These were my problems as an expat when I was considering about investing in Germany.
- What is investing? Basic fundamentals of investing in stocks? What is a stocks, broker, depository, fund, ETF’s etc?
- What are the German equivalent of these investing terms? Ok, even if I read about investing from the internet in English, I live in Germany and my German is not great. How is it investing in Germany supposed to work?
- What should I consider as an expat or foreigner when investing in Germany? Ok, even if I understand how investing works in Germany, maybe they are different for a German. I am an expat and I even do not know how long I will stay in Germany. When can I get my money back, and about the taxes for expats and foreigners?
So I rather let my money stay in the bank account doing nothing. I am sure as a foreigner in Germany you can relate to these issues when considering investing in Germany.
Why and how to invest?
Now that you have some money left from your paycheck, maybe you are here because your bank account does not give you enough interest. I will consider that you are already convinced of the need to invest. If not, there are many English resources available on that which will explain much better that I can. But here is a short answer to why you should invest? – Because of inflation.
The €10 bill you have today will not buy you the same amount of goods in a few years. So, if you have been saving your money in a savings bank account that earns a 1% interest and the inflation is at 2%, your money is loosing 1% of its value each year. Enter – investing. By investing, you are putting your money work for you. This way your money can earn more than the inflation in the long term.
There is many options to make your money work for you. However, the most common and widely used option is investing in a business. This investment can be in form of buying a part of the business (a share of the company) in form of a stock.
In a three part guide, I hope to give a beginners guide to investing in general and in particular to investing in Germany.
Part I : Basics of Stock investing : Beginners guide to investing, this will explain the fundamentals of investing for beginners. If you are not used to terms like stocks, funds, ETF’s etc, then this is for you.
Part II : Investing in Germany : Where and how: This article goes on to describe how to start and invest in Germany. The German terms and their English equivalents. Different recommendations for Depot account and setting up a ETF savings plan.
Part III : Guide for Investors in Germany : Tips, Taxes and more: This article describes how to optimize you investments, taxes on your investment and other questions.
This is fantastic info!! You’ve covered everything I would want to know, except I would break it down into 2 pages with ‘Investing in Germany’ on its own page. I think many people who are interested in investing would scroll down to that section anyway. They want to know the nuts and bolts of how.
Also, add your awesome year-end capital gains tip! That one’s a gem and isn’t so obvious to everyone. 🙂
Thanks for putting up this very useful website! There are many foreigners like me that just “get by” with their German but, when it comes to investments, it’s hard enough to understand in your own language as to start understanding the German jargon.
I’ve bookmarked your site! I’ll be reading all your posts avidly in the coming days…
Good job so far! How does it look with the third part of this guide?
very nice, looking forward to the third part!
my challenge is the following: is there any of the German based banks or broker listed here that would have an English interface?
I just updated the page (where and how to invest) with two options for English Broker in Germany
I recommend Trade Republic, it has an English Interface and is a Germany equvalent of Robinhood.