Advice for a new Swiss newbie 2019

Hello, fellow Mustachians:man_red_haired:, though I honestly cannot put myself in this group (yet) as it is taking me a while to read through everything and adapt. Slowly but surely.

As I continue this quest and become more knowledgeable about the Mustachian way and investing in general, all the advice says get started now. I feel bad with every passing day that I do not have money invested. So that is my objective.

This said, my current investing strategy comes from this MP post which aligns with Warren Buffets constant advice to invest in low fee index funds for a long period of time. The data backs this strategy time and time again.
Finally working now in Switzerland after graduating here last year (originally from Canada) I want to start put anywhere from 100 - 500 a month / or DCA quarterly into some nice index funds/ETFs with a long investment period (~ 30 years). I would start with between 8k and 10k as a lump sum and then 100 - 500 monthly/quarterly depending on transaction fees and criteria of the brokerage.

From my reading here, both from the MP blogs and the forum, it seems True wealth is where a newbie begins and gets their feet wet. Simple to use, very passive, and prices are decent up to 24,000 CHF apparently. I am almost at the 8,500chf minimum to start this. Though it is possibly expensive and time-consuming to move it all out to another broker account which seems to be the play with anything above 24,000CHF.

After 24k, interactive brokers seems to be the favourite. Though that seems to be for more active investors. I do plan to continue to grow my knowledge as I am reading constantly and I find it interesting and fun to learn. But I am not at the level of active trading yet and feel that I would want a long passive strategy anyways to start building for retirement.

Corner Trader seems to be the middle ground but I am not sure. Especially with the two-factor authentication not quite right yet.

I would greatly appreciate any advice, thoughts, and knowledge on the matter. Thank you in advance for your time and effort. I hope to learn and be successful so I can return the favor to another dumb newb (throwback Thursday there) like me right now :slight_smile:

Cheers:beers:
-Sheriff:cowboy_hat_face:

If you graduated last year you are probably under 25 wich means you get IB for 3$ a month which makes is practically free (the 3$ are like a monthly credit for transactions too). So if that is the case the small band where TW is cheaper disapears.

From what you write you are probably allready too advanced for TW (TW is neat as long as you look at it as a magic black box with a risk slider and a money input) so even if you are over 25 I would considder going straight to IB.

3 Likes

…hopefully you will soon raise that 500usd DCA amount or you won’t get too far. :joy::rofl:

1 Like

Thanks, @derpinator, I appreciate the genuine advice. Thank you. I guess if I want, and expect, my knowledge to grow, and to save the headache of switching later, might as well start at the finish line. Plus, based on this community, there seems to be a larger base of IB users to bounce ideas off of and learn from.

And thank you @ma0 for your smart ass comment. It seems $500 to DCA doesn’t do much and there seems to be a big gap in my knowledge. My plan as it stands, and what I tried to convey in my post was, I would like to contribute to my retirement fund every with every pay-check. I would like a large part of that fund to be in long term index funds/etfs type investments, and if the timing was is not right on x pay-check, then I would hold it as cash until the market changes to a more appropriate time to invest.

Also having stated I am clearly new to this, I would appreciate if you went into more detail on your opinion on smart dollar-cost averaging? I truly want to learn and you seem like you have something to say on the matter and I clearly have a gap in my knowledge. Or anyone who can speak to this, all perspectives are welcomed. Specifically, if you are holding cash, when would a traditionally appropriate time be to dive back into the market? And what is a traditional thought amount to DCA with?

Thanks again in advance for any input.

Don’t get discouraged by malcontents. The first step is the most difficult, but it is the most important one. Start small and keep going, gaining experience and knowledge. Eventually you’ll FIRE with bigger earnings power and savings rate, and systematic investing.

I’d however encourage you to start with IB - not only cheaper and better choice, but also will save you costs and the pain in the ass of switching brokers later on. Plus, you’ll learn more stuff with IB, as you’ll need to build up the portfolio.

2 Likes

Did I sound offensive? I didn’t want to. You should read it literally, with a smile. Try to push it a bit more higher every day. You’ll find dozen of tips on how to improve your savings.

As for DCA, don’t read too much on this forum Just do it. It’s for your own psycological health. Don’t try to dig on the theoretical part of it or you’ll just get more nervous.

hey Sherriff,
welcome to the forum!
basically you are doing all very well: make a savings plan, start soon with it, and everything you write makes sense. I think you understood the big picture! congrats! You will be better off financially than most other people this way, very soon!

my advice: do exactly as you layed out here, and get started today. Become confident with it. all the more detailed stuff you will read up anyway in the coming weeks and months, and the fine tuning of your financial setting is currently much less important than putting $$ every month to your stash.

If you are not comfortable with risky stocks at this stage of the market, just start sour stash in cash. In a few months you will have a much clearer picture on what you want and need, and then you can adjust.

I wish you all the best for your financial goals :slight_smile: get going :slight_smile:

2 Likes

If you find a reliable way to spot that you’re probably going to be rich (or assasinated XD).

The whole point of DCA is to avoid timing, most simulation I have seen make it worse when there are atempts at timing involved.

If you go with IB there is pretty much no penalty to investing monthly as it will come out of the inactivity fees anyway (unless you do like a lot of transactions) untill they go away at 100k.

1 Like

@1000000CHF (Ron Swanson - Love it!) Thanks for your tip. From this forum, MPs blogs, and general reading advice, it seems IB form the start is the way to go. And I think you are right as well in terms of your learning potential of IB. If learning is the goal, then again it seems like the choice.

@ma0 you did not sound offensive but it looked as if you had more to say on the subject. Thanks for your advice here too. There is a lot out there and most of it conflicts. This forum is not really different. It has been great to read peoples thoughts on opinions and what drives them. Peace of mind is clearly a big one and I guess people get that peace with different approaches. @derpinator I guess if I find a more appropriate time to invest I will keep you posted. I am glad you confirmed that the monthly investing charges can go into the inactivity fee. I feel I would get peace of mind know I am putting away cash every month for investing. Weather I invest it every month or not, I guess that is for me to get started and figure out myself. Thanks for chiming in.

@nugget, thanks for the nugget and the positive encouragement! Getting started seems to be the key to everything here. I guess it is the same in life. Cannot score any goals until you get in the game.

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to share! I think I know how to start now. I will wait a few more years until I have more money to invest… JK. Filling out the IB application now!

4 Likes