Jan Voss is an asset manager and formerly worked at Goldman Sachs. Lisa Kempke for Business Insider
What do I do with my first savings, my first bonus? I often get this question from young people when they ask me for advice.
My answer as an asset manager: A combination of a “nest egg”, i.e. a liquidity buffer amounting to three to six months of salary, as well as long-term ETFs. And in the end, of course, it depends on the individual situation of the investor.
But I didn’t do it quite like that myself at the beginning. Today I would certainly do some things differently – but one thing was definitely instructive.
Emergency fund? Rather small
For me, the liquidity mentioned came from savings from previous internships, a “signing bonus”, saved salaries from a full-time job and ultimately my first actual bonus. The question of how I should deal with this arose after about six months on the job. As a bank employee at Goldman Sachs, I was only allowed to keep a portfolio with special providers, which took a long time to open due to compliance issues. The question of how I should deal with the 10,000 euros arose for the first time after I had opened the account. In fact, I transferred a substantial portion of it to the depot and only kept a low four-figure sum in the account.