Expert financial advisors say that household money management has three essential elements:
- Control spending
- Save
- Invest
In Europe, households have embraced the first two of these strategies. International financial trends have given Europeans plenty of practice at controlling spending. Savings rates have climbed since the Great Recession of 2009. But investments in stocks and exchange-traded funds have declined during the same period.
A 2022 Gallup poll shows that 58% of Americans own shares of corporate stock and exchange-traded funds. The figures are substantially lower in Europe: 2.7% in Greece, 4.6% in Italy, 10.0% in Slovenia, and 14.8% in Belgium.
Historically, Europeans have had less need to invest. Healthcare and education don’t require big nest eggs in most European countries as they do in the United States. And for generations of Europeans, generous state, corporate, and hybrid pensions have provided worry-free retirements.
All of that is changing now. Salaries haven’t kept pace with the rising cost of living, and many retirees find pensions inadequate to maintain their lifestyles. These are among the factors leading more and more Europeans to add investing to their household financial management plans. They realize that they must take charge of their financial destinies.
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Options for first-time investors
Financial advisors say it’s not necessary to have a big pile of cash to begin investing. On the contrary, they recommend a strategy called dollar cost averaging, or DCA, in which investors build their portfolios gradually over time by making identical small investments every week or month.
DCA investing can be set up in seconds at Kriptomat, a European crypto platform that is especially designed for first-time investors. Every time you purchase cryptocurrency on the Kriptomat platform, pressing a single button makes it a recurring buy. You can specify which currency you want, how much you want to invest, and how often – every week, once every two weeks, or once a month. With this program, taking your lunch to work twice a week instead of eating in the cafeteria every day can build your portfolio substantially.
Kriptomat has also introduced KriptoEarn, a savings program that pays weekly rewards at rates up to 13.5% APY on selected cryptocurrencies. That’s a better rate than banks offer, and investors can add or withdraw funds at any time with no penalty. KriptoEarn is a passive income solution for both experienced and novice crypto investors.
Why crypto?
The cryptocurrency market has acquired a bad reputation.
Some of this reputation is deserved. Like every financial marketplace, the crypto world has attracted scam artists. Crypto platforms have over-promised and under-delivered. Too many sites skate around the edges of laws and regulations. With all this bad news, it is a wonder that anyone takes crypto investing seriously.
The truth behind the headlines is that cryptocurrency works like any other investment asset. Some investments are profitable and some are unprofitable. Sites that promise returns measured in Lamborghinis per week fall into the “too good to be true” category. Those promises aren’t credible, and as a serious investor taking responsibility for your family’s financial future, you should see them as the warning signs they are.
But crypto has benefits too. Consider the remittance market. Remittances are the money transfers that happen when a family sends one member abroad to earn money and wire it back home periodically. The World Bank says the 2022 remittance market is 620 billion euros – and that’s just the transfers it can track. Research firms estimate true market size at 1 trillion euros or more.
Conventional wire transfers are slow and expensive. International banking regulations make them unnecessarily inconvenient. Cryptocurrency is simply a better solution. Money can be transferred immediately and freely across international borders, saving needy families billions of euros per year.
Why crypto? Why now?
Here are 10 good reasons to make crypto part of your investment strategy from the very start.
1. That’s where the money is.
If you want to make money investing, you want to be part of a market that is attracting a bustling marketplace of buyers and sellers. The crypto world built from practically nothing to 2 trillion euros in a few years. When a market blows up like that, fortunes are being made. Researchers say Bitcoin investing alone has led to the creation of more than 100,000 million-euro fortunes.
2. It’s easy to get started.
Investing in crypto used to require a degree in computer science. Distributed databases, blockchain theory, public key cryptography – it was quite a challenge. Now there are sites like Kriptomat that allow everyone to enjoy the benefits of crypto investing even without a technical background or hours of study.
3. Experts recommend diversity.
Even the most notorious cryptocurrency skeptics have recommended putting 10% of their investment funds into the quick-growing crypto world. Diversity protects your portfolio when disaster strikes a particular investment or market segment.
4. Protection against financial market instability.
People say crypto is unstable, but traditional financial markets aren’t doing that well either. Inflation is rising and many experts predict a worldwide recession. The crypto world is an alternative financial system that’s not subject to the same pressures and weaknesses.
5. Tomorrow’s tech giants are crypto startups today.
Years ago, investors flocked to internet startups. We remember the internet “bubble,” a price correction that delivered a hard dose of reality to impulsive investors. But the internet startup era gave us Google, Amazon, eBay, and Facebook. Tomorrow’s tech giants may be launching their first blockchain apps right now.
6. Crypto is better suited to a global economy.
National fiat currencies work pretty well within a company’s borders, but more and more business takes place across international borders. High exchange rates and slow, expensive money transfers have slowed the growth of the worldwide economy. Crypto knows no borders, and international transfers take place instantly. It’s the right solution for global commerce.
7. Crypto is at the heart of next-generation apps.
Many of the most exciting and important innovations in finance, games, supply-chain tracking, digital IDs, medical record-keeping, and other fields are built upon blockchain technology. Investing in crypto is a way to benefit from the growth and success of these important projects.
8. The metaverse is coming.
Big companies recognize that blockchain technology and cryptocurrency are indispensable parts of the Metaverse and Web3, which will change and improve the way we all interact with the internet and with each other online. Investing in crypto is like investing in the future of the internet.
9. Powerful investing tools are becoming available.
It used to be that the most advanced investing advice in the crypto world was hodl – “hold on for dear life” until prices rebound. Today, the traditional financial world’s most advanced and exclusive tools are being reinvented on the blockchain and offered to everyone, not just wealthy investors.
10. Despite the headlines, safe and compliant platforms do exist.
The headlines are full of the bad acts of unscrupulous scammers and dubious service providers. But there are also legit platforms like Kriptomat, which has earned four certifications from the Organization for International Standards, including recognition for ensuring compliance with government laws and regulations.
Isn’t it time you took charge of your family’s financial future by starting your crypto portfolio?
About Kriptomat
Founded in 2018, Kriptomat revolutionized the cryptocurrency world with the introduction of the simplest platform in Europe. Kriptomat makes digital finance so simple that everybody everywhere can access the freedom, fairness, and fulfillment that crypto represents. Hundreds of thousands of customers across Europe and in 120 countries worldwide trust Kriptomat when they buy, sell, swap, earn, share, and invest in crypto.
