Hallo,

Ik ben een 19-jarige student en wil binnenkort van start gaan met het investeren in ETFs. Nu zit ik echter nog met een paar vraagjes waardoor ik niet kan beslissen welke ETF voor mij het beste is.

Ik twijfel(de) tussen de volgende ETFs: SWRD - VWCE - IMIE

Persoonlijk vind ik SWRD een heel interessante ETF. De lage kosten, de spreiding, ... zijn allemaal redenen waarom ik voor deze ETF zou kiezen. Alleen vind ik het enorm jammer dat deze ETF enkel investeert in reeds ontwikkelde markten, en niet in emerging markets.

Alhoewel ik VWCE hierboven vermeld heb, ben ik vrij zeker dat ik niet in deze ETF zal investeren. Desondanks dat VWCE in emerging markets investeert, zijn de hogere TER van 0,22% en de hoge TOB van 1,32% voor mij minpunten (zeker de laatste).

Tot slot lijkt IMIE me ook een heel interessante. Deze ETF investeert zowel in ontwikkelde als in emerging markets, en heeft een TER van 0,17%.

Mijn grote vraag voor jullie:

Investeer ik beter in SWRD? Zo ja, waarom?
Of investeer ik beter in IMIE? Zo ja, waarom?

Enough with the new posts please, keep it all in here.

Couple days ago I placed a limit buy order on IMIE/SPYI for 230 using KeyTrade.

With the recent tariffs from Trump I expect it's possible that the IMIE will open below 230 on Monday. What will happen then? Will I buy at 230 or at the opening price? If it is at 230, could I still cancel my limit order and just do a market order on Monday?

Any way to check if this will happen? Perhaps by looking at futures pricing or other derivatives that trade during the weekend?

So I’ve been doing the usual DCA in S&P and WW trackers. But the nutso policies in the US have prompted hedge funds to start shorting the US market. I’ve been diversifying a bit more but curious what others are doing.

So a lot of talk lately about the CGT and all its implications.

We’ll not know the exact details until later, like when will it be implemented, how will the exception be calculated, any possible tax harvesting rules, if we can choose for ourselves to use LIFO/FIFO/…

In the meantime, more interesting discussion could be had about practical ways to adapt around these changes, especially in regards to FIRE. As a fire community, adapting to the new reality is the only useful thing we can do.

I’d love to see some of the smart people here do some theorycrafting and think up some ways to optimize FIRE strategies in context of these changes.

To kick it off, here are some things that come to mind:

• The obvious tax harvesting: selling and re-investing 10k of gains each year, depending on the exact rules. There’s mention of changes to the TOB, but if everything will be 1,32% then this will be less interesting, though still the most efficient way.
• The gap between achieving FIRE as a couple vs solo grows, since you 2x your yearly exception (2 x 10k) while your FIRE target as a couple is not 2x a solo target. 20k/year is a pretty big chunk of yearly expenses for a couple living a modest lifestyle.
• Alternative FIRE paths like Barista-fire become more attractive, comparatively to classic full fire.
• Decreased total CGT taxes: you can be much closer to the yearly exception. Especially as a couple since you have 20k tax free gains each year.
• Decreased income taxes, your hourly net income will be larger because, proportionately, more of it will be in the lower brackets
• The new income tax changes that are ‘good’ are mainly aimed at the lower income brackets; the increased tax free sum will have a bigger impact on lower income profiles than medium-high income profiles. With barista fire your income from labor is relatively low so you can enjoy more of these benefits
• And of course you can start enjoying life more before taxes/pension/… gets even worse in the future
• Moving to a different country becomes more interesting. Income has always been bad here, and now one of the last remaining big advantages (no CGT) is gone. Either immediately moving to a higher income/lower tax country to speed up your investments, or remain in Belgium until you reach your fire target and then move to a country with less or no CGT. An exit-tax could be an obstacle, but currently there is no mention of it for private citizens, only for companies.
• Geo-arbitrage becomes more interesting, or any kind of in between option, e.g. living in a LCOL country like in southeast asia for half of the year so your yearly expenses drastically lower which in turn decreases your total CGT. Since this also means a lower FIRE number, your relative portion of gains compared to investments will also probably be lower, which again decreases the total CGT. Maybe go for the winter months so you also save lots on the heating bill and escape the shitty weather in Belgium at the same time.
• There will probably be multiple grey zones to optimize, or even outright illegal options. Since the middle class seems to be getting fleeced again and only the lower class is getting any real advantages, people might just choose to become part of the receiving side of the population instead of the paying part. Like get a part time job but arrange with employer to be registered as a full time low-wage employee so they can maximally enjoy the job bonus, tax free sum, pension benefits,… and maybe combine it with a flexi job.
• Other asset classes might become more interesting, like real estate, since there haven’t been any increase in taxes on the RE front AFAIK. Also the renting + investing vs buying a home calculation will skew a bit more in favor of buying. As it stands right now I think ETFs are still the way to go though.
• Most of us already weren’t counting on any pension or at least a much smaller pension in the future. The new pension-malus system suggests that this approach was correct. There is no maximum ‘malus’ described, only a 5% per year of earlier retirement. So if I read that correctly, if you would retire 20 years earlier (age 47), which is not uncommon in the FIRE community, you would get a 100% malus, i.e. 0% pension. I'm assuming this is only the case for actual earlier retirement and not when you stop early but only receive pension at age 67, but who knows?? The fact remains that you’re better off not counting on a pension to supplement your later FIRE years.

