My father started his career as an engineer in a time when the internet did not exist. Neither did the easy access to information on personal finance（筹集资金）. He was earning good money, and when accidentally（偶然地） an insurance（保险） sales representative（代表） came across, he signed a life insurance contract（合同） in order to put some money aside（在旁边） for later. His first encounter（遭遇） with personal finance（筹集资金） and investing was at the age of 50. He discovered that the stock（树干） market is accessible（易接近的） for ordinary people's wealth（ 财富） creation and not only for the multi-millionaires. He learned that at a very expensive money guru seminar（讨论会） where he was told that even as a simple employee, he could become rich by investing in mutual（相互的） funds（资金）.

  Financial products that were, and indeed are today, very expensive and often lacked a promise of delivering superior（上级的） returns. But they are one of the few opportunities to invest in the stock market in a diversified way. So he took a bold（大胆的） decision. He borrowed money against his parents' house in order to invest it in mutual funds. Shortly（立刻） after, the dot（点）-com market bubble burst（使爆裂）. His funds lost in value, and he decided to sell his parts.

  We as a family needed money, and he was lacking of education and experience on investing. By selling his parts, he realized huge losses on his investment（投资） financed（筹集资金） with borrowed money. Financially（ 财政上）, it was a disaster, but how could he have known or done it better? His case is not an exceptional（例外的） one. Hundreds of thousands out there share the same financial biography（传记）. Unaware（不知道的） of the availability（有效（性）） of financial education, we trust（相信） professionals（专业人员） and may fall for faulty（有错误的） advice.

  This raises questions, such as, where do I start with my finances? Who's a trustworthy advisor? How do I not lose money on the stock market, but still can make（使） my savings（储蓄） grow in order to close my pension（养老金） gap? How do I not mess it up? And is that even possible? Yes, it is.

  I am convinced that the best money manager is you, by following some very simple but smart decisions. Let me first tell you why I'm convinced that you can learn how to do your finances yourself, and then how. Let's start with a why. Maybe a little question in the round（圆）. Who's investing right now or put some money on the stock market? Who was already invested in 2020?

  OK, that's what I was a bit expecting. And in 2008, who was already invested in 2008? OK, very little. OK. 2008 was my first financial crisis（危机）. Financial crises typically come with negative consequences, such as job losses, monetary（货币的） losses, and in some severe（严格的） cases, even home losses, like in 2008.

  But often they mark a turning point, changing the status（身份） quo permanently. As I said, 2008 was my first financial crisis. At that time, I was glued to the TV, watching stock market reporters, fearfully describing how markets are crashing（碰撞） and banks are going bankrupt（破产的）. I didn't have any like-minded investors（ 投资者） to whom（谁） I could talk. Nobody to share my fears and no social community around me to support me in order to stay invested. I had no blogs or websites at my knowledge where I could have read how to behave in such a situation.

  Twelve years later, another financial crisis struck（打）, but this time it was different. I will tell you why. The COVID pandemic（全国流行的） made（使） the stock（树干） markets implode again. Up from February 2020, the stock market started or the stock prices started falling as sharply（严厉地） as they never did before in history. At that time, during my vacation on a Pacific（太平洋） Island, I produced a video on why investors should not panic and why markets tend to recover（恢复） after crashes（碰撞）. I was also sharing what I will be doing in this particular situation with my personal finances.