Blog
Dividend Leakage – Understanding the Hidden Cost
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 …
Investment Taxes in ALL EU Countries
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 …
Liquid Staking Tokens vs Liquid Restaking Tokens (LST vs LRT)
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 – Managing Your Investment Portfolio
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 …
Core Stock Portfolio for EU Investors (ETF Selection & Tips)
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 …
Netherlands – File Your Tax Returns in 3 Steps
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 …
IWDA vs VWCE and VWRL (For European Investors)
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 …
5 Common Crypto Scams
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. …
Capital Gains and Wealth Tax in The Netherlands (Box 3 Taxes)
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 …
The Best Emerging Market ETF for Europeans
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 โ Finding Your Ideal Distribution
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: …
$20k From Airdrops in a Week
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 …
Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts by Sally M. Winston & Martin N. Seif (Book Notes)
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 …
Market Efficiency (Efficient Market Hypothesis)
Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is the hypothesis that securities trade at their fair value i.e. their prices reflect all currently known information. In this post, I’ll explain how we determine if a market is efficient or not, in a beginner-friendly manner. Basically, it’s a matter of how fast trading activity reflects new information in prices. …
The 4 Year Cycle – Bitcoin Price Prediction ๐
“The 4 Year Cycle” is one of the most important posts you’ll ever read. I mean it. People that understood the cyclical nature of the markets will never struggle financially. In this post, I’ll explain the single most relevant indicator for Bitcoin’s price and how I used it to build a position with full conviction. …