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I'm already past 30 years old and so is my spouse. We have a two years old child and plan to have another one in a near future. I'm currently doing a PhD and I have about 1500 euros per month as income, as well as some help from the Government (I'm very grateful for that). That's all the income we have right now, I do have about 5k euros in my bank account. This bank account is a livret A, which means I earn 0.75% of what's inside it, per year. Since the inflation is over 1% per year, it means I lose money, though not as much as if I had the money at home. But still, using the livret A is clearly not a good option to have some money growth or simply to save money on the long term.

Although I do not go to Canada often at all, I am Canadian. Maybe there are better options to save money there than in France? I do not have any bank account there, though; and a visit there is extremely unlikely in the next years.

I was wondering what are some good options I could consider. Both to save money and to invest, considering my situation.

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    How much are your monthly expenses? Unless you have some other cash you didn't mention, you will probably need to keep the 5k somewhere that you can liquidate quickly in case you need to cover some emergency, so any investing should probably only come from what is left over from your income each month. Sep 3, 2018 at 21:32
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    What is the job market like in your chosen field? If you're going to jump from 18000/yr to maybe 50000 very quickly after receiving your degree, then you will be just fine by maintaining your current level of spending and investing the increase in pay. If you are only going to get 22000/yr when you finish, it's much more important to find room for savings/investments in your current budget.
    – Ben Voigt
    Sep 3, 2018 at 23:51
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    Do you mean "save money" in the sense that you want advice on how to spend less, or do you just want advice on storing the money you do have, ie your "savings and investments"? Jan 2, 2019 at 1:54

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You can save money mainly by reducing your own consumption (up to a certain level).

The € 5,000 on the bank I would still leave there (or at least the most of it) to have them ready for short-term issues. It can be very "expensive" if you have to sell on the stock market immediately.

Stock savings plans offer a good opportunity to invest smaller amounts on the stock market in the long term and with few fees and not to be affected by short-term price fluctuations.

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For instance, a 2-year duration U.S. Treasury ETF can be bought in Europe. Or a 6-month duration U.S. high-yield corporate bond ETF can be bought in Europe. European residents can get a European stock brokerage account to get ETF's.

For better personal success, buy dividend paying stocks, use the dividends as current income, and otherwise wait for the historical rise of the stock market.

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