last week and am now thinking about how I want to invest my money in the future. My strategy is mostly $VWRL (+0.15%) and $FGEQ (+0.34%) I’d like to keep doing it this way.

I’ve been investing about €150 a month since 2024. I have around €3,000 in my money market account.

The only thing I’m thinking about is which provider to use—I’m currently with comdirect but would like to switch because they’re always having issues. I’d also like to open a money market account; at comdirect, I’m currently only getting 0.75% per year.

So I wanted to ask, based on your experience, which brokerage account and/or money market account you use. Scalable has caught my eye, but I’m a bit unsure about the deposit insurance for their money market account; for that, Chase looks pretty good to me.

I’d appreciate some feedback or tips.

Have a nice evening, everyone :)

14 Comments

20H

Hey, first of all: It’s great that you’re taking steps to secure your financial future. You’re already further along than I was at your age (back then, I had neither the capital, the perseverance, nor people around me who encouraged me to invest in stocks). Is that 3k your “rainy-day fund”? If so, I’d keep it as accessible as possible and put the interest earnings on the back burner… unexpected expenses always pop up when you don’t have the money readily available.

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FroschFabian@FroschFabian

20H

@Aelthred Exactly, it’s supposed to be a kind of nest egg. Right now I still live at home, so there aren’t too many unexpected expenses, but in case the car breaks down, etc. My goal is to save up 5,000–7,000€ by the time I finish my training—after that, I’d like to move out at some point, of course. It just bothers me that the money is just sitting around “doing nothing,” so I’m thinking of opening a money market account—with a 2% interest rate at Chase, that would at least be an extra €5 in income per month.

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Eddi@SaltyMainDD

20H

@FroschFabian I can definitely understand that point of view, and it would bother me too. In addition to Chase, which starts at 4% and later drops to 2%, there are other providers... for example, BigBank at 4.05% and Norisbank at 4%. Based on my preliminary research, Norisbank is the safer choice if it’s important to you that the German deposit insurance applies. Just as an aside: I’ve personally had positive experiences with Trade Republic, ING, and Trading 212, but they don’t offer 4%.

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FroschFabian@FroschFabian

20H

@Aelthred Thank you 👍

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FroschFabian@FroschFabian

20H

With Scalable, the overnight money isn't actually protected by deposit insurance, is it? After all, part of it is invested in money market funds—or can I select the partner banks as the type of custody account?

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Eddi@SaltyMainDD

19H

@FroschFabian Feel free to correct me, but as far as I know, money market funds are separate investment funds. If a bank goes bankrupt, the fund’s assets are not included in the bankruptcy estate. However, you always bear the fund’s market risk. But people say that’s rather unlikely with a money market fund.

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A@nitroxx

19H

@Aelthred Of course, Chase is covered by the German deposit insurance scheme, just like Scalable’s overnight savings account and others. I think that these days, when opening an account takes only a few minutes, it’s okay to hop from one promotion to another…
Norisbank, for example, would be out of the running for me if you read the fine print… they tie the introductory rate only to a checking account, and after the promotion ends, you get a tiny interest rate.

Good experiences with overnight money accounts: Chase, Scalable, Renault Bank—monthly interest payments—and my personal favorite 🧐😀
Fixed reference account

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Julian@MoneyISnotREAL

18H

@FroschFabian The purpose of an emergency fund is not to generate any return. It must be free of any exchange rate risk, fully liquid, and immediately available.
Your stock portfolio, including its fluctuations, will and should generate that return.

Of course, you can use your emergency fund to take advantage of overnight deposit offers, always keeping the aforementioned points in mind (-> “Investment Triangle”)

My emergency fund is currently held at Scaleable Capital. Yes, the money is (partly) invested in a money market ETF, but this money is still covered by deposit insurance (since it’s a money market account). They simply make it transparent where the money is held—unlike traditional banks. No traditional bank just “sits on” the money; instead, they use it to fund other operations. Your interest has to come from somewhere, after all ;-)

Depending on what you plan to do with your portfolio, you could, for example, check out the FTSE All World from other providers that have recently entered the market. Most of them are accumulation funds, but they’re quite a bit cheaper than the $VWRL. Otherwise, you are your own greatest source of leverage: improve your education, increase your salary (and thus your human capital), and invest in yourself.

You should also look into topics like disability insurance, because it’s significantly cheaper to get coverage now while you’re young (for the same benefits) than it will be in a few years.

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Jupp D.@JuppDupp

@SaltyMainDD Well, at Trading 212 it's at least 3.5%... on an ongoing basis

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Olli@Olli68

19H

Scalable also holds a full banking license. So the deposit insurance applies there as well.

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Paul@paul_finesse_

20H

I just put my nest egg 50% in a money market account and 50% in $XEON

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Maximilian@Max095

20H

Great, keep it up! Awesome portfolio

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Fred@Fred999

18H

What do you think about using $JEPQ for distributions instead of $FGEQ?

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BoRo@Gerseal38317

Congratulations on having such good financial discipline at your age :)
I don't know if Revolut is an option for you, but I'm currently getting 2.25% interest on my deposit there—paid out daily... It’s fun to see a little something trickle into your account every day ;)

To be honest, though, I have no idea what’s popular in the money market right now. With my ING account, I only get 0.75%

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