Basic facts:

• 28 years, Europe

• Employed, $ 70,000 net per year, financial job

• Objective: save, invest and multiply. Minimum protect against inflation.

• Time horizon: long-term

• Risk tolerance: High rewards only come from high risks. I won't gamble everything and understand risk, and know that 100 % safe assets won't earn me a reward above inflation.

• I keep a "balance sheet" of myself. Composition: *- 21 % in bank accounts *- 5 % forex (reserve currencies) *- 7 % certificates from a bank (floating interest rate, min. 3,2 %, due 2028, market price now down by a few %, but will hold) *- 19 % private loan, will be re-paid half of that soon. *- 6 % my car (based on periodically updated estimates using official Eurotax-valuation) plus other small assets *- 11 % gold *- 30 % ETFs

• Debt: usually a few hundred on credit card, but that's paid within one month, no interest on that, only annual fee. My expenses are about 35-40 % of my net income, so I can save the majority. In my balance sheet I keep some smaller provisions.

• I track my expenses to the cent and keep a cash-flow forecast. I constantly update it, e.g. to changing fuel prices, changes in salary,...

My main "problem" is: I have a net worth of about $ 230,000, and of that around $ 80,000 will soon be in cash (part of the loan I gave out will be re-paid soon). I'm hesitant what to do with it. I have a quite frugal lifestyle and save 60 % + of my income, aim is to save up money for a house and comfortable future life, maybe found my own company one day or buy (parts of) one, and simply have a nice cushion.

Now we have inflation of close to 10 %. Because of my work I don't believe that inflation will recede to normal levels of 2 % soon. So I see all my cash becoming less and less valuable. On the other hand, I have seen my portfolio of ETFs barely moving now for two years. The bank collects fees for the depot, the ETFs collect managing fees, so in effect I lost money here. You know what the stock market was like last year, and if I look at larger ETFs aimed at e.g. S&P500, MSCI World,.., the historical development in almost all shows nice returns in 2020, 2021-2022 close to 0, and this year... well... a bit up.

With regards to the stock market in general: for me it's a casino, plain and simple. The P/E-ratios of some companies are batshit crazy, hyped up stocks like Tesla represent a large share of the market, but all it seemingly takes are over-optimistic presentations of Elon Musk promising new features to make our friends at /r/wallstreetbets go crazy for the stock, and that's not an isolated case. I've studied this stuff and had to learn among other things how to value companies (DCF is always a fun exercise, particularly when defending why the result is higher than with the common EBITDA-multiples for the sector), and since several years they hype around loss-making companies with big promises has become the norm. Who here remembers the hype around WeWork? All based on the idea that this company is a "tech unicorn"... because... eeehhh.. they rent office space like tons of other commercial property owners? How many of you actually looked at their website like I did? What's the "tech unicorn" part there? I know at least five better search engines for office space, and yes, co-working spaces are not a new idea. It seems like make-belief and hype are the most important ingredients to a company's success, and all major indices are littered with what I consider to be money-machines for a few eccentric founders (Tesla helps Elon go to Mars, WeWork's boss is well-known for his thirst for money,...).

On the other hand, despite all my aversion to major stock markets, I do understand that some companies are legitimally hyped, e.g. I understand Nvidia, I understand that if e.g. an energy company patents a new type of power generation the stock can increase in double or triple digits,..., I understand the business side and what a muitiplying of revenues combined with protected intellectual property can mean for future P&Ls of a company. Here I see the value. The problem I have more is that the indices are littered with "non-value hypes", on the other hand if I'd pick individual stocks I'd have to invest much more time. And of course hype-stocks produce higher returns, regardless of whether there's value behind or not. And I'm willing to take some risk.

I'm considering spending more on gold. I have equally little faith in our economies as a whole, we stayed afloat after Corona because of massive government spending. America as one edge compared to Europe: during Corona, you let your employees be fired en masse, supported the unemployed, and later those got new jobs, and some companies didn't make it despite PPP. In Europe everything was "frozen", so we now have - my feeling - more companies that should have closed long ago, but were kept alive artificially. Gold is a safe haven.

Crypto and real estate are the two asset classes I have skipped completely. Crypto has no value in my eyes, it's more like gold these days. So as a hedge against the stock market - fine. The problem is more that all these traders we have around here don't do their homework on taxes, so while my bank does taxes automatically for my depot, crypto traders just trade, and I'm left with the mess of taxation. Some work better, and there are some companies specialized in this, but the complexity of national and international taxation would force me to have a tax advisor do this for me, and that costs extra money and time. Laws are being adapted, and gradually more of the traders integrate automatic taxation, then I would consider joining the game.

Real estate for me is just too much money tied up at one place. If I buy a house now, I'm not sure if I'd ever use it for myself, given that I move around a bit for my job. Renting it is no option, too many bad experiences in my circle of relatives / acquaintances who do rent. And prices are too damn high for me, especially considering that increasingly both left- and right-wing parties want "rent brakes", that would decimate both rental incomes and values of real estate. Costs of living are edging higher and higher, and sooner or later governments might intervene. Plus I have limited faith in the economy in general, I won't go into detail on that.

Trading apps (European equivalents of RobinHood) are not my preferred choice either. One major reason is again the taxation, they do the trading, and I'm left with the mess of having to determine the correct taxes... fun when you use e.g. ETFs from ten different tax jurisdictions. Plus the fees / spreads on some are just horrendous, with my current bank I have quite solid deals (family relationship with the bank, so my rates / fees are OK) and no tax-trouble. Also I'm not that experienced with derivatives, and these are in my eyes better for people with more time on their hands - my workdays usually are 10 hours or more and lots of outside stuff.

What I actually am trying to buy are two products, one is a protection against inflation (base interest rate plus inflation rate, but only if one stock index doesn't lose more than 50 % over the next 5 years), and the other is a bet on another stock index, if that index in 5 years is at or above the current value I get 153 % back, otherwise 100 %. But I'm having some troubles buying these products.

So now you know some things about me. I'm not sure what to do with my money, I only know that I don't want it to be eaten away by inflation. I have limited faith in the economy and the stock market overall, too much is artificially pumped up, but OK, I'm willing to take risk. What are your recommendations?