I added 200€ to my DEGIRO account. Normally for 2 shares I would have to pay 184€ + 1€ transaction fee, now I got the message that there must be 204€ in my account? What is that about?

https://ibb.co/m85k8nJ

I bought the 2 shares separately, which worked. I paid 3€ the first time, 1€ the next time. Why the difference? It's IWDA, in the core selection on the Amsterdam exchange so it should be 1€, no?

https://ibb.co/M1j7Mv1

Hi,

My wife want to invest our mutual money as well. And we came to the debate of the 4% statecoupon vs the world index ETF.

For the ETF, we would DCA our investment as atm the we are at ath.
But not sure if there are any other reasons why we should pick the statecoupon over the ETF really, as I see lots of friends and family just going for the statecoupon.

Thanks!

(SERIOUS)

Hi everyone, throwaway account because obvious i guess..

I'm 32 and bit of in a unique situation. I have been freelancing for well over 13 years, and a few years ago I managed to start to outsource my work but maintain quality. This has resulted in a very big network with very high paying clients (ranging up to 2k/day). I'm a workaholic, love what I do, and I often work 90-100hr weeks. I don't mind.

Now, this has over the years added up to quite something. And as I'm too busy execution my passion, I have never taken the time to do something with the money.. It rarely ever feels like I'm working so that's nice.

Let me summarize

Personal assets:

• Nieuwbouw house (incl btw + notary): 420k, of which 160k eigen inbreng, and 260k loan. (Monthly payment of 1000 eur) - fully private (21 years to go)
• Car (standard car, 35k) - fully private
• Personal savings: approx 300k just sitting in my acount.. (i know)

Company assets

• Started a BV a year ago. (Yes before that I was eenmanszaak and paid shitload of taxes, i had a very bad accountant)
• Currently in my BV is 230k, yearly omzet is approx 350 approx with net profit of 200k
• According to my accountant at this rate I will have 400k dividend in 4 years.

Important disclaimer: all the money has been self made and my ultimate goal is to build my own, bigger brand new house in de boerenbuiten, with a loan that I could pay off if I were to ever work a more normal job (so max 1700 eur/month) just to be safe. I don't like taking big risks.

What is the best way to approach this? At this moment I'm just thinking throwing most of what I have towars a downpayment of this project and then live happily with my girlfriend and not worry about expenses.
So at this moments I am in a very luxurious position. But I have no clue who to talk to, where to begin or what the best way to go about this actually is.

TLDR: 300k in personal savings, home-owner with 1000/month loan for 21 years to go, 350-400k to be released by dividends in 3-4 years. What do?

EDIT; this is a serious question, I don't understand why the downvotes?

What is the best ETF to invest in?

Dear Reader,

A recent post of someone questioning rationale of the investor community in ETFs and overpaying in TER stroke my attention.

The post says:

"Are investors rational? Nope. They are paying BlackRock a cool $100m per year for no reason. EEM vs IEMG: same exposure, same issuer, but EEM charge 0.70% vs 0.09% for IEMG. 🤔"

https://preview.redd.it/fmzkrw0hsl1d1.jpg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c85fa27ce829b4d9104777288b3b4ea4d44cf56

https://finominal.com/fee-reducer-analyze?firstTicker=EEM&secondTicker=CHEAP&country=US

The case seems not making any sense at first sight, but yet it does. The exposure is not the same indeed.

In this particular case it is like comparing apples with pears. Both IEMG and EEM are ETFs that provide exposure to emerging markets. The main difference is that IEMG (iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF) aims to track a broader index ("All cap": large, mid and small) while EEM (iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF) tracks only the large and mid caps. The benchmark indexes are equally different: MSCI Emerging Markets IMI Net Index -versus- MSCI Emerging Markets Index. If you want a broad emerging market covered you will choose IEMG but if you want only large and mid caps (more reliable companies in general) then you choose for EEM as ETF. This lower risk is usually at a higher price and a lower performance, which is clearly seen in the post graphic.

The differences are subtle but important. Yes, the top 10 positions are exactly the same, but in different percentages obviously as otherwise there is no room left for the small cap positions in IEMG. Btw the iShares website offers you a nice tool to do comparisons between ETFs (up to 4).

https://www.ishares.com/us/products/compare-funds

So the underlying lesson here is: know what you want -and- study what you buy.

