Why & how to
invest?
The few ideas that decide almost everything about your result — explained simply enough for your first franc, sharp enough to be the reminder a seasoned investor still needs.
Time in the market beats timing the market.
Nobody — not the pros, not the algorithms — reliably calls the top and the bottom. And the market's best days tend to arrive right after the scary ones, while you're still on the sidelines waiting for the “all clear.”
Miss only a handful of those days and decades of patience are undone. Staying invested is what compounds — not jumping in and out.
The closest thing to a holy grail: lump sum + DCA.
Have money ready? Put it to work now — time in the market is the whole point. Earning month by month? Set up an automatic plan and keep buying through every mood of the market.
Steady purchases turn volatility into your ally: the dips you used to fear become the months you quietly buy the most shares. Lump sum gives you the head start; DCA keeps you in — for life.
Invest and you might lose. Don’t, and you’ve already lost.
Over a single year, markets can do anything — that’s real, and it’s the price of admission. But stretch the horizon and the odds swing hard in your favour: across nearly a century of market data, no 20-year period has ever ended in the red.
Meanwhile, doing nothing isn’t safe — it’s a guaranteed slow loss to inflation. The real risk isn’t a bad year. It’s not being invested at all.
And zoom out: two world wars, 25 recessions, oil shocks, pandemics, crashes — through all of it, markets still compounded at 7–10% a year for over a century. There’s always a reason to sell; the long-term investor simply doesn’t.
A savings account doesn’t stand still —
it shrinks.
Over the past 30 years, a franc left in cash lost almost a fifth of its purchasing power. Swiss equities — the SPI, after inflation — did the exact opposite.
At ~2% inflation, that’s what CHF 100 held in cash is really worth later. Doing nothing isn’t safe — it locks in a slow, certain loss.
Every form of return in life — in wealth, in relationships, in knowledge — comes from compound interest.— Naval Ravikant
The interest that compounds fastest is your understanding.
Most apps hand you a number and go quiet. arvy does the opposite: every position comes with the why — what you own, how it behaves, what just moved and what it means.
So your money compounds, and so does your judgement. Knowledge pays the best interest — and it’s the one return no market can take back. Open the app over breakfast and a curious kid learns alongside you.
The more you understand, the better the decisions you make — and the better your decisions, the easier life becomes.
— Thierry, co-founder
Learn as you hold
A plain-language feed explains every move in your portfolio — no finance degree required.
Two things grow at once
Your wealth compounds in the background while your confidence compounds in the foreground.
Enjoy it with your kid
Calm, jargon-free, genuinely interesting — the rare finance app you’d happily open at the kitchen table.
Team arvy is on board — literally.
We invest CHF 100’000+ of our own money in the very same portfolios you do. Part of the crew, part of the ship — we’re in this together.
Before your first franc.
Investing rewards patience — so only money you won’t need for years should go in. A few minutes of groundwork makes everything that follows calmer.
Keep a cash cushion
Three to six months of expenses within easy reach — so a surprise bill never forces you to sell at the wrong moment.
Clear expensive debt first
Paying off a card charging double-digit interest is a guaranteed return no portfolio can promise.
Invest only what can stay put
Money you might need within the next three to five years doesn’t belong in the market.
Aim for 10–20% of your net income
A simple target that scales with your life: pay yourself first, automate it on payday, and let the rest take care of itself.
Know your why
A goal and a time horizon turn “investing” into a plan you can actually keep — and a journey you learn from as you go.
None of this needs to be perfect. Tick these off and you’re ready — the rest you learn by doing.
The rest of the short list.
Master the five above and you’re most of the way there. These keep you on track for the decades that follow.
Diversify by default
Spread across companies, sectors and countries so no single bet can sink you. One broad, well-built portfolio does the heavy lifting.
Costs are the silent thief
Every percent in fees compounds against you for decades. Keep them low and transparent — small leaks sink big ships.
Automate, then ignore the noise
A standing order removes emotion from the equation. The less you tinker, the better you tend to do — the one rule: never interrupt compounding.
Use Switzerland’s tax perks
Private capital gains are tax-free — and Pillar 3a contributions cut your taxable income on top. The same portfolios, wrapped for retirement.
Explore Pillar 3a →You are the biggest risk
Panic-selling lows and chasing highs is what actually loses money. A plan you can stick to beats a clever one you can’t — and that’s exactly where arvy keeps you steady.
Start before you feel ready
There’s no perfect moment and no minimum genius required. Begin small, learn by doing, let time do the rest — and we invest alongside you, in the exact same portfolios.
Knowing the rules is step one.
Putting them to work is the app.
Open arvy, set your first automatic plan, and start learning with every franc you invest.
Scan to download