While heavily pregnant, Carmen Mayer decided to become a millionaire – and she succeeded within just seven years. Now she wants to motivate other women to invest successfully in the stock market and become financially free. In an interview, she explains how this can be achieved.

In her Spiegel bestseller “Mommy goes millionaire – how to successfully invest in stocks and become financially free”, Carmen Mayer shares her stock market knowledge and her experiences with stocks. Mayer, who became a millionaire within a few years through stock trading, wants to start a stock market revolution and motivate other women to venture into the stock market. She is convinced that every woman – regardless of her life situation – can manage to master her finances and become financially free.

In the FOCUS online interview, the 39-year-old mother explains what it means to let your own assets work for you.

Ms. Mayer, why is your book explicitly aimed at women?

Carmen Mayer: Women are incredibly skilled at trading and, in my opinion, should definitely go public. Most have good intuition and common sense. But they often don’t dare to take the first step. By addressing the women directly, I hope that they will become braver and feel understood.

As a biochemist with a doctorate, how did you actually come up with the idea of ​​getting rich with stocks?

Mayer: In 2017 I was pregnant with my first daughter. My husband and I lived in a two-room apartment in Munich at the time and I was looking for a house for my family and I, as you do when you have children. After looking at the real estate portals, I was shocked! I thought, you have to be a millionaire to be able to afford that. I had studied so hard, earned my doctorate, and thought I had done everything right. My husband also earned very well. Still, it wasn’t enough.

I really felt pressured to solve the problem. That’s why I went to a bookstore that same evening to look for a solution to my financial problem. There I came across the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kyosaki. Kiyosaki writes that there are three ways to get rich: starting a business, buying and renting real estate, or investing in stocks. It was immediately clear to me that it had to be stocks. So I delved intensively into the topic and, after a little nudge from my husband, finally started trading on the stock exchange with 2,000 euros.

They got rich quick, including through high-risk options and cryptocurrency trading. But that’s not what your book is about.

Mayer: First of all, I would like to explain the basics clearly and show how you can change your life if you actively let your money work for you. Most people – like me at the beginning – have no idea about finances. Where from?

That’s why it was important to me to impart this knowledge and also explain the rules that we have to follow on the stock market. If you understand the basics, you can trade options later. But if the basics are not understood, many mistakes happen and then the stock market becomes dangerous.

In your book you write: “You are richer than you think.” What do you mean?

Mayer: What I mean by that is that many of us are not in order with our finances and therefore do not have a real overview of how much money we actually have at our disposal. Organization is the first important step to getting more money into your life.

That’s why I pass on this exercise in my book, which I did myself at the beginning. To do this, you need to include everything you have in terms of assets. For example, if you have life insurance, how much would it be worth today? Do you still have a property or land? Or do you have gold, silver, art? How much money do you have in your wallet? All of this counts when taking stock. It’s a bit tedious and takes time, but it’s worth looking for the treasures because you’ll immediately have more money than you actually thought if you only ever look at one bank account.

Financial freedom is one of the magic words in your book. What does that mean and how can you achieve it?

Mayer: Financial freedom means that you can live on your money or on the interest that money generates while maintaining the same lifestyle, without having to rely on your wages. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work anymore. Especially not if you enjoy your job. But it’s a great feeling to reach this point where you are financially secure enough to be able to decide whether and what you want to work.

Simply put, it’s about investing your assets in such a way that the money works for you. That’s why it’s important to initially concentrate on your net worth, i.e. the amount of money that could work for you – and not just on your income, as most Germans do. Because you may end up spending your entire income every month, never building wealth and never becoming financially free. But if you invest part of your income wisely, it is definitely possible.

“Mommy goes millionaire: How you can successfully invest in stocks and become financially free” – by Carmen Mayer, published by Campus-Verlag.

Suppose I want to invest in stocks to become financially free. How much would I have to invest and how long does it take?

Mayer: If you want to know how much money you need in your account in order to be able to live on the returns from your investments, you can simply calculate it. First, you need to know how much money you spend annually. Logically, the more money you spend, the higher your assets must be in order to be able to live on it. Or the return must be higher.

Can you give an example?

Mayer: Assume you need 36,000 euros a year, i.e. 3,000 euros a month. Then divide the 36,000 euros by the average annual return. This gives you the assets you need to be able to live off the interest or returns. Of course, the assets required depend on the return. The higher the return you earn per year, the less assets you need.

You can cautiously and conservatively expect three or eight percent, but also 15 percent or more. The result is the wealth necessary to live on the assets at this rate of return without it decreasing. We’ll leave taxes and fees out of the equation here for now.

If you assume a return of three percent per year, you calculate 36,000 euros: 0.03 = 1,200,000 euros. So you would need 1.2 million euros to no longer have to work and live off the return.

If you assume a return of eight percent, you would only need 450,000 euros. And with a return of 15 percent, it would be 240,000 euros. For me, this calculation was a game changer and it became clear to me that I absolutely wanted to generate high returns and at the same time that you don’t need that much money to be financially independent. This provides clarity and great motivation to invest successfully on the stock market.

But many are now probably wondering whether they can really expect a return of eight or even 15 percent. Trades on the stock market sometimes go wrong and there are losses. So shouldn’t you calculate with less?

Absolutely no way! I get an average of eight percent per year with a buy-and-hold strategy

And that’s why we have to target that 15 percent, or even more, otherwise we can save ourselves all the work. For example, if we only look at the S

They suggest using a six-account model. How does this help achieve financial freedom?

Mayer: It helps enormously! It’s downright magical. Because we are all wired to save. The only thing the German can really do is save. But this mindset does not lead to wealth, but to scarcity. If we only focus on saving, we will always be in deficit. And lack begets lack. So we have to get out of there. And the six-account model helps because it brings structure to the finances. And it shows us that we should cover all areas of life, including fun and education! To do this, you need six accounts or simply six pots if you prefer to withdraw the money in cash.

Net income is distributed across six accounts:

Through this system, you ensure that there is enough money available for every area of ​​life and you no longer have the feeling of being in short supply.

The last pot is particularly interesting. In your book there is also the sentence: “Donations turbocharge your wealth creation.” At first this sounds counter-intuitive. Why is that?

Mayer: Ultimately, money is energy. Energy can flow, everything can flow. And we can let go. We can enjoy our lives. If I always hold on, there is no flow. I can let go and when I do that, I learn to receive. I don’t know why it works like that. I just know that it is. I know that all my rich friends donate. All of them. And they all swear by it. Try it out – it can only get better. But do it systematically and sustainably, the big effects are not immediately visible. Some donate too much and then end up in need – everything has to be in balance.

Donating also has something to do with trust. It’s always about trust. We buy something because we trust. We make decisions because we trust something. And we can also trust ourselves and trust that money comes and goes, but more and more keeps coming. Letting go is usually much more difficult for us than holding on. Because we have all learned and internalized holding on. But we can let go and do so with joy. And donating is the first step that helps us because it shows us how much we already have so that we can even give some of it away. That’s what makes it so powerful: donating automatically makes us feel richer. We will never be rich if we don’t feel rich. And how you feel is very, very important.

*Editor’s note: Statistically speaking, it is entirely possible to generate an average return of eight percent with stocks over many years. However, to achieve a 15 percent return, high financial risks are necessary.