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How do I set my strategy?

Step 4

We’ve said it before: investing is something you do for the long term. And so, it’s a good idea to make some rules for yourself and stick to them as an investor. You need to be clear on the following things. What is your investment goal? What are you going to invest in? How much are you going to invest? How long are you going to invest for?

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It’s important to have an investment strategy. It gives you both a compass to go by and peace of mind. And an investment strategy prevents you from doing things you end up regretting later, such as panic-selling your investments when stock markets are plummeting or jumping on a bandwagon and buying additional investments when share prices are skyrocketing.

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Invest with a goal in mind

Setting yourself a clear goal will keep you motivated to invest and stick to your strategy. Put serious thought into a specific goal to pursue, i.e. the amount you want to accumulate and by when. Example: ‘A pension top-up of €40,000 in 20 years’ time.’ Be sure to check if your goal is realistic. Our Future Shop can help you with that.

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Set a budget to invest

Make a deal with yourself on how much you want to invest. This can be a fixed amount every month, quarter, or year. (Just always make sure you invest only money you can spare and still maintain a healthy buffer as well.) This way you spread the risk and will be less tempted to impulse buy.

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Invest with risk awareness

The risk involved in your investments is largely determined by the types of investment products you choose. If you decide to invest in shares alone, you will be exposing yourself to high risk. Investing only in bonds, however, will generally mean that you run less risk. Going for a mix of shares and bonds is a way to align your risk with your personal risk diversification. Investment funds and ETFs offer an easy way to spread your investments. Make sure you have a good understanding of the investment product and the risk involved.

If you go for our Self-Directed Investing option, you will be making all of these choices yourself. With Guided Investing, on the other hand, we will help you set your goal, decide how long to invest for, and assess how much risk you are willing to take. This involves choosing an ABN AMRO ESG Profile Fund to invest in that aligns with your risk tolerance, based on the following risk levels: defensive, moderately defensive, moderately aggressive, aggressive, or very aggressive.

Be aware of the fees

Given that fees charged for investments may affect your returns, it’s important to be aware of the different types of fees and charges. Some of these fees are charged by the bank, such as service fees and transaction fees. On top of that, you pay fees that depend on the products you buy on the stock market, such as ongoing fees.


  • Service fees: these are the charges for all our administrative services in relation to your investment portfolio and the information you receive about it.
  • Transaction fees: these are fees that are charged when you buy or sell an investment product. The transaction fee depends on the investment product and order type.
  • Ongoing fees: these fees cover management and administrative expenses incurred by the investment funds you invest in. You pay them to the investment funds directly. Ongoing fees are mostly incorporated into an investment fund’s unit price.
  • Fund transaction fees: these cover the expenses incurred by a fund manager in buying and selling investments for their investment fund. These are not paid separately either, as they are included in the investment fund’s unit price.
  • Exchange fees: If you want to buy or sell shares on a stock market outside the Netherlands, you may be charged exchange fees. Since you’re buying or selling these shares in a currency other than the euro, the transaction amount will be converted into euros. This conversion is subject to a fee.
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Invest actively or slightly less actively

Stock markets are always changing. There is always news about the stock market. While all that news is interesting and useful to follow, don’t feel you always have to act on it. It’s all about the long term, remember? With ETFs and investment funds from all over the world, you are indirectly investing in dozens of shares and/or bonds without having to spend a lot of time on managing it all. To get the same kind of spread yourself with shares, for example, you will end up spending a lot of time on research and subsequently on tracking all those investments.

Keep it simple or slightly less simple

Our Guided Investing service lets you invest the easy way. It gives you five ABN AMRO ESG Profile Funds to choose from. On top of that, you can choose the convenience of periodic investing: automatically investing a fixed amount every month or quarter.

With Self-Directed Investing, you can invest in ETFs and investment funds from all over the globe. This is a direct way to invest by buying a basket with many different shares. Another option is to start actively investing in shares yourself. When choosing this option, it is important that you spread the risk over different geographical regions and industries.

Investment strategies for shares

Value investing

Value investors seek out underpriced shares, i.e. shares in companies that are worth more than the current share price suggests. They expect the price to go up in the long term and they foresee that the company may start paying more in dividends. It is very difficult to determine the value of a company. One source of information you can use are publications by analysts at investment firms such as ABN AMRO.

Growth investing

The name says it all. Growth investing is when an investor invests in companies that they believe will enter a growth curve. These are often companies that are still relatively young and that are looking to grow internationally. This often also means that there is a high risk of share prices falling sharply, as companies in such an early stage of development still have to prove themselves.

Dividend investing

Many companies return part of their profit to their shareholders. This is called ‘dividend’. Dividend investing is a strategy where you invest in companies that, in relative terms, pay the most in dividends every year.

Setting up a standing buy order

This is when you buy an investment on a regular basis throughout the year, such as monthly or quarterly. When you spread your purchases like this, your money will stretch further one month and less far the next, whereby the subsequent price averaging means that you will be less sensitive to stock market fluctuations in the long run. After all, your returns will depend less on when you bought your investment. Please note that you will be charged a transaction fee for every purchase.
ABN AMRO offers you the option to set up a standing buy order to invest in investment funds without paying transaction fees.

Learn more about starting with investing ...

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3. Can I invest risk-free?

By now you know that investing means taking risk. You could lose all or part of your investment. There is no such thing as 100% risk-free investing. There are, however, ways to limit the risk.

Back to step 3
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Investing for beginners

Back to the overview
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5. How much can I afford and do I want to invest?

Needless to say, you should only invest money you don’t need for a while. To figure out how much that is, take a look at your income, spending, and savings buffer in step 5.

Continue to step 5

Investing involves risks

Investing involves risks. You could lose (some of) the money you invested. If you are going to invest, it is important that you are aware of this. Invest with money you can spare. Read more about the risks associated with investments.