Money question...

[Coligny]

Back home there is 1 or 2 popular saving accounts backed by the state and more or less taxe free.

One is the "Livret A" traditionnally opened by the grand parents where everybody puts money from times to times that the kid can use when he gets older. (limited in scope)

Other one is the "PEL" which is a Plan epargne logement, savings to buy a house. You don't make huge money outta them either, but it's a safe deposit, you can take in case of emergency (losing the tax deduction), and it's at least a little over the inflation.

Is there somekind of equivalent here ? Not that we are sleeping over gold, but living with Mom and Dad inlaw, no more rent/utilities/water fee, just food for us and the cat, even with our high standards (like, and I'm not making it, dining at... THE bikkury Donkey for our 6th wedding anniversary. I don't tell more not to make people jealous). Money goes to local banks, that we trust... not that much... and the deposit insurance (read the amount of money insured in case the bank goes titanic) is, quite low. The other option would be to use French banks... but we have no clue on how to transfer money and i've lost contact with my bank 3 years ago, changing adress and dead fax, just replaced last month... was not a big priority. Also, when you don't deal face to face with them, french bankers are, quite like a big bundle of frustration, whose only quality is to be not as bad as the postal workers but then again, even an anvil would do a better job at dispatching mail than those guys...

[GomiGirl]

Have you looked into putting something into a mutual fund or something offshore in a tax haven (ie tax free). Something where you put away a few man a month into a fund that matures in 5, 10 or 20 years or something that you can roll over or take out if you need to pay for a house deposit, school fees or whatever sometime in the future. The returns are much better than the Jbanks even in the current economic climate if you look at low risk, steady, long term investments. Sure there are high risk, high return investments out there, but you really need to know what you are doing to get into them.

I don't trust the pension system here so I am looking after my own retirement fund - have been doing this for years and so these "savings" are going to pay for my retirement. I have spread it out over a few different options - shares, funds, property, super etc just to be safe.

I don't know much about this stuff other than what my friends who work in finance tell me. I stick to my role as a humble software engineer but plough any spare cash into a few different funds hopefully to bail me out on a rainy day.

I am sure there are other people on this board who know lots more than me, but this is just what I do. There are probably some advisors on this board who will contact you. The only thing I would say is to speak to lots of different people, research on your own and then go with whatever looks to be the best solution for you. Don't let people try to sell you the thing that is best for them... in 20 years, they will be long gone, but you have to live with these financial decisions.

[LTLurker]

This book is a great place to start for anyone trying to make smart financial choices. The author is an economist and columnist for the Financial Times.

The Long and the Short of It - Finance and Investment for Normally Intelligent People Who Are Not in the Industry

The book is also available from the author's website.