When it comes to money, listen to your parents

Roland: Courage and foresight are the building blocks to success. The tools you’ll need are hard work and patience.

Xandy: Focus only on what advances your personal and professional life. This can be difficult given the overwhelming amount of information and sources nowadays. When it comes to the information you consume, sift out what’s not really important. Read background reports and expert articles that you find interesting and will help you develop professionally.

Nicole: What I would tell my own child is to enjoy being young: it’s a precious time in your life that only happens once.

Susanne: You should get an idea of what your aims and goals are. That means figuring out what matters to you in life, what you can put off to later, what’s essential and what you can do without. Not an easy thing to do, but being aware of your spending isn’t just good for your wallet, it also builds character.

Nicole: Money is not the most important thing, but having enough of it frees you to focus on what’s essential. Nobody knows what the future holds, so read up on economic topics. They can be really quite fascinating.

Xandy: Only buy what you can afford and with money you’ve saved. Your work colleague might have a fancy new sports car, but for all you know they could be up to their ears in debt. Later on, your colleague may well grow jealous of how much you can afford because of how well you managed your money.

Roland: It’s like building a house. First you have to choose a plot and create a good foundation, then with hard work and patience, your building will take shape. So start early and opt for strong strategies with securities and risks in equal measure. Try not to miss opportunities and don’t take risks out of greed.

Susanne: As a pensioner it’s simply wonderful to be able to reap the rewards of your working life without any financial worries. I think the best approach is to have both a fixed pension and savings for specific goals and as a safety net. While it’s practically inaccessible for young families nowadays unfortunately, the security and financial advantages of having your own home are not to be underestimated.

Xandy: I come from your grandparents’ generation, a time when the only way for salaries was up. Nobody could have told you what a “pension cut” was. It was actually quite common to retire early with a full pension. I have to stop here or else I’m going to start feeling guilty thinking of you young people! If I could give one good piece of advice, it would be this: start saving for retirement as soon as possible!

Nicole: I would start saving with pillar 3a early on and make my money do the work, instead of squirreling it away in bank accounts.

Roland: I would seek and compare more opinions, but I would still be happy even if everything didn’t work out perfectly.

Susanne: The strategy I mentioned earlier has served me well, so I’m quite happy with how things have turned out.