Finally made the step to join the army.

What´s your branch, career path and length of enlistment? I also hope you have a "Plan B" incase you drop out earlier than you planned and a good "Plan C" for your time after the military.

In Germany maybe invest in future energy industries : windmill parks, solarpanel parks etc. Could also be a good investment I think

Better don´t. The German government has subsidised the whole "regenerative energies"-sector and has therefore created a huge bubble that burst, when China subsidised its own sector even more. "Big" German companies that were supposed to be reliable went bankrupt because of this because (SURPRISE!) production costs in Germany are waaaaay higher than in China...lots of people lost quite a lot of money.
Just because someting is government-endorsed, doesn´t mean it´s a sound investment...

That's a quite interesting point. But then again there was not much use for gold in ancient times (yes you had the posh Pharaoh that wanted to sit on a gold plated throne while wearing a gold plated hat and eating cake from a gold plated plate, but he was what - one guy?).

Wasn´t gold used to mint coins even back in ancient Egypt? Having a "gold-backed" currency was actually common until the introduction of "paper currencies" and the Bretton-Woods-Agreement. But still, the way the demand for gold fluctuates with other economic factors shows how even to this day it might be a good long-term way of saving your money.

Actually, if you invest in unregulated investment funds such as hedge funds, you will never know where you'll money go.

In the 90s and early 200s there has been a big boom with alternative investments in Germany. Suddenly lots of "independent consulting companies", such as AWD, MEG and others appeared and convinced people to give up their life insurance contracts and invest money into leveraged blind-pool investments. They promised totally unrealistic returns (often over 20% or more) and "super safe high-class investments". What they in-fact did, though, was use their clients money to get a large loan and then "invest" into e.g. British life insurances or projects that never were realised. The whole thing was basically a Ponzi-scheme where a constant flow of new investors was needed. Once that didn´t work out anymore, the whole thing just collapsed and many people lost their savings...offically everything was legal, but you can definately question a "consults" motivation if he convinces old people to surrender their money for something like this...

Kelmola, what do you think about ETFs? I´m planning on doing a monthly investment plan where I invest a certain amount of my income into two ETFs. I plan to invest 70 % into an MSCI World Funds which includes around 1600 different companies from the "developed" world, whereas another 30 % goes into an MSCI Emerging Markets Funds. It´s a passive investment plan with a long scope of atleast 15 years. Being a passive investement means no administration costs and a smaller chance of some coked-up banking guy diddling too much with it.

Mutual funds are a very dangerous game indeed. In Germany we had different scandals that involve Black Pool Funds and other "exotic" (one might even say "criminal") investement schemes.

Slayer, the reason I´m sceptical about "concrete investments" aka real estate is that for many "normal" people they mean a very dangerous risk. Most people need a loan to finance their houses but underestimate the running costs, red tape and changing circumstances. For example, what happens if you buy a house in a top location and some years later the local council decides to build an interstate next to your backyard? Other dangers might be social or economic changes that influence the value of your area. In my eyes it´s not just about the current prices or price hikes (which also exist at the stock market), but the risk of tieing oneself to one big investment which can also suffer from a high volatility.

Btw: what about gold and cash reserves, you know, just in case there´s a bank run or other unforseen consequences?

I know it´s not very popular, but I´d like to talk about....money.

Now that I graduated from university, found myself a steady, well-paying job with good future career opportunities I´ve come to the point where I save more than I spend. Unfortunately the old "save it, put it in the bank account, enjoy high interest rates"-scheme doesn´t work anymore. Even fixed-term deposits only give meagre interest rates that barely beat inflation.

Alternative investment schemes are highly popular these days: real property, gold, natural resources, "ethical investments", crowd financing and what-not: all try to entice people with high interest rates and supposedly low risks.

Now my question is: how do you guys, from different countries, all walks of live and from varying age groups, handle your finances: your inccome, your expenses, any investments?

I´m currently running a giro account which covers my monthly expenses and contains one months worth of net income. Another savings account, which pays just enough interest to cover the current, very low inflation rate, contains my "iron reserve" of three months worth of net income incase some larger expenses arrive.

Now since these basic necessities are organised I´m struggling with how to turn the rest of my (future) savings into something more profitable which would enable me to create a nice bonus for my later years. So therefore I´m looking forward to hear about your money strategies and how you plan your finances (or how and why you don´t) and would like to talk about your experiences, plans and ideas, whatever they are.

They are kept in reserve for defensive static purposes. There are some recorded incidents during the syrian civil war, where syrian rebels pinned down Goverment forces for hours, because of one PM 1910 machine gun. The only way to deal with it, was to call in for armor support

In such, its better to have A machine gun, then no machinegun. Simular in how its better to have A tank, then none.

Of course they can be effective, no doubt about it. But I´d guess that these type of weapons are mostly effective in very few, special circumstances, like immobile, defensive situations where firepower is more important than movement.

If you expect just this type of engagement these guns might fullfil their purpose, but I believe other types of machine-guns would fare similiarly or even better, because they´re less cumbersome. There´s a reason air-cooled, light weapons have replaced heavy, water-cooled ones during the last decades and that is that combat evolved into something where mobility is a crucial factor. And lugging a heavy, lead-spitting water-cooker is something that seriously inhibits your mobility...

Now, a plate is handy in that it's practically invulnerable to swords.

Which is why techniques, such as half-swording or grappling/wrestling were very common during the "arms race between plate and sword". Hence swords with pointed tips were developed, which makes penetrating weak spots easier.

The persistence of long swords, together with the use of various other weapons, such as hammers or polearms make the War of the Roses a very interesting conflict from a tactical perspective.



Btw, thanks for the video, Natty, gotta watch it tomorrow after work. The game looks very promising and along with some others which are being realeased soon makes me seriously think about upgrading my old computer...

So, after wearing neckties for years I finally decided to take the step of buying my first bow tie. It looks really fancy, as it´s made from silk, and has a nice pattern. Now I just have to learn tieing that thing until Saturday. 

Why pepper spray doesn´t work against hungry bears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU5cMZymSr0&feature=youtu.be