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Just to point out it's index trackers you're recommending. The "ETF" part is just a method of purchasing an index tracker. There are other ways. ETFs are also available that invest in all kinds of garbage and are not necessarily index trackers.

My take on this as someone who lived in the UK the last 10 years or so: the main reason why ETF are less known are: less disposable income in the middle class/upper middle class(compared to the USA), it was much harder to buy stocks > 10 years ago imho

Generally it's customary to define an acronym before using it. I had no idea what an ETF was after reading this lengthy post about ETFs

My assumption is that it is an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/etf.asp

Yes, frankly though the acronym doesn't mean much and doesn't explain much of what it does. It became sort of the facto name for a stock that contains a tiny piece of many stocks. Instead of buying 1 stock of Apple you buy one stock of an ETF that contains many stocks. For example this is the ETF I currently buy given by Italian investment account: iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF USD (Acc) - SWDA - AFF Acc=Accumulating large and mid-cap Benchmark MSCI World NR USD (NR= Net Return) ISIN IE00B4L5Y983 1,585 companies from 23 Developed Markets (DM) countries

TOP 10 CONSTITUENTS APPLE 4.44% MICROSOFT 3.28% AMAZON 2.69% FACEBOOK 1.22% TESLA 1.16% ALPHABET C 1.08% ALPHABET A 1.08% JOHNSON & JOHNSON 0.85% JPMORGAN CHASE & CO 0.77% VISA A 0.64%

As a European I have a pension fund that invests for me. I don't pretend to have the intelligence or guile to get rich on the stock market.

Not sure where you are but you can often check where your money is invested and change funds

> Not sure where you are but you can often check where your money is invested and change funds

I did and I found out they just buy 3 bonds and 2 ETFs. Very standard stuff. You can learn enough about bonds and ETFs to buy them yourselves and literally save HALF of your savings at retirement time.

ETF aren't rocket science. They are not super easy either, maybe 2-4 weeks of research. It's quite probably they will literally DOUBLE your savings when you will retired. And you will be able to retire when you say so not when the governments tells you that you can.

There are 2 types of pensions funds essentially.

1) The ones that do not save money. You pay pensions taxes now that just go to pay the people retired today. Believe it or not the vast majority of governments pension funds are like this. In Italy it's like this. You IRPEF money doesn't go in an investment, it pays the retirees of today. Now just wait and see what we'll happen with life expectancy increasing and population reduction.

2) The ones that buy things for you. And guess what they buy: usually 3 bonds and 2 ETFs. And they will take 1-2% for that. And you might think: "oh but 1-2% I can give awayt if I do not have to care about anything". In practice though ETFs return 5-8% per year when kept for decades and the earnings are averaged. So the pension fund takes 1-2% from 5-8% which is 20-30%. On top of that there is compounding interest. When you will have retired it's likely you will have given away half of your savings to the company managing the pension fund/retiring plan.

Watch this video from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that explains the last concept very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvZSpET11ZY

AS USUAL, DO NOT JUST TRUST ME, RESEARCH WHAT I SAID (AND NOT ON TIK TOK)

There are many pension funds out there with varying degrees of performance. Just like with your health, in matters of personal finance you have to be an active participant and your own agent. Even if that means picking around for the best pension fund for you.

This is typical in Spain too. If you have any kind of investiment you're mostly some kind of evil libertarian. It's basically what people is being told by the local press, so...

I'm moving to Valencia this summer! I'll use the Beckam Law and take a mortage. If you are available I would love to ask you some financial questions about Spain! Please write me if you have time: g i o r g i o z a m p a r e l l i AT gmail DOT com (without spaces :)

Im not the guy to take financial advice. The best place for that are Rankia forums.

I don't want to give you financial advice neither receive it. If you have bought a house or done a mortgage I just wanted to know how is the process in Spain!

I just invest in ETFs & Stocks, and a bit of playing in Etoro, and I have money in a roboadvisor, so I can't help you in that. Again, in Spain, the best place for asking for financial help, aside from professional, is the Rankia.com forum.

> HERE IS WHAT I LEARNED SO FAR. I'M NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR. RESEARCH THE THINGS I SAY.

Most of personal finance can fit on a very small piece of paper. While the advice is slightly US-centric, I think it's fairly universal (it works for us Canadians):

    The original index card, pictured above, has:[9]
    
    1. Max your 401(k) or equivalent employee contribution.

    2. Buy inexpensive, well-diversified mutual funds such as Vanguard Target 20xx funds.

    3. Never buy or sell an individual security. The person on the other side of the table knows more than you do about this stuff.

    4. Save 20% of your money.

    5. Pay your credit card balance in full every month.

    6. Maximize tax-advantaged savings vehicles like Roth, SEP and 529 accounts.

    7. Pay attention to fees. Avoid actively managed funds.

    8. Make financial advisors commit to the fiduciary standard.

    9. Promote social insurance programs to help people when things go wrong.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Index_Card

For Canadians: 401(k) ~ RRSP, (Roth) IRA ~ TFSA, 529 account ~ RESP.

The 20% seems high, (retired) actuary Fred Vettese recently came out with a good book, The Rule of 30:

> Easy: Save an amount equal to 30% of gross income, minus the amount you are paying towards a mortgage or rent, minus extraordinary short-term expenses like daycare costs.

> The rule aims to strike a better balance between competing financial priorities. It also makes it easier to decide how much to set aside each year, and is more realistic and achievable than saving a flat percentage of pay, especially during the expensive childcare years.

> This is all about consumption smoothing – not depriving oneself of a standard of living during the years of juggling competing financial goals. It backloads the high savings rate to later years when childcare expenses are long gone and the mortgage or rent payments make up a much smaller percentage of your gross income.

* https://boomerandecho.com/the-rule-of-30-book-review/

Also, there is some 'rule of thumb' floating around that says who need 70% of your pre-retirement income. This is inaccurate as Vettese and others show:

* https://findependencehub.com/qa-with-author-david-aston-abou...

* https://pmac.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/07-02-series-ari...

If during working life you had/have a mortgage and kids, you may only need as little as 40%. MacDonald has published a bunch of research on this:

* https://www.soa.org/globalassets/assets/library/newsletters/...

* https://econpapers.repec.org/article/cupastinb/v_3a46_3ay_3a...

While “maximizing” is a vague word, truly maximizing contributions to various retirement plans is out of reach for most people.

The median individual income in the US is about $36k. Maxing out just a 401k is about $20k.

Nick Maggiulli:

> But seriously, his advice has little to nothing to do with how he retired early. The reason his advice misses the mark is simple:

>> All the expense tracking and goal setting in the world cannot make up for an insufficient balance.

* https://ofdollarsanddata.com/the-biggest-lie-in-personal-fin...

But we're on HN, so I would hazard to guess most folks reading/posting around these here parts have higher-than-average income.