What are your thoughts? How many of you will actually seriously consider a change to your FIRE plans? What are other ways to optimize?

Hello everyone, I would like to sell my iwda premarket. Is this is possibility in Belgium like in USA? If not what would be the best plan to sell as high as possible Monday morning if I personally speculate that the market is gonna drop (no guarantee) Should I put today a sell order just below the current price? Or what is the best plan?

Most of my money i already have invested in a saving account on my bank. But now i'm interessed in an ETF seeing how big of a profit you can make with that. Which one would you take when transferring that money. And what broker to take?

Ik vind niets terug in regeerakkoord over extra belastingen op huurinkomsten kosten? Telt daar ook de 10% meerwaardebelasting?

Hey everyone,

I’m considering buying a property in Antwerp, Belgium, to rent out on Airbnb. With the new 10% tax on added value for stocks, real estate is starting to look more interesting to me. Plus, I can buy with 2% registration fees, which makes this option even more appealing.

A few questions:

•	What are the biggest pitfalls to watch out for?

•	Are there specific neighborhoods that work better for Airbnb?

•	What are the legal requirements and restrictions in Antwerp?

•	How does Airbnb perform compared to traditional rentals in the city?

•	Any insights on management costs, taxes, or dealing with guests?

I’m weighing the pros and cons before making a decision, so any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Hi there,

In search for advice, exchange of views on house mortgage. We took a mortgage on our house in June 2023 at a fixed rate of 3.67 for 20 years. Now, I see rates are around 2.6-2.5. Do you think we have margin for a renegotiation? Is it worth it the effort? What are the factors to consider? Thanks!

Opnieuw een post over de meerwaardetaks (Sorry!).

Ik stel me gewoon de vraag of de algemene reactie hierop (daarmee reken ik deze sub niet mee) geen duidelijk teken is van de financiële ongeletterdheid van de Belgen?

Er wordt al jaren geklaagd over het feit dat pensioenen te laag zijn, dat mensen een leven lang werken en op het einde maar een klein pensioen overhouden, maar degene die het heft hiervoor in eigen handen nemen worden nu staalhard beperkt.

De reacties hier op?
- "Goed zo! Geld genoeg"
- " een vrijstelling van 10k, dat is toch zo weinig niet?"
- "10%, een peulenschil."

Ik kan niet anders dan denken dat deze mensen gewoon financieel ongeletterd zijn..? Dat ze de kracht van maandelijks een klein bedrag investeren voor jaren lang totaal niet kennen. Dat ze geen idee hebben dat niet alle beleggers 'de sterkste schouders' zijn...

Als men iet wat van (in dit geval lange termijn) beleggen kent dan weet men dat 10% enorm kan oplopen, dat dit alles behalve "een peulenschil" is.

Zou men beleggen juist niet moeten stimuleren? Zou iedereen daar niet beter van worden? Zou er op zijn minst geen uitzondering moeten zijn voor investeren in Belgische bedrijven waardoor de lokale economie nog een boost kan krijgen...?

