From New York to Untereggen. Search for her roots, finding love.

Ramona Riedener
8/21/2018, 3:22pm

The American Therese Faessler wanted to meet her Swiss relatives. After a planned six months she stayed in St.Gallen for love’s sake. Today, the woman from Untereggen is committed to a fairer world.

25 years ago, the Swiss bestselling author Hans Peter Zimmermann claimed that money is beautiful. With his book of the same name, he gave input on a topic that has also interested Therese Faessler from Untereggen. As is written in this book “Money should make people happy and contribute to a fulfilled life in peace and prosperity,” the Swiss-American Therese Faessler agreed.

The passion for social justice was instilled in her as a small child. At her parents’ home, in a suburb of New York, where she grew up as the fourth of five children, it was important to share and get involved socially. To teach the children charity, their parents took in a foster child who was blind, deaf and mentally handicapped. 

Therese Faessler’s mother is a citizen of St.Gallen and immigrated with her parents in 1938 before the turmoil of the war to the USA, where she later met her Irish husband. Her great-grandfather was an embroidery designer and worked with Otto Bischoff, the founder of Bischoff Textiles, after the turn of the century, said Faessler. 

Therese Faessler likes to remember her youth. She loved mathematics, was a gifted student and graduated with flying colors in mathematics, statistics and economics. In 1983, at a time when computer science was not yet part of the everyday life and the word Internet did not even exist, the technically gifted 22 year-old moved to St.Gallen. She wanted to get to know Switzerland and her relatives before continuing her studies. 

 

A Fairer Distribution of Resources

 

Theoretically, there are enough resources for everyone in the world. The 57-year-old is convinced that there is enough food, enough water and enough money. “The real problem is the distribution. While few are accumulating incomprehensible fortunes, most of us are just getting by,” says Faessler. The primary goal is simply a fairer distribution of money. “Owning capital is the difference between getting ahead and getting by,” says Faessler. To ensure that everyone has the opportunity to get ahead is what she has made her life’s work and developed an investment model.

 

Then at 40, when she was the wife and mother of a six-year-old and successful in her profession, she asked herself, “Was that all?” No, she answered and went back to school to catch up on what she actually wanted to do in New York 20 years earlier, a Master diploma in Quantitative Economics and Finance. It was by chance that the University of St.Gallen had just offered this Master’s program in English for the first time. After three years, she had her diploma in her pocket. After working in various companies in information technology, management consulting, finance and research, Therese Faessler wanted to know, “What can I do to make the world a little bit better?” 

 

The Stock Market as the Key to Equality

 

It is not everyone's calling to go to Africa and work in the Peace Corps, care for old or sick people or organize charity events. "I wanted to do what I do best: Programming and Finance." She collected data, studied the market and came to the conclusion that a fairer distribution of money is only possible if less well-off people can also own capital. The easiest way to do that is by investing in the stock market, owning a piece of a company. But the barriers to entry must be removed. It must be less expensive to start and it cannot be that expensive financial advisor services are required.

 

"You don't have to study finance to own stock. Everyone can do it," the financial expert is convinced. Today, money is almost better off under your mattress than in the bank account, where it costs fees and loses value (inflation). But investing in stocks? - For most small savers, this is too confusing, risky and expensive. The investment process developed by Therese Faessler enables everyone to buy their own stocks in companies without bank intervention or hidden fees. On her website she explains how the financial market works and how investors can find a company to invest in.

Get invested!!!