VWCE won the hearts of many European investors and became the go-to ETF for a one-fund portfolio. I can see the appeal of that. You buy a single ETF and you’re done – no need to rebalance, no need to worry about asset allocation, etc. However, there is another parameter that many investors seem to ignore: the …
Investing is associated with various types of expenses. Your goal as an investor is to keep these as low as possible. Below are a few examples of expenses you’d face as a stock market investor: TER (Total Expense Ratio) Entry and exit fees Broker/bank fees Transaction fees FX conversion costs Taxes Not all of these …
Dividend leakage is an expense that many investors accrue without even knowing. It’s a hidden cost related to investing in international ETFs/funds that’s not reported in their factsheet or prospectus. In this post, I’ll explain what is dividend leakage and how to calculate it yourself. I generally recommend against dividend investing, but if you’re already living off …
It’s here, ladies and gentlemen! After many hours of research, I compiled a list of all taxes relevant to European investors. For each EU, EEA, and EFTA country, I’m covering the following: Capital Gains Tax Rate Dividend Tax Rate Wealth Tax Rates Exit Taxes Note: this post is for individual investors. Not for workers or entrepreneurs. If …
If you recently started venturing the depths of DeFi, you might need help understanding LSTs and LRTs. In order to describe these intermediate concepts, we need to start at the beginning. This is a n00b-friendly introduction to liquid staking and liquid restaking. What is Proof of Stake? Proof of Stake (PoS) is a consensus mechanism …
Rebalancing means redistributing your wealth across different investments, in order to match your target allocation. Understanding asset allocation is crucial in order to understand the need for rebalancing. So if you still haven’t, make sure to read this post: Asset Allocation. Rebalancing Explained Rebalancing usually happens on frequent intervals or when the target asset allocation drastically …
If you’re investing from Europe, you most probably spent a lot of time researching ETFs and determining your asset allocation. And given the plethora of investment strategies and products you can choose from, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, especially as a beginner. In this post, I’ll cover how a European investor’s core portfolio might look …
It’s that part of the year when reporting our taxes is due. If you feel overwhelmed understanding the Dutch tax system, you’re at the right place. Doing your tax returns in The Netherlands is actually not complicated at all. At the end, you need to report the following categories: Box 1 – Income tax Box …
Building a one-fund portfolio is quite popular with European investors. That’s why the questions of IWDA vs VWCE or IWDA vs VWRL pop up quite often. Both IWDA and VWCE/VWRL are part of DeGiro’s core selection of ETFs (traded free of charge), which makes them even more popular for smaller investors in the EU. In …
With crypto summer emerging, the scammers are back with their old bag of tricks. This post is a n00b-friendly introduction to the most common crypto scams you should be aware of. Note: even if you self-custody, that’s not protection against lack of common sense. Having control of your coins makes you your own bank, i.e. …
In this post I’ll explain how capital gains and wealth taxes work in the Netherlands. Let’s first cover the one that’s easier to explain. Capital Gains Tax in The Netherlands The capital gains tax in the Netherlands is 0%. Yup, you’ve read that right! Regardless of how much gains you realize, you pay nothing on …
Including an emerging market ETF in your portfolio is a great way to increase diversification, especially because of their lower correlation with developed markets ETFs. If you already invest in IWDA or you’re not happy with the internal allocation of VWCE, you might want to add an emerging market ETF to your portfolio. I’ll list a few options that …
Asset allocation is a wealth distribution strategy. It represents the way an investor’s portfolio is divided into different investments. Determining the asset allocation is one of the most important decisions an investor needs to make before deploying capital in any investment. Examples of Asset Allocation Let’s say an investor is exposed to the following asset classes: …
I recently published a post on Airdrops, explaining how DeFi users can profit massively from them. I also predicted 2024 to be “the year of airdrops“ and it’s completely deserving of that title so far. Thus, I want to share my experience from the last 10 days so you can get a better idea how …
I’d definitely place “Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts” among the books that had an actual positive impact on my life. As an extreme pragmatist, I always strived to dissect my worries into actionable steps. Although this works amazing most of the time, I sometimes got stuck in unecessarily long cycles of thought patterns. And only after …