Erichsen Geld & Gold

This post was originally only available in German because I was writing about what I consider to be the best German-language podcasts on the subject of money and finance. Money and finance are country-specific topics. When it comes to things like pensions or health insurance, advice from US podcasts is pretty much useless. Who here has a 401(k) plan (1)? But even within Europe, countries differ so greatly from one another that you should think carefully before adopting well-meaning advice from another country. A simple example is the differences in the use of cash: Here in Scandinavia, EVERYTHING is paid for by card  , regardless of the amount. Cash is mainly only around here because of German tourists! As I live in Finland, I should therefore listen to a Finnish podcast about money and finances. Unfortunately, I haven’t found an interesting one yet. You probably need a certain amount of choice so that you can a) find something that suits your own life situation and b) something that is of high quality in terms of both content and production. Life circumstances, age and, not least, social attitudes create for all podcasters a (more or less) limited perspective, from which it is difficult to break free. That’s probably why my clear number one among finance podcasts is Erichsen: Geld und Gold  . Why do I think “Erichsen Geld & Gold” is better than all the others? Probably because, apart from our professions, my life situation and Lars Erichsen’s are strikingly similar – from our age and family circumstances right down to details in our CVs and our social outlook. If I’d stayed in Germany, I’d be a Northern Light too (2). The fact that I can draw this comparison also says something about the podcast: although it’s a finance podcast, as a regular listener you quickly get the feeling that you know Lars Erichsen well as a person. It is this quasi-personal connection that has helped podcasts achieve their breakthrough, and it’s something that television – or even the professionally produced podcasts from media conglomerates, of which there are more and more – simply cannot compete with. The Handelsblatt  ? Forget it!

1. 401(k) plans are savings schemes for private pension provision that are co-funded by US employers and supported by the state through tax exemptions.
2. From my perspective, nobody in Germany can really call themselves a ‘Northern Light’. In Germany, you can only see the Northern Lights (also called the polar lights or the Aurora borealis) every few years, and predicting them isn’t exactly easy either. What’s more, you have to live somewhere where light pollution is very low. But even here in Helsinki, the Northern Lights are a rare sight. To have a realistic chance of seeing them, you should head to Lapland  , in winter, of course. A week is usually enough to ensure you’ll catch at least one good display of the Northern Lights.