Young Investor

In mid-October 2024, I attended the Federal Finance Authority’s event in Berlin called “mit Geld und Verstand” (with money and common sense). Perhaps you were there yourself, or you have heard about it. The subsequent event, the banking association’s focus group “Next Steps”, also proved to be very interesting, as the response to my initiative “JUGEND INVESTIERT 2025” was extremely positive among my discussion partners.
The need to improve financial education, as highlighted by the OECD, was widely recognized. But what happens next? Apart from my event, which is already in the planning stages, I did not see any other initiatives for young adults for 2025.
A variety of ideas and approaches are needed to reach a broad section of the population. However, if you want to plan the one, best, perfect approach, years will surely pass before anything happens. International stock market days for end consumers, with high growth rates, demonstrate the need for financial education among the currently interested population. That’s why I wanted to create “Jugend Investiert 2025” (Young Investor 2025), a series of events that provides education through lectures and workshops and offers additional information about investment opportunities and information platforms with a selection of exhibitors.
I myself have had an intensive career in investment banking (Germany, Luxembourg, London), which began in 1986 at Deutsche Bank AG in Hamburg. During this time, I held many positions, including branch management, securities trading, investment consulting, asset management, high net worth individual advisory services, investment product development in offshore banking (CitiGold, London) and the Norwich Union fund company, as well as project management in the discount brokerage business at Fidelity UK. This period was followed by various start-ups in New Zealand and Switzerland.
Many young adults start from scratch or already know something about the investment world. However, young people, the future customers of many market participants in the investment industry, are at risk. With mobile phones and apps, things move too fast, trading or gambling is made too easy, and many young investors have never experienced a real crash. After the coronavirus period, during which too much time was spent playing on computers, they are now continuing to “play” with a few clicks on their mobile phones, and in some cases with leveraged warrants, before they even own a single share or ETF. This is just one example.
Almost every young person goes to driving school to learn about the risks of road traffic, but no one goes to investor school to learn how to navigate the world and the selection of stock markets and investments. That’s why I founded Investor School, a still young podcast, to pass on information. But that’s not all. The discussions in Berlin at the Federal Finance Authority’s “mit Geld und Verstand” (with money and sense) event have encouraged me to push ahead more actively with the events I have been planning for some time, so that young adults can continue their education after leaving school.
I need all kind of support for this. If your company would like to get involved, or if you have contacts for sponsors and/or potential participants, I would be delighted to hear from you.
Become part of this great initiative to improve financial education and write to me at birgitnonnenprediger@gmail.com

Birgit Nonnenprediger