What is the minimum amount of money to start investing?

[Shlag]

Hi MPs,

This my is first post and I would like to thank everybody for contributing to this forum.

I am a male expat (mid 30s) relocated to Geneva 4 years ago. Lovely wife and 2 kids (3 and 6YO). I’m very decided to finally start investing and make my money work but I have absolutely no clue what amount to start with ?

Obviously I’ll be only investing what I am willing to loose. I can go up to 10/15k but would like to hear from you what’s the minimum I can start with to gain confidence when seeing the money grow, 5k maybe ? (despite 2022 being so bad year now).

I hope I was clear and thanks a lot for your advice ! ^^

[SteveDB]

Perfect time to start investing now.

a) any amount is good
b) buy into a low cost index ETF every month
c) don’t sell if market goes down, actually never sell until retirement

You are sorted!

For asset allocation / ETF, check previous pages on the forum. In general for your age is recommended 80-100% stocks. E.g.

• 80% global ETF (VT or Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF Distributing)
• 20% local exposure (any low cost total Switzerland market ETF)

Suggest reading some book such as boglehead guide to investing

[Dr.PI]

@Shlag

Obviously I’ll be only investing what I am willing to loose.

This is a wrong attitude and I really don’t understand why many brokers put this kind of statements in disclaimer. You should gamble what you can afford to lose. You should invest money that you don’t need next 10 years (although there are some nuances with the use of margin loans).

Going back to your original question: you can start investing into a all world stocks ETF on mustachian terms from 25 EUR:

Flatex broker review

It is already more than 4 months since I have opened a brokerage account with Flatex, and, as I promised at some point, I would like to share my experience with the community. In short, I think it qualifies as a mustachian offer for Switzerland-based investors. Pros: 0 custody fees for ETFs (0.1% p.a. for individual stocks); 0 brokerage fees for ETFs if buying via a saving plan. Huge amount of ETFs (I see 1352) that are saving plan capable. Cons: Nothing really, rather caveats. The accou…

You can also buy a partial share of VT at Interactive Brokers, but each currency exchange costs 2 USD and each transaction costs 0.35 USD.

Also consider investing 3a money.

[Shlag]

Sounds good!

Thanks for your prompt feedback.

[Shlag]

Completely agree with you that stating to invest whan we are willing to loose sound extreme because obviously any investment in stocks won’t go to zero (unless world collapses ^^ ).

So yes, invest the part of money we esteem not needed for the next X years is more proper to say.

Thanks anyway for the advice.

Cheers

[Wolverine]

For investing, I find that the TradeDirect plateform is pretty good: they offer only securities (stocks, bonds, ETFs, no derivatives, no margin), they have some fees for buying or selling shares (thus incentivising buying and holding), they have custody fees (thus encouraging you to invest more over time to reduce the % fees you are paying for your investments).

The “minimal” amount I’d consider investing is around CHF 750.00 to be close but below their first fees threshold. So, really, anybody with a positive monthly balance could be investing.

I consider that moving our positioning should hurt, because it forces us to think our decision through and decide whether we really want to change strategy or should rather pursue the one we’re already on, thus, for common investors, I’d consider reasonable trading fees as a plus (usury trading fees are, of course, a no go).

As stated by @Dr.PI, investing in 3a would be a great start. No minimal amount is required for that.