Zucht...

Mijn excuses, maar ik moet mijn verontwaardiging ook ergens kwijt...

I’ve noticed that many in this sub assume the capital gains tax will be applied as follows:

• Starting capital: 300k
• Capital 1 year later: 350k
• Unrealised gains: 50k
• You withdraw: 40k
• Tax = 40k - 10k (exemption) = 30k * 10% tax = 3000 EUR

However, the nota clearly states that the tax applies to realized gains. The example above effectively taxes the amount withdrawn rather than the actual gains.

My assumption is that the tax will be just applied on the amount you withdraw, but on the proportional gains relative to that withdrawal.

In that case the calculation looks like this:

• Starting capital: 300k
• Capital 1 year later: 350k
• Unrealised gains: 50k (=14,29% growth)
• Realised gain on a 40k withdrawal: 40k * 14,29% = 7145 EUR
• Apply the exemption: 7145 < 10.000 EUR exemption, so no taxes to be paid in this case (up until your "bucket" for said period (tbc by government) is is "full")

I believe this scenario is the most likely. As some already noticed, this would encourage regular profit-taking...

For many, this might be obvious, but I had the impression it wasn’t entirely clear to everyone yet! 🙂

edit: formatting

Ofcourse we dont know when exactly the tax will come into place and if it will. However seeing it's not being applied retroactively, it's probably best to rebalance your emergency fund and short term investments into the long term ones. And use the next year or 2 to build up your emergency fund again.

Depending on your situation it might not be feasible, but this might be a good way to navigate this tax on the short term and optimize your journey to fire.

Side note: Could this mean a short term bump of belgian stocks assuming people will invest as much as possible before it comes into effect??

What do you think?

Hi Fire members

I own an apartment in flanders since 2021 which I bought with 6 percent registration tax Now I want to sell it and buy a home.

Do part of registration tax that I already payed for first property gets transfered to 2nd property? So that I don't have to pay the registration tax amount again that I paid for first property.

Thanks for your insights.

Hello everyone!

Yeah you guessed it right, another post about the capital gains tax.

So let's say your FIRE goal is €2500/month for 30 years. That's 900k with a withdrawal of 30k each year. The capital gains tax is 10% and the first 10k is tax free. So that leaves you with 28k which is €2400/month. Am I wrong for thinking this is still good? It might be personal, but I'd still be happy with €2400/month and I won't have to work longer. Am I forgetting something? Please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

Ik heb bij Degiro mijn portefeuille in dollars staan, om de autoFX kosten niet te hoeven betalen.

Ik neem aan dat de meerwaarde belasting ook geldt als je Amerikaanse aandelen koopt en verkoopt in dollar?

Dan is het toch best moeilijk om precies te weten wanneer je de grens van € 10.000 winst bereikt aangezien de dollar ook wisselt in waarde. Of wordt je pas belast als je de dollars in euro's omzet?

Hello,

I know we can transfer our assets from a broker to another. What I wonder though is let’s say I continue to invest in my Belgian account for 20years then I reach my FIRE number. Could I move to another country permanently (like one with no cap gains taxes), open an account there and then transfert all my assets there to be able to start selling my positions (3-4% annually) ?

Or actually could I just keep my Belgian account and all I have to do is live for a certain period annually in that country ?

I was looking at Épargne pension, but all the funds I see are absolute ass, always with management fee > 1.2%, dumb stock allocation, etc etc. given that I'm still >30y from retirement, it feels like even the 30% tax advantage can't make it worth it. Is there any good, low cost provider that will park my money in a worldwide ETF or similar?

Hello! I’m changing job in following weeks and I have the opportunity to choose mobility budget (1000€ per month). I currently live with my girlfriend in a flat and the workplace is less than 10 km from my flat. We are not married and we are not in a “cohabitation legale”. The rent contract mentions my name and her name. I would like to have the total amount of 950€ in rent, but it’s not clear if it’s mandatory to be in a “cohabitation legale” or married. She also works and I would like to know what are the negative aspects of this.
Thank you in advance!

Can the smart ones here maybe calculate whether buying back study years will become more attractive?

By the time we are FIRE, the capital gains tax will cost us a significant amount of money.

