Why should you start investing?

The three things we’ve always been told not to discuss with others are politics, religion, and money. But it’s time to talk about money. And what you’re doing with it in particular. Why is it time to break the taboo? Well, we’re waking up to the grimmest financial future of any generation. A litany of economic forces, combined with higher life expectancy rates, are working against us.

People always talk about saving for rainy days but with low interest rates being the new normal, that conversation should be changed to investing for rainy days. The problem lies in the misconceptions many young people have about investing. Many think they need a huge capital to begin, and they also have unrealistic expectations about returns. So we have to start with changing this mindset.

How are we trying to change this?

Soon we will launch our second app, BUX Zero. You can already sign up here to be the first to know once the app is live. I’ll be honest here – BUX is not the only platform around that allows you to invest your money. So why invest with us? Firstly, and most importantly: you invest for free with BUX Zero. It’s not a marketing gimmick with lots of strings attached. When we say free, we mean free. It will save people a ton in fees every year and help their initial investment grow even faster.

Secondly, many people prefer to take charge of their own financial destinies these days, which is why self-directed investing is on the rise. In the past, anyone wanting to invest had to do it through a broker, paying trading fees every time they bought or sold shares. If you wanted to buy ten different stocks from a traditional broker, you would pay a fee for every one of those transactions. But technology has increased access to information while bringing down costs dramatically, so it is now possible to cut out the middleman.

There will still be people who prefer to deal with wealth managers or financial advisors. But for the vast majority who have a finite amount of time and money, they will want to make their own financial choices without paying exorbitant costs. You can’t underestimate the costs of investing, which can run from a couple of euros up to 20 euros per transaction.

In the long haul, that can quickly add up and eat into your returns substantially. It’s no wonder why some people end up being disappointed by their return on investment! With BUX Zero, we want to make commissions a thing of the past. So the average, cost-conscious investor doesn’t have to pay any additional fees for buying and selling shares. But for the more experienced and avid investors, advanced functions will be available for a small fee. (We are running a business, after all.)

So it’s free. What else?

But we’re not just competing on price (or lack thereof). If you’ve looked at the various investment platforms out there, many are complicated and frankly joyless, with a fair amount of jargon being bandied about. It’s as if they’ve been built for people with a financial background, rather than for the average person who just wants to buy shares in Amazon or Heineken. So we stripped away all the complex and superfluous details to bring financial investing back to its essence. We enable users to buy shares in their favorite company in just a few easy steps. Naturally, we’re also working on other cool features to enhance your experience in the app but we can’t share too much for now.

We’ll tell you more about our product in the coming weeks, which will make it possible for everyone in Europe to start investing for their future. Stay tuned.

All views, opinions or analysis expressed in articles are that of the author and do not represent the views of BUX. Neither BUX nor the author provide financial advice and these articles should not be construed as such.