1 - Listen to friends and relatives. Impact: low.
It's a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes, of course, it makes sense to listen to people if they are competent in an area. The problem is that in some areas, friends and family tend to give well-intentioned tips but actually have no idea at all. A good example of this would be that as an old computer nerd, I always wanted a desktop PC as a teenager, but my mother told me that a laptop would be so much more practical and would have many advantages. The problem was that they always broke down and it was just far too expensive and inconvenient to repair them, as the components couldn't be replaced easily. And let's not even start with tips on investments and the savings bank.
--> My learning: If you're not completely clueless in an area, you shouldn't listen to well-intentioned advice, but have confidence in your own abilities.
2 - Shopping in physical stores. Impact: medium
This is probably the most controversial point in the whole list, but I have to say that I have often had very negative experiences with buying something in a store instead of ordering online. It often starts with the price itself - but then there are often hidden costs that you don't even see. A real-life example would be the recent purchase of my Apple Watch at the local electronics store (please refrain from joking at this point that the purchase itself was already a mistake).
First of all, the thing costs a little less online at one or the other retailer, so you basically pay around €35 extra for the pleasure of buying from a specialist retailer or in the Apple Store (which doesn't exist locally). Incidentally, the Telekom store would have charged another €20 above the list price, which would have increased the Premium to €55.
That's the part of the cost that you can see directly. However, the electronics store didn't have the right bundle of watch + wristband in its range, so I decided to buy the watch without the wristband without further ado, as I could simply reorder it later. What no one says, however, is that the desired strap costs €200 instead of €100 if you buy it separately from the watch. This means that the additional cost is already €135.
To top it all off, the store doesn't accept American Express payments, which means I have to leave another €10 in refunds.
This is a very specific example, but just one of many. Local retailers also like to put up with complaints despite defective goods and a receipt. Even when I suggested a compromise by accepting a credit note or repair, I was once told at Saturn "Nope, we don't see it. What's in it for us?" after which I never again entered a $CEC (+0.45%) shop again.
--> My learning: I'm really sorry to say, but if you don't want to run an honorary charity organization to preserve German jobs, it's better to buy online, where prices are transparent and complaints are automated and digital.
3 - Take the easy route. Impact: difficult
One of the easiest ways to lose a lot of money is to stay in your comfort zone. If you never ask for discounts and deals, book package tours without comparing prices, prefer to call a cab on vacation instead of dealing with how the subway system actually works, pay bills in restaurants without reading through to see if you actually ordered the items, you are simply as cooked as it gets.
So here are a few self-reflected points where I (almost) wasted a lot of money. Firstly, I'm serious about the restaurant. I recently stayed at a really fancy establishment for my birthday and celebrated with my girlfriend. Although we really only had a few snacks, the bill for both of us came to around €400. Being the cool guy that I am, I naturally kept a straight face despite having a massive heart attack and already had my credit card in my hand - until my girlfriend noticed that they had swapped our table and I almost paid someone else's bill. All because I didn't want to make a drama out of it.
Another case was that I once sold my car to the well-known and popular company "wir klauen dein Auto" and was massively spammed by them because they simply ended up giving me several thousand euros below their estimated selling price. The reason for this was that the company's own "expert" thought he had discovered some defects and accident damage that simply didn't exist, without providing any evidence. In the end, I had to accept the deal anyway because I had already bought another car and now urgently needed the liquidity and thought to myself "there's a really easy way to get rid of your used car here without having to advertise and negotiate". But $AG1 (+1.5%) only said: "Fiddlesticks.
(In addition, too little liquidity is probably already a serious problem in itself)
4 - The classic - not starting to invest as early as possible. Impact: massive
And here comes the point that should of course never be missing from such a list and which everyone has already seen coming. As I've often mentioned, I've been involved in investing and retirement planning for over 10 years, but I only actually started investing real money when I was 27.
My thought process behind this was simply that I would invest as soon as possible once I had finished my studies and was earning money, because otherwise it wouldn't be worth it anyway. And that assessment was simply a disaster.
It's true that I had hardly any assets or free cash flow as a student, but I wasn't as completely burnt out as some others. So let's say I could have scraped together €3000-5000 real money somehow. I also tried my hand at investing with demo accounts back then and mainly invested in shares that I knew. These included many German stocks, which I assumed at the time were already good because Germany was good (back then). For example, something like Lufthansa, Siemens and Deutsche Bank. Among others, however, there was also NVIDIA - which was already a household name for me back then. If I had somehow invested even a small sum of maybe €500 there at the time, it would have turned into well over €100k. And it was entirely my mistake to think that it was pointless to invest my small amounts if I could only save a small sum every month. Even with an ETF, it would have made a lot of sense to simply put €1000 into it and invest it 10 years earlier.
--> My learning: Education is still the most precious commodity. It was so right to get involved with the topic as early as possible - but then you also have to go from theory to practice. Instead of always being afraid that my modest assets in the custody account would fluctuate compared to the current account. I should have seen it more as no downfall if I lost money on the market in the absolute worst case, as I could earn it back in 2-3 months after graduation.
