Nothing comes back
Did you know? The return on this one is not printed on the card — and that is the point.
Set up once, runs on
Did you know? A charity seal makes the admin and advertising share of your donation public.
Two taps, gone
Did you know? Urgency is the point of an appeal — and also what fake appeals imitate.
You buy a promise
Did you know? You are not buying a product, you are funding an attempt to make one.
Mattress, tin, drawer
Did you know? Nominally you lose nothing. Real terms are another matter: inflation eats it quietly.
Money that just sits
Did you know? Deposits are protected up to 100,000 € per bank and customer in the EU.
Interest, still liquid
Did you know? The rate is variable: the bank may change it tomorrow, and often does.
Locked for a year
Did you know? You are paid a little more for promising not to touch it.
Save now, borrow later
Did you know? The closing fee is charged on the contract sum — before you have saved a cent.
Rent for a steel drawer
Did you know? The rent is certain, the insurance is not: banks usually cover only a small sum.
Holiday money at home
Did you know? The exchange desk earns twice: once when you buy and once when you sell back.
Usually interest-free
Did you know? The most expensive part is rarely the money — it is the friendship.
Lending to the state
Did you know? Held to maturity you get your money back. Sold early, the price decides.
Lending to a company
Did you know? More interest than a government bond, because the company can go bust.
Junk bond, politely
Did you know? The nickname of this asset class in the trade is "junk". That is the rating, not an insult.
Hundreds of loans at once
Did you know? One purchase spreads your loan across hundreds of borrowers.
Lending via a platform
Did you know? The platform earns its fee whether or not the borrower ever pays you back.
Subordinated: last in line
Did you know? "Subordinated" means every other creditor is paid before you are — if anything is left.
One company, all in
Did you know? You own a slice of a real business — including its bad years.
Thousands of firms at once
Did you know? One order buys a sliver of thousands of companies in dozens of countries.
A manager picks for you
Did you know? The front-end load is charged before a single euro is invested.
Pays you while you hold
Did you know? A dividend is not a bonus: on payday the share price drops by roughly the same amount.
Discount, with a catch
Did you know? Your salary and your savings then depend on the same employer.
Locked up for years
Did you know? Your money is committed for years and reported at values nobody trades on.
Most of them fail
Did you know? The maths only works if one big winner pays for many total losses.
A business, not a piggy bank
Did you know? A flat is a small business: tenants, repairs, tax returns and an empty month now and then.
Notice period applies
Did you know? You must hold it for two years and give twelve months notice — by law.
Pays no interest, ever
Did you know? Gold produces nothing. Its whole return depends on what the next buyer will pay.
Cheaper metal, wider spread
Did you know? Silver carries VAT in many countries where gold does not — the gap is the tax.
A note, not a barrel
Did you know? You do not own oil. You own a note from an issuer that could itself default.
Beautiful, illiquid
Did you know? Auction houses take a fee from the seller and the buyer. Both fees are yours to lose.
Retail up, resale down
Did you know? You pay for design, brand and shop. On resale you are usually paid for the metal alone.
A market made of hype
Did you know? Condition grading can multiply a card's price — and the grading itself costs money.
It rusts while you wait
Did you know? Storage, insurance and restoration run whether or not the value ever rises.
Drinkable capital
Did you know? The only asset class that disappears completely if you have a bad evening.
Subsidised, and complicated
Did you know? The state adds money — and in exchange decides when you may have it back.
Tax break, no exit
Did you know? It cannot be sold, pledged or paid out as a lump sum. Ever.
Insurance plus saving
Did you know? Bundling protection and saving makes both harder to price — and to compare.
Funds in an insurance wrapper
Did you know? You pay fund costs and insurance costs. Only one of them buys you investments.
The employer chips in
Did you know? The employer subsidy is the best guaranteed return most employees will ever see.
No issuer, no promise
Did you know? There is no company behind it and nobody to complain to. That is the design.
Thin market, big swings
Did you know? In a thin market a single large seller can move the price more than any news.
A receipt, not the art
Did you know? You buy an entry in a database that points at a file. Usually not the file itself.
A zero-sum market
Did you know? For every winner there is a loser, and the broker is paid by both.
Amplifies both directions
Did you know? A knock-out barrier ends the product instantly, at any hour, without asking you.
Borrowed exposure
Did you know? Providers must warn what share of retail accounts lose money. Read that line.
Priced by attention
Did you know? The company is real. The price, for a while, is about the audience rather than the company.
Expires, worthless or not
Did you know? Time works against you: every day that nothing happens, it is worth a little less.
Half the stake is paid out
Did you know? The payout ratio is published: about half of all stakes come back as prizes.
The margin is in the odds
Did you know? Add up the implied probabilities of all outcomes: they come to more than 100 %. The excess is the margin.
One green pocket decides
Did you know? The single zero is the entire house edge: 1 pocket in 37, or 2.70 %.
The thinnest edge in the room
Did you know? Played perfectly the house edge is a fraction of a percent — and almost nobody plays perfectly.
Fast, and built to repeat
Did you know? The edge per spin is small. The number of spins per hour is what empties the wallet.
Pool betting, house first
Did you know? In pool betting the house takes its cut off the top, then divides what is left.
