Full Description
We all wanted to get rich, earn a lot, work little, enjoy an early retirement - but this dream has vanished. Our shares are worth nothing, our pensions are shakier than ever and our first million is increasingly further away. Instead, 2.8 million households in Germany are heavily in debt. "What went wrong?" ask Marc Brost and Marcus Rohwetter and look for the causes why we understand nothing about money - despite a deluge of information in leaflets, books or TV programs. Why we always fail in our daily dealings with money. Why we are financially illiterate. Everyone talks about getting rich, but nobody about money. The subject of money is taboo in most families, and hardly ever occurs on the school curriculum. The results are dramatic: We trust advisors who only look after themselves. We pay expensive lawyers to help us recoup our lost investments on the stock exchange - and lose a second time. We know that we should save for our old age, but we do not know how. In so doing, we not only harm ourselves but also the entire national economy: If in future increasingly more old people spend increasingly less money, then the general wealth of the country decreases. The authors finally take our ignorance of money to task. Their book initiates an important discussion, since, after all, it is more than simply the question of 'Who wants to be a millionaire?'
Contents
Foreword; Chapter 1: We're the idiots; Why we're having this problem right now; Chapter 2: The ego trap; Why we constantly deceive ourselves; Chapter 3: False friends; How advisers betray us; Chapter 4: The profiteers of our misery; How lawyers play on our hopes; Chapter 5: The silent society; Why money is taboo - even within the family; Chapter 6: A holistic view; How financial idiocies damage the whole economy; Chapter 7: America's nightmare; What the US does and does wrong; Chapter 8: Lessons for life; Why we need more than economics on the curriculum; Epilog; Appendix; Index
