A recent study by the German Institute for Economic Research found that despite good economic indicators and rising salaries, Germans on average missed out on 20.000 euros of household income between 2003 and 2013 when taking inflation into account. The main reasons for these surprising conclusions are the fact that house prices decreased in the period before 2010 and the fact that Germans continue to invest in products with moderate to low returns, such as life insurance, savings accounts and Riester pensions.
Ulrich Hocker, President of DSW, Germany’s association for private investors, believes that the results of the report would be completely different if at least a part of the funds had been invested for the long term in shares. The DAX30 grew with 19.4% per year during the same period. Investments in MDAX would have even further increased the income of German households, as it grew 302 percent from 2003 to 2013.
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