Whether we’ve worked all our lives, brought up children or struck out with our own business, we all have the same goal: to set aside a tidy little sum for our old age. But investing money not only makes sense for long-term savings goals, it can also be a way to achieve more near-term goals – that world trip you’ve long been wishing for, that dream car, that dream house for your family.

To understand why investing money is worth your while, particularly given today’s low interest rates, let’s take a look back at the past. While at the turn of the millennium you still earned around 4% interest on risk-free investments such as medium-term notes and savings accounts, that rate has been declining steadily. Since the financial crisis in 2009, interest is often no longer paid on investments of this kind.

Indeed, “parking” money at some financial institutions has in the meantime become a losing proposition. If you include annual inflation, fees and taxes in the calculation, your capital decreases every year. And if there are then negative interest rates on top of that, as is the case with some providers, customers really start losing money.

So if you’re looking to increase your money despite negative interest rates, you should really invest it. There are enough opportunities available for investing money without having to take a big risk. You can find more information and reasons to invest your money in our article “Why invest money? Here’s why!”.

ETFs, shares, custody accounts... how to make your investments work for you

As an investor, it pays to get started early, because you then benefit from a long investment horizon. In other words, you have more time to capitalize on the opportunities available on the financial markets.

The best thing about it is that you don’t need a large sum of money to get started! As part of an asset management service, a solution tailored to your initial situation and needs can be found for you, allowing your portfolio to work to maximum effect for you while you sit back and relax. You can find out more in the article “Can I invest without having to waste time on it?”.

One example of asset management with small amounts of money is the e-asset management service from PostFinance. Before getting started, you will need to answer a few questions. The main goal of this process is to define your investment strategy. The investment strategy is based on your defined investor profile, which takes account of your preferred investment term as well as your risk appetite and capacity.

Opening a custody account generally doesn’t take much longer than ten minutes.

Once the investment strategy has been defined, PostFinance asset management also offers the option of setting a focus, for example on the inclusion of sustainability criteria or the development of the Swiss market. This means that your portfolio is also individualized and tailored to your needs. You’re now ready to get started.

Investment experts manage and monitor your portfolio

On the one hand, PostFinance asset management is ideal for anyone who doesn’t have a lot of time to keep on top of the issues surrounding investment.

On the other, it is well suited for beginners, because behind the online platform, there are still people you can turn to for advice if needed. Our investment experts manage your assets carefully and ensure your portfolio is always optimally invested in line with your personal investment strategy. The portfolio is monitored on a daily basis and regularly adjusted to the current market situation. Find out more about the investment process in our article “E-asset management: how it works”.

With PostFinance asset management, you can choose between a one-time transfer or a standing transfer order – similar to a savings plan. The latter is recommended for anyone looking to set a little aside on a regular basis, as the regular increase in the investment amount produces a cost averaging effect, significantly reducing the risk of being caught with an unfavourable entry price. Find out more about the cost averaging effect in savings plans in the article “How you can benefit from the cost averaging effect with the funds saving plan”.

If you would like to know how PostFinance asset management works, you can read more in the article “E-asset management: how it works”.

Incidentally,

In 2021, our asset management won an award from Swiss business magazine “Bilanz”. In the “Sharpe ratio The Sharpe ratio shows returns in relation to the risk assumed. 12 months – balanced risk class” category, PostFinance asset management made it into the top 5 out of 21 competing solutions.

Your own personal investment strategy

when investing money, you should not focus on a mass product, but instead on an investment strategy tailored to your needs. At PostFinance, we distinguish between 15 different model portfolios. Your investment focus and the investor profile determined for you are used to decide on the portfolio best suited to your individual requirements. Here are three examples.

Even while studying, Melanie often went travelling the big wide world: she has already been to India, Thailand, Iceland and Peru, and she has many more countries on her wish list.

She wants her portfolio to have an international focus and a relatively short investment horizon. Her sights are firmly set on her big dream – a six-month trip around the world – and she’s prepared to take a little more risk to finance it.

On the basis of her investor profile, she opts for the “Balanced” investment strategy and the “Global” focus. With the Global focus, she pursues a strategy of worldwide diversification, allowing her to benefit from differing economic cycles, interest rate levels and currencies.

Since becoming parents, Nicole and David keep an eye out for sustainable production when buying food and other products. Following the happy new addition to their family, security, stability and consistency have also become more important to them.

Nicole and David would like their portfolio to take sustainability criteria into account and fulfil their need for a lower investment risk.

Due to their long-term investment horizon and low risk appetite, they choose the “Income” investment strategy in combination with the “Sustainability” focus. This allows them to take sustainability criteria into account with regard to the environment, society and corporate governance, and to meet their goal of investing in more environmentally and climate-friendly products.

Rudolf has his own engineering company and a strong local network. Given that he is self-employed, he doesn’t want to take any excessive risks, and would rather focus on stable performance.

As an investor, delegating investment decisions is very important to him so that he doesn’t have to worry about anything and can concentrate fully on his work.

And because his home country is especially close to his heart, he chooses the “Balanced” investment strategy and the “Switzerland” investment focus for his asset management. This will enable Rudolf to benefit disproportionately in the event of a positive development of the Swiss market.

Just get started – it’s the best way to learn

As a general rule, don’t be intimidated. Technical terms such as ETFs, funds and so on make this subject seem more complicated than it in fact is. The best way to learn how something new works is when we do it first-hand. So start with a provider like PostFinance, who will make it easier for you to get going and will guide you through the opening process. With the “PostFinance market view”, we ensure transparency about what prompts our investment decisions and show you how our positioning of investments comes about. After all, you want to know that your investment is in good hands and managed by experienced investment experts. Find out more in our article “PostFinance is all about investment expertise”.