The ETF/ETC/ETN landscape is extremely complex and full of traps and shotguns. I wrote about the topic already in a former post long time ago, but in essence the essential terms are related to what exactly you want to track (what benchmark and what is the tracking error?), size and hence liquidity ("AUM"), cost ("TER") and the currency supported (USD, EUR, ...) in combination with all of the above. On top of this you want to have the "best performance" version of a tracker as a function of the issuer. This latter one is a tricky question for most people but the solution and answer is really simple: compare two equal trackers from two issuers based on the longest possible performance in the same currency. I am not so aware of any public (free) tools available so we have to rely on Bloomberg for this.

As an example if you want to have the most performant physical gold tracker on the globe, then compare all candidates known on a period of (at least) 10 years in USD. In this case it is IAU, IGLN, EGLN and 4GLD compared to real gold XAU and compared to some fund of gold diggers. The gold diggers outperform but this is a fund of companies, not what I want. The highest performer is Xetra Gold™ in EUR.

https://preview.redd.it/7mcdex9bsl1d1.png?width=2232&format=png&auto=webp&s=57161baaa5173b389698cea04b4922dd782e72e6

What is the lesson here? Buy a Bloomberg terminal ($50k per year). Or you know someone who has access to it. 😇 Wish you all happy ETF hunting or gold digging.

Cheers

Dag allemaal,

Vorige week gejobhopt naar een nieuwe werkgever.
Verdien momenteel netto €2200/m maar heb enkel een tijdelijk contract gekregen van 6 maanden.

Vorige week toevallig ook mijn droomappartement online zien verschijnen en ik denk dat deze echt snél kan gaan...

Nu vroeg ik me af of het mogelijk zou zijn voor mij om een lening te krijgen van de bank (liefst 100% of 90%) voor een appartement van €220.000.
De vlaamse woonlening is ook een optie.

DE KBC simulator geeft me een GO, maar ik aarzel om een bod uit te brengen omdat ik misschien denk dat ze mij gaan afwijzen omdat ik enkel een tijdelijk contract heb...

Personalia
Leeftijd: 27 jaar
Opleiding: Bachelor
Werkhistorie: 4 jaar vast contract en recent gejobhopt naar een nieuwe werkgever (tijdelijk contract)

Vermogen:
Cash: €30.000
VWCE: €50.000
Andere aandelen en crypto: €20.000
Goud in een kluis bij de bank (100g): Denk zo'n €7.000

Wat denken jullie?
Ik heb een afspraak gemaakt maar helaas is dit pas na 2 weken...

In de advertentie wordt ook vermeld dat enkel biedingen onder de vraagprijs zonder opschortende voorwaarden gewenst zijn.
Alvast bedankt voor enige input

My wife and I just decided to open a shared account (a bit late but well!) - and we are thinking about getting the Keytrade Keypack (which is free, gets each of us a debit card, free cash withdrawal in Europe, etc.). One element that is also interesting for us is the ability to get a free credit card (actually, even 2 of them apparently), as long as we have 12 transactions per year on it.

When I look at their 3 options for card (https://www.keytradebank.be/en/banking/creditcards/compare-visa-cards), it even seems too good to be true, as even the Visa Platinum one is free as long as there are 12 transactions on it. Can we really take this card, with all its benefits, for the simple cost of putting a monthly subscription to be paid via this card, or are we missing something? If true, why would anyone not take the Platinum one?

EDIT: Thanks all who contributed. The conclusion seems to be that the deal is real and there is no hidden text somewhere (great!). However, the things with the various levels is that Keytrade will not approve it for all - and will scrutinise your paychecks/savings/others before giving it to you - so you may not get the card you apply for.

Hey I would like to ask if anyone has studied at one of these schools for their Master’s program in Sustainable Innovation?

I have seen that doing such degrees at such business schools are mainly to network, but I’m wondering what other advantages there are to do such a degree?

What are your thoughts and experiences, any advice at all would be of great help!

Thank you

So, me and my partner (married) are looking to buy an apartment in the broader region of Brussels, and are considering what would be the best tax scenario for our household.

Note: please assume we don't care/ don't prioritize any other factor about whose name it is in, so disregard any claims fairness or protection. Honestly, we can solve via private agreements I'd we have to, but are so committed to each other that nothing has happened the past 10yrs.

Here is our situation:

Will buy a property circa 400k with mortgage, hopefully financed at 95 or 100%. So basically just pay initial closing fees and costs (estimated at 10% of property value).