Buying back study years, on the other hand, seems to offer a guaranteed return with the upcoming bonus-malus system.

How would you actually go about living off a loan with your assets as collateral? What are the steps and dont you pay taxes anyway when settling the loan with said assets?

What do you think about the Russell Growth 1000?
Seems like the Sharpe ratio is good (0,86) and the risk vs return is high if you look at the whole index as well as the past decade(s)

the risk vs reward seems pretty much the same as an all world index so it seems like this would be a better long term investment no?

the Nasdaq has a better performance overall, but has a much lower sharpe ratio.

what do you think about the fund size of this Russell Growth 100 etf? Is this fund size too low? Should i be worried that this ETF could get dissolved?
https://www.justetf.com/en/etf-profile.html?isin=IE000NITTFF2

Ik verdiep me momenteel in het kopen van vastgoed om het vervolgens te verhuren. De reden hiervoor is diversificatie van mijn portfolio (en sinds kort speelt de 10% meerwaardebelasting ook weer mee...).

Vastgoedverhuur is nieuw voor mij, dus onderstaande informatie is gebaseerd op wat ikzelf gevonden heb. Alle op- en aanmerkingen zijn enorm welkom. Verder ben ik ook op zoek naar concrete tips, tricks en voornamelijk ervaringen van personen die al vastgoed verhuren. Ik hoop op waardevolle input van u/BEFire!

Locatie

Je zoekt best een pand in een buurt waar veel vraag is. Concreet wil dit zeggen dat een (veilig) stadscentrum waarschijnlijk de beste optie is, in de nabijheid van voorzieningen zoals openbaar vervoer, winkels, scholen,...

Type pand

Je kan een huis of een appartement verhuren, maar concreet denk ik dat de meeste mensen een kiezen voor (het verhuren van) een appartement. Een appartement is vaak kleiner & meer betaalbaar. Ook zal een appartement over het algemeen minder onderhoud vereisen.

Je kiest best voor nieuwbouw of een recent gerenoveerd pand. Je zal hier minder onderhoudskosten aan hebben. Daarnaast zal het pand energiezuiniger zijn - dit is mooi meegenomen voor de verhuurders (meer vraag) maar zal ook nodig zijn om te voldoen aan de wetgeving (zie energiezuinigheid). Klopt het dat je bij een nieuwbouw +21% BTW betaald maar bij een pand ouder dan 2 jaar niet?

Wat ik erg moeilijk vind, is de grootte van het pand bepalen. Niet te groot, want dan trek je eerder gezinnen aan - ik denk dat je eerder alleenstaande/koppels wil aantrekken (zie doelgroep). Daarom denk ik dat 1-2 slaapkamers zeker voldoende is (is 2 sterk aangeraden?). Ik heb geen enkel idee hoeveel m2 aangeraden is (dit zal ook gewoon van de huurder zijn interesses afhangen?)

Energiezuinigheid

Informatie overheid: Van 1 oktober 2022 tot en met 30 september 2023 mocht voor woningen met een EPC-label D, E of F de huurprijs niet of beperkt geïndexeerd worden. Sinds 1 oktober 2023 is voor woningen met een EPC-label D, E of F huurindexatie mogelijk met correctiefactoren. Daarnaast zijn minimale EPC-Labels vereist vanaf 2030 om je pand te mogen verhuren. Concreet wil je een pand met een EPC-Label van C of hoger.

Doelgroep

Veel keuzes af van de doelgroep die je wil bereiken. Voor veel mensen lijkt dit irrelevant maar ik denk dat dit zeker belangrijk is voor je keuzes (verbeter me zeker als dit BS is). Elke doelgroep heeft immers zijn voor- en nadelen. Uiteraard zegt dit niet alles, omdat je altijd geluk of pech kan hebben met je huurders.

• Oudere koppels willen vaak kleiner gaan wonen, voor de rest van hun leven. De gedachtegang is dat deze mensen vaak weinig problemen geven en niet vaak willen verhuizen.
• Er zijn meer en meer singles, die op zoek zijn naar een appartement. Er is dus veel vraag op de markt maar je hebt altijd het risico dat ze een vriend of vriendin vinden en dus willen verhuizen.
• Gezinnen met kinderen wil je vermeiden, denk ik. Bij gezinnen gaat het er wat wilder aan toe dan bij oudere koppels/singles, met de nodige problemen die daarbij komen.

