Category: Stocks & ETFs
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 …
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 …
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 …
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: …
Index Investing & Index Funds – A Gentle Introduction
Index Investing represents an investment strategy which aims to track the performance of a market index. Not “picking winning stocks”, not “timing the market”, not “beating the market”. This strategy is synonymous with matching the market – at least the one you choose to match. Index Funds An index fund is a special type of an …
Stock Market Index โ Explanation and Examples
After publishing my post on ETFs I received many questions about how to approach picking one. Understanding stock market indices is crucial for this. In this post, I’ll cover what is an index and how to use one for your investment strategies. What is a Stock Market Index? Directly from Investopedia: A market index is …
CSPX vs VUSA vs IUSA – My Thoughts
A US ETF is usually the core of most investors’ portfolios. For Europeans, the questions of CSPX vs VUSA or VUSA vs IUSA often pop up. In this post, I’ll do my best to answer the trilemma and give my recommendation. CSPX Ticker symbols: CSPX, SXR8, CSP1; ISIN: IE00B5BMR087 CSPX (iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS …
Why the Stock Market Always Goes Up?
You probably saw “the stock market” being portrayed as a “safe long-term” investment. But how is everyone so sure that the stock market will go up in the long run? Let me tell you my perspective. First of all, I’ve been investing for around a decade and made massive gains in multiple asset classes. The …
Cash vs Stocks in 30 Years
Cash or stocks – hoard or invest? This discussion comes up so often that an analysis post was due. While I don’t necessarily consider a 100% stock portfolio to be the best investing approach, it will definitely prove a point about assets outperforming cash over the long-term. Without further ado, let’s break down a case. …
Lump-Sum Strategy (Time in the Market Done Right)
A lump-sum payment describes a payment that happens once, at a particular time, as opposed to multiple smaller payments over time. If you accumulated a somewhat large amount of savings, you might wonder how to put them to work. At the end of the day, if you just dump them in the market, there are countless …
DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging) – Investment Strategy Explained
Cost averaging (DCA or dollar cost averaging) is an investment strategy for investing capital over time. It can be especially valuable to beginners that determined their asset allocation but still looking for an entry point for the actual purchase. This post will describe one of the best and time-tested strategies of deploying cash. What is Dollar …
ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds)
If you heard about ETFs but don’t completely understand what they are, you’re at the right place. So, what is an ETF? What are ETFs? Let’s start with breaking down the acronym first. Maybe it will answer more questions than only what it stands for. ETF stands for Exchange Traded Fund. Exchange traded, as it …