I work for private sector and am tax resident of Brussels. I own other residential property at our home country, but it is rented (I declare these to cadastre here in minfin). I'm worried that I won't be able to benefit from tax credits/deductions. I am thinking that owning part or all of apartment might benefit my personal taxable income scenario.

Partner works for european institutions and has tax residence at our home country. Owns residential property at home country but only fractionally (with other siblings), thus appears eligible for tax deduction in Brussels and other regions. However, given income is "tax free" at home country, it seems that no benefit would arise from taking mortgage.

Any other tax considerations, thoughts?

Hello everyone, as the title states which option would you prefer and why? I ll invest with 2 friends on a local business so the amount of money is not that much(based on initial calculations we have done). Let's say it takes 20.000 for me. I have for example 50.000 in capital.should i use my capital or take a loan an for example for the full amount? Because that way you pay ~350€ per month for 72 months. That way even if the business is not successful it s a cost i can manage per from my other income

Hi I am 24M thinking of a starting investing in stocks at the end of this year. As by then I will have saved enough emergency fund and can start putting about 1,3K per month in stocks.

My question is how do you guys know which stocks to but your money in? (VCWE, IWDA, S&P) do you guys have financial advisors or accountants or is it based on personal research( based on analysing the stocks)?

And also which brokers do you recommend?

Thanks for the replies.

My GF is a "zorgkundige thuisverpleging" and makes around 2100-2200 + company car and fuel card.

Most of her colleagues have a vennootschap or eenmanszaak and make around 6-7k revenue this because she gets paid per hour and they get paid per patients from the RIZIV in Belgium. µ

Should she change and also start with an eenmanszaak? They offer her a contract so she has patients full time and she does not need to look for them on her own. If she wants she can also work some extra shifts.

​

Knowing she will have less pension, no paid vacation, no bonusses, etc..

​

We feel that te difference is quit big and seems worth it.

​

Thoughts?

Does anybody know if its possible to transfer holding from BUX to another broker? Also what are your recommendations for finding a new broker?

I am in a quiet unique situation where I have money that I may have to use asap (within a week) or never. This period of uncertainty can last an other 5 to 10 years. I dont want to disclose to much about this situation.

This money is quiet large sum of money. Investing in ETFs doesn t seem like a good idea given the nature of the situation.

Any ideas? I never bought bonds for example, are they any good for these situations?

Hi!
I am leaving Belgium and moving in June to another EU country.
Trying now to make a list of things I have to do before:

• Investments: Sell all my stock and ETFs and buy back again, so I have to pay much less capital gains tax in the other country in case I would need to sell.
• Bank account: I will keep it, and update with my new address.
• Commune: Inform that I am leaving
• Mutuelle: Cancel on the day I am leaving.
• Child benefit: Cancel on the day I am leaving.

What else am I missing?

For which party will the FIRE community vote for the federal elections?

I was unable to add another option for PVDA, so certainly comment if you will vote for them.

View Poll

I hear a lot of people making big money out of crypto but in my opinion it's just like monopoly money. Some guy/girl writes a code, calls it ...coin and starts selling it. But except what some people want to pay for it, depends on how many fools you find, there is no real way to see what it will do on the market. Will it rise? Will it drop? There is no logic in it.

That's purely my opinion. So I want to know, is there a way to know what the coin will do on the market or is it really just a gamble you don't want to take if you don't love that kind of risk?

It's a long lasting debate that comes up at every new election, and it's one of the flagship reforms that was never voted on in the end, the tax reform.

With the elections coming up, I'm curious about the opinions of the various parties on this issue.

As the FIRE enthousiaste, I obviously prefer not to touch to the amazing absence of capital gain tax in Belgium. And I would like to have your opinion on the matter, Is it better to put forward a party that doesn't want to reconsider the capital gains tax?

The aim of the tax reform is to reduce salary-related taxation and compensate it with the introduction of capital gain tax. I’m still in accumulation phase and far from FI, reducing the salary tax would be great tbh, it would accelerate my path to FI but would change all future plans as I would need much more to reach FIRE.

I have a question related to the mobility budget. My company offers TCO of 800 EUR and I live within 10 km of the workplace. I want to use this benefit to pay the capital repayments of mortgage.

My question is: If I choose this option, does it mean I will have 800 EUR net ? (Meaning that I can directly use 800 EUR to pay the part of the mortgage?) Or there is a reduction from this amount that I can use to pay mortgage? (Kind of like when you want to cash it out)

Looking forward to your help

As I am about to embark on my FIRE journey there is something that's been bothering me and I want to hear your thoughts on it.

