Investing is not as complicated as you think

It means I work for you and get paid only by you, so my advice is 100% aligned with your best interest, and the strategy I recommend to you isn't influenced by commissions or compensation from any 3rd party.

I'm not affiliated with any bank, investment firm, insurance company etc.

It's individual, but generally between 2 and 5 meetings. The duration varies significantly between different individuals. It depends on your circumstances, whether you have existing investments or private pensions, what other assets you have and so on.

Unfortunately, not really. Having a company pension scheme is definitely better than only the standard pension, but in most cases those plans are sub-optimal, sometimes even not enough. It depends on the amounts that are deposited into the plan, in which products the money is invested, and what costs and fees are biting into your returns. If you have such a plan, I'll be happy to have a look and help highlight the pros and cons and suggest changes.

Sadly, that's not the case. The state pension scheme in Germany is quite old-fashioned, and even under the most optimistic scenarios, your future allowance will not be enough to maintain the standard of living you had prior to retiring. However, you can take a few simple actions now to secure a much better financial future, through independent, long-term investments in low-cost ETFs.

It's been said many times before: “if you're not paying for it, you're the product”.

In this case “free” might end up being very, very expensive. Financial brokers (brokers, not independent consultants) get paid by banks, insurance companies and investment companies, who pay them hefty commissions for marketing their products. But those products are often not what's best for you, and some of them are very expensive, which means less money for you in the long term.

Look for a “34h” permit. In the Impressum (imprint) section of their website you can always see the specific type of permit a person or a company holds. If it says 34h, they're an independent consultant. Anything else, like 34f or 34d, means they're brokers: they market investment products and get paid through commissions. It doesn't mean they're not professional or knowledgeable, but their interests are not necessarily aligned with yours.

No. You could start with even just a small monthly investment; the most important thing is that you start. Time is your greatest friend when it comes to investing, so don't wait until “things stabilize” or until “you have more money”. It's much better to start as early as possible, and build from there.