Stock market
(Picture from stock.xchng.)

When I was a kid, my mother taught me how to save money. She opened a saving account for me at a local bank and showed me how my money grew. She explained that the bank gives us interest if we save our money at the bank. She didn’t tell me about inflation because I was just a small kid. :)

After I grew up, I always remember her words. “Always put some money to your saving account. Never borrow money. If you cannot afford to buy something, just don’t buy it”. That’s why; I always put my money in a saving account or term deposit. I never thought about stock market. I heard about it, but many people said it is just gambling.

The story continued… I worked in Germany and always put my spare money into a saving account. When I decided to leave Germany, I went to my bank (CitiBank Germany). I told my bank that I was leaving the country, but I wanted to keep my money at their bank. The lady at the counter said that she’s going to talk to someone. A couple of minutes later, she came back together with a guy. That guy invited me to come to his office. This is where everything started….

In his office, he explained a concept of mutual funds to me. I was just shocked. I didn’t know there is such thing called mutual fund. I liked the concept. We can have higher return than saving account, but less risk than the stock market. Wow. Isn’t it beautiful. By the way, I was 29 years old at that time!

I signed-up for a mutual fund at CitiBank Germany on that day. The guy helped me to choose several mutual funds. I was very happy at that time. I was so excited. I didn’t know that my mutual funds were front-load ones. I had to pay 5% fee at the beginning. I didn’t really regret because it introduced me to the wonderful world of trading….

(to be continued….)