Correct paint care

Hello, I have a question about the correct paint care. I try to polish our touran once for the winter and once in the spring. I am less interested in the fact that I have a „showy car “, but rather I hope that this can protect me from the paint itself. Now I am unsure if I should use polish every time, since this always removes a piece of paint or if it is more useful to work with hard wax. Maybe I can ever use polish. and help the person who has more experience than me. I would always use the polish only to polish out smaller scratches. Thank you for the trouble.