Financiën!

Last but not least, de financiën. Binnen u/BEFire willen we optimaliseren, dus het project staat-of-valt met de financiën.

• Maak gebruik van een hypotheek (cash geld dat je hebt investeer je beter). Probeer om minstens 80% van het bedrag te financieren met een hypotheek?
• Kijk op voorhand de verhuurprijzen bij gelijkaardige panden na. Je wil een groot (tot volledig) deel van je lening laten betalen met de huurprijs maar je huurprijs moet wel marktconform blijven.
• Vraag (indien mogelijk op voorhand) de kosten van de gemeenschappelijke delen na - inclusief de kosten voor de syndicus. Vaak is dit een maand van je huur (of meer) wat je kwijt bent.
• Zelf verhuren of toch een vastgoedkantoor betrekken? Ik denk dat de meerderheid hier zal kiezen om alles zelf te doen (dus ook geen rentmeesterschap).

Het blijft moeilijk, maar ik hoop dat ik met deze post wat nuttige informatie ga kunnen verzamelen :)!

So with the 10% capital gains tax on stocks, to me renting out real estate does get more interesting again it seems. Nothing has changed, not even for people having 50+ houses/appartments they own. Not very logical but we need to play by the rules and seek the best way to not get taxed to death.

As me and my wife are planning to buy a house in the near future, and I'm keen on keeping my apartment to rent it out, I'm going to need some extra cash.

I started investing at the end of 2021 roughly, and deposited around 95k funds in total. 30k was deposited over monthly transactions starting from 2021, with an increase of around 5k up until October '24 (goede huisvader style). As I inherited some money around the beginning of November, I deposited another 65k in quick succession up until December. And made around 10k in profit in a pretty short period, with quite a lot of transactions (not so goede huisvader style). So the total of the account sits around 110k.

The time has come where I'll have to take out the money to buy my share of the new house, but I'm pretty unfamiliar with withdrawing money from a investing account.

Is it advised to make an appointment with an accountant to see how I can minimize tax payments? Or will I just have to pay 33% of my total profit because of my recent actions investing/trading?

Thanks

As we all know, the Arizona coalition is going to introduce a capital gains tax (exact tax rate and exeptions are yet to be revealed). We are not the sole country to have such a tax, but Belgium wouldn't be Belgium if it wouldn't just be an extra tax on top of the many, high taxes we already have.

But I wonder, how would they be able to make sure that everyone actually pays those taxes upon realizing profits. In other words, would it be possible to, for example, years before you sell your portfolio move everything to a foreign broker, or just move abroad and take the portfolio with you, and simply evade those taxes?

This is of course a hypothetical question, as none of us supports tax evasion here :)

I’m angry with the capital gains tax, 10k profit will be reached quickly - I’m feeling like the NVA is screwing the middle class.

Anyone any idea’s to take action?

• create a petition?
• reply on a lot of posts / news about this to complain?

Can we target these “partij congressen” to vote against it?

Considering the global political climate, I was thinking of investing a bit in the defense industry. (I invested in cybersecurity last year, and I got quite a bit of nice gains)

Anyone got good suggestions? What do you invest in?

(I'm on Bolero, FWIW. But I'm also considering to open an account at Saxobank)

Hi everyone,

Started my FIRE Journey last year and chose Degiro as my main broker since they had low costs and a lot of recommendations.

However, I´d like to change back to Bolero. Main reason is that I don´t want to declare my ToB´s, taxes, bank accounts and because it´s a Belgian broker.

I have a question for those who already made this move. Degiro states that the cost is €20 "per regel" + external costs. Does that mean if I´m holding 2 different ETF´s I'm only paying €40 + costs? And does anyone know how these costs are calculated? Can´t find anything on their website.

Bolero is paying these costs back in the form of brokerage fees so that makes it extra interesting.

Hallo iedereen,

Stel ik koop bij Saxo met de BV voor 10.000€ aan ETF's, en deze zijn nu 15.000€ waard
Kan ik deze overzetten naar privé via VVPRbis (15% RV), enkel op de aankoopprijs? Of moet ik ook 15% RV op de meerwaarde?

bedankt