The premise in the FIRE community is that index funds WILL grow your portfolio if you invest for long enough and stay the course. My concern is wether or not this will remain the case as the world's population will shrink, and many economies with them (most developed markets). Does this mean ETFs will sometime soon no longer be a good long term investment?

I'm considering looking for a mostly USA-centric ETF (if it exists) as this is the only economy I have some faith in since they can keep brain draining the rest of the world.

What are your thoughts on this?

Hi All,

22M, started working a couple of months ago and i'm putting around 70% of my salary in 2 ETF's and my savings account. I'm already thinking ahead (buying a house for example), which is why I want to ask the following question;

I am actively putting more money in these ETF's, in comparison to my savings account, because they actually make profit. Is it ok for me to keep doing this split, even though I will eventually have to be able to put down a lot of money for a house? What is your opinion on taking money from your investment account for, for example, a house, keeping in mind that you do these investments to achieve the compounding effect?

The 70% split of my salary is as followed:

70% goes in to 2 ETF's
30% goes in to my savings account, not a lot in this account, but enough to be prepared for emergencies.

TL;DR
What is your opinion on taking money from your investment account for a house or other big payments, keeping in mind that you do these investments to achieve the compounding effect?

Have a great Friday, weekend and pinkstermaandag :)

On Degiro, my homepage shows regional indices such as BEL20 and EUROPE50. As I understand, these track the top X most successful Belgian/European/... companies.

However, what I want to know is how this is calculated and which these underlying companies actually are. As far as I know, Degiro does not show this information.

I have also seen some explanations where it might not even be 20 companies (in the case of BEL20) but sometimes less. Who decides this? How are these calculated?

Thanks for informing my beginner ass :)

I've been snooping around for a bit, and couldn't find a topic where this exact same question got asked. Sorry for yet another crypto and taxation-related post. I know you guys must be sick and tired of these, but it's just such a hot topic in the past few years and sadly, everyone's situation is always slightly different. So here it goes.

Does anyone know how strict the "tax man" in Belgium keeps an eye on your assets/holdings? This is not the American IRS we're talking about, I get that, but I'm figuring that even a country like Belgium - that is known for always showing up late to the party, usually when the sun's already coming up and people are cleaning up the booze - must have some form of AI to keep an eye on your crypto addresses? I mean, it's not a hard thing to do when you used a KYC exchange to deposit your fiat in the first place. It's literally follow the fiat to the exchange > see where the bought currency gets deposited to > assume this is a persons hardware wallet, et voila.

So with the idea in mind that they are aware of all of your holdings (if this is not the case, this post is irrelevant) - would it be possible to use, let's say for example Ledger Live, to trade your coins and fly under the radar ★? For an example, let's just say that I currently own 10 DOGE. If I would transfer this to Binance first, and then swap it there to USDT, this would trigger a "taxable event", right? I highly doubt you'd get taxed from trading 10 DOGE, but it's just a hypothetical scenario. But if I'd keep it on my Ledger hardware wallet, and use the Ledger Live application, which has a built-in trade/swap function, thus this newly received USDT would (in theory) never leave my hardware wallet. I'm just wondering if anybody here did this before and still got taxed for it eventually? By the way, I'm never switching my gains to fiat. All of the profit will stay on the blockchain. As long as I don't cash out to my bank, is there actually a 'taxable event' to begin with?

(★ = Just to clarify ; This is not asking for a guide on how to get away with tax evasion. I just have a relatively small amount of money sitting in crypto and I do not want to "passeer langst de kassa" twice. This is money from my paycheck, of which I already paid my fair share of taxes on, leftover of the money that I have spent on products, which nearly all have a VAT of 21%. And to get to that store, I use my car which is filled up with gas that is already taxed heavily due to ridiculous amount of 'accijnzen' you pay per liter. I just currently have too much government in my life and I am not interested in paying 33 to even 50% of taxes on a small amount of altcoins gains. We're also not talking about six figures here, so I'm begging you to keep your comments related to my question, and not hijack this post to give me a lecture on how I'm a bad person for thinking that the number one country in the world - when it comes to taxing their citizens - should be rewarded even more so.)

Which brokers support day-trading on Chinese, Korean or Japanese stock markets?

Bolero doesn't. What are my alternatives?

Bonjour tout le monde,

Tout d'abord, désolé de m'exprimer en français mais je n'étais pas sûr de bien traduire mes questions.

Je me suis mis récemment à investir et je me renseigne énormément à ce sujet (je regarde des vidéos, j'écoute des podcasts, j'ai lu le wiki...)

Cherchant à me constituer une bonne épargne passive, j'ai acheté des actions via DEGIRO dans l'ETF VWCE (Vanguard All World). Elles étaient à +- 116 euros.

Pour le moment, je cherche à investir environ 300 €/mois en bourse.

Du coup, voici mes questions. Elles sont peut-être nazes mais je souhaite comprendre comment cela fonctionne dans la pratique :

1/ Si les actions VWCE prennent de la valeur, à un moment je ne saurais plus en acheter avec mes 300/mois... J'ai cru comprendre que certains ETF divisaient ensuite leurs actions ? Sinon, dois-je trouver un autre ETF similaire avec des actions à prix moindre ?

2/ On dit qu'avec les intérêts composés, on réinvestit les intérêts gagnés (ETF accumulatif). Concrètement, comment cela fonctionne-t-il ? Est-ce annuel, trimestriel, ... ? L'ETF va racheter des actions avec mes intérêts ? Ou simplement les actions que je possède vont prendre de la valeur plus vite ?

3/ Pour le futur : concernant la fameuse règle des 4% pour avoir un revenu complémentaire sans entamer notre capital investi... Je devrais toujours vendre des actions par an pour obtenir cette valeur de 4%. Je comprends que les actions restantes prendront suffisamment de valeur pour récupérer ces 4%. Mais comment est-ce possible de ne pas entamer notre capital alors que le nombre d'actions que nous possédons est limité ? A un moment, nous n'aurons plus d'action à vendre...

Merci d'avance pour vos éclaircissements !

I've listed some interesting zero-coupon bonds with a good net yield and refund date in more or less 1 year.

Someone with interesting remarks?

In my opinion the 2 French ones are the most interesting at this moment(15/05/2024).

​

https://preview.redd.it/xjng1ua20u0d1.png?width=1729&format=png&auto=webp&s=c20eb3e56cdd8e052a0ef016f10e91ae77f1ac79

I’m trying to find a good broker in Belgium, but it seems that most of the brokers are not supported on Metatrading 4 and 5. Any chance that someone has this type of broker?

I’m building an investment strategy where I invest most of money in SWDA accumulating market ETF. I want to keep some cash on the sidelines however, for rainy days and to buy stock if (when) a stock market crash happens to buy the dip. Cash is trash, so I keep most of my excess liquidity in T-Bills. I am planning to move these into EUR bonds to avoid exchange rate risk.

I am still contemplating how I will invest in bonds however. As taxes in Belgium are on income and not in capital gains, it seems wise to invest in zero coupon or deep under par bonds, so that a larger portion of my yield is capital gains. I am not 100% sure however if I can avoid taxes this way. I know that yield on zero coupons for example is treated as income and taxed accordingly. Can I avoid this by selling my ZC bonds shortly before maturity so that I don’t have to pay taxes on maturing bonds? Will the lower selling price (X% instead of 100% in case of maturing bond) outweigh the tax advantage?

What are your strategies and opinions on tax optimization in bond investing? I am curious

Hi,

I post here since it is linked to FIRE :) I set a company in Belgium after moving in 2023, first financial year was ok modest profit but this financial year is going very well (fingers crossed) so I am looking for ways to lower tax base without any knowledge of Belgian corporate law.

Some basic knowledge that I think I know and act accordingly (feel free to correct me) ;

• Company is related to manufacturing so warehouse - industrial SME shops could be needed in future. A ready one or new project ?
• Real estate with already tenant ? Commercial or House ? Tax wise ?
• Car- An upgrade ? PHEV makes sense now or EV is the only way ?
• EIP - to maximize ?
• Any suggestion else will be much appreciated.

PS : I have accountant and walked through options but he is not a decision maker so only makes comments on my questions.

These are two examples of accounts with higher interest rates (up to 3% for Argenta). Any downsides? I don't often see them recommended here...

Sounds like a stupid question but I like to know how most of you are organizing their ETF wallet. In the past I had a separate retirement plan (that I stopped) and my ETF account on Saxo. Now I like to invest the amount I did before in the retirement plan into world ETF’s but it’s not possible to keep them separate with my world ETF’s of my investment account because saxo only allows one account. I also think that it’s not smart to have different accounts because of the compound interest. How are you organizing it? All together because it doesn’t matter, other broker (I don’t prefer that one), other suggestions? Thanks for the inspiration.