Disclose: I made this tool because I was a bit skeptical of people who say "renting is throwing money away". After all, if you pay less in mortgage and reinvest the money, plus all of the initial costs, couldn't you be better off renting than buying? The answer is yes, it is possible. But the main reason why buying can be better compared to renting is, simply put, buying a house is the only chance for most people of investing with leverage. So my intuitions at the beginning were: if you think of buying a house purely from a financial perspective, the best thing you can do is to take the longest mortgage you possibly can, and put 0% downpayment. The day you finish paying off the house or stop living there, you simply sell it. Yes, you are going to pay a lot of interest to the bank and get very little equity. But that is the point, the house will appreciate in value even if you build no equity. Think of it this way: if you could get a mortgage for a million years, the bank would be renting out the house to you at that point, but you would get all of the benefits from inflation.

Aaaand... Drumroll... I was right. Since I live in NL and apparently you can get a mortgage here with 0% downpayment, that is the initial setting I used. Putting a 10-20% downpayment basically changes everything in terms of ROIC and makes renting look better in many cases. Shorter mortgages (10 years) also tend to make renting favorable.

Something that could seem impressive to many people is that there is an effect of diminishing returns whereby, as you gain equity in the property, you are increasingly deleveraged and your investment income in the scenario of rent + investment starts outpacing the gains you make by paying more principal of the house. In other words, if you are an Homo Economicus, you would refinance your mortgage or sell your house even before you stop paying it completely to invest it somewhere else (if it is worth it to buy one, to begin with). If you take the calculator I made and change from 30 years to 20 to 15, you will see that the cumulative gains reaches a maximum before going all the way down.

Last remark: do not take anything I say as financial advice. Any type of leverage, including house property, carries risk. House prices do not always go up, and they sometimes go down. This is just fancy math that assumes continuous exponential growth.

If you want to use the tool, simply download a copy of the excel file and put your own data. What you need to know is the price of the house, initial costs, downpayment, the rental yield (annual rent divided by price of the house), interest rates, an estimate of inflation, mortgage duration and an estimate of CAGR (compounded anual growth of your investments). This calculator does not take into consideration tax benefits, wealth tax or capital gains tax. I could have included those effects in the calculator but since I saw my particular case so clear, I did not include them. The calculator is in years for simplicity, but it could be adapted to months.

https://onedrive.live.com/edit?id=4D83287F4B55C905!sf0a98f5749e841dd928de36ae511d4ef&resid=4D83287F4B55C905!sf0a98f5749e841dd928de36ae511d4ef&cid=4d83287f4b55c905&ithint=file%2Cxlsx&redeem=aHR0cHM6Ly8xZHJ2Lm1zL3gvYy80ZDgzMjg3ZjRiNTVjOTA1L0VWZVBxZkRvU2QxQmtvM2phdVVSMU84Qi16bzltYUQ3RDRXcDBjME5ZY3RmN2c&migratedtospo=true&wdo=2

Hello,

I have a 100k give or take etf account in trade republic that I want to transfer to maxblue for the below reasons:

• bad customer support in TR
• possibility of TR messing up their omnibus accounts segregations and risk of losing my savings in case of a TR bankruptcy
• db has a campaign right now that pays up to 500 euros for security transfers which will cover their high costs for 3-4 years for me

Now I know that DB itself has its own share of scandals and fines but realistically speaking I find it much safer than TR in terms of a brokerage failure. I think 1 and 3 are self explanatory but I am wondering if I am making a big deal out of point 2. Am I safer in maxblue than in TR?

So, my wife and I (double income no kids and both 35 years old) have been thinking about buying a beach house in Greece. We recently moved into a rural place up in the mountains which is less than an hour away from the property we want to buy.

Here are our numbers -100k invested in VWCE with 1,5k monthly contribution -Cash in hand is 30k including our safety net (we never touch this) -Saved up another 20K for the down payment (we add 500€ each month)

-Combined income: 5k/month (we work in IT) -combined expenses: Less than 2k/month

TLDR: after our monthly contributions (excluding the 500€) we have 1500€ available to spend.

The property we are looking to buy is about 150k (including cost to renovate) and the loan estimate we got is very attractive at 500€ per month(30years) and total interest paid is approximately 17k. A very rough estimate and on the lower end of it will net us about 5k each summer if we put it up on airbnb/booking. The rest of the year is probably going to be empty.

In reality, we can buy the apartment and we can still pay the loan even if nobody rents it out and even if it comes to that we can always move in. We know that it requires a lot of work to maintain an airbnb but we both have experience when it comes to this (our first jobs as teenagers were managing properties thats how we actually met)

Does this make sense with our current financial situation?? We are essentially hoping to diversify our portfolio with real estate while also putting the money we get each summer towards the loan so we can reduce interest & loan time.

Hello everyone.

I'm watching a youtube video about middle class finances, and it says that hard work is ok until you reach a certain level, but later the rich use leverage.

I don't really understand that. Can someone explain it to me with a few examples?

I'll try to understand that way of thinking

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I am investing 500 euros monthly after my salary in an All-World ETF.

I am considering to invest bi-weekly 250 euros. Is there a (significant) difference in returns or should i stay with the monthly interval?

What are your thoughts?

Hello Gentlemens and Ladies, I want to invest into corporate bonds listed by ISHARES instrument which is called IBOND.

They have an average 7% yearly return. How save are those instruments and can we keep part of our savings there?

Some examples of tickers (listed on Deutsche Börse) are:

IVOA IB25 IB27 CEVE

Thanks

Hey everyone (24 M) here coming from Greece and I need some guidance on my budgeting expenses and investments if possible. For the last 6 years 18-24yo I’ve been working only 2 months in the summer (season jobs as most Greek teens have nowadays) and after all winter expenses I managed to save ~6-7k for whatever use. Recently finished my army obligation and currently looking for stable job with 700 minimum salary (working towards to make it 1100 since it’s an international business so they pay better most of the times). Currently I don’t have any expenses since I’m living at my parents but I’m looking to rent an apartment with my girlfriend expecting to pay for rent + utilities +food 600 maximum each. (Can always ask my parents for assistance if needed).

• I own an old 2007 Renault Car that I want to replace in 2-3 years ~7k euros.
• Already built my emergency fund of 5k sitting in a convenient bank to withdraw whenever I want (but looking for alternatives)
• Have an IBKR account with 250 invested in VUAA but thinking swapping for VWCE.

My question is how to manage my salary to be able to save for a new car, invest monthly and have spare savings for travelling and eventually buying an apartment in 10 years from now. And any other recommendations are very appreciated.

• Edit: Car is from 2007 and forgot to mention I’m using it together with my sister.

Hi,
I already accumulate Vanguard FTSE all world, by investing every month. I was looking to do the same for Gold. Is Ishares Physical GOLD the right one for long term investment?

justETF is a great website for screening ETFs. My issue is that justETF seems to be implicitly filtering the ETFs based on the country selected. That is, for example:

• Go to https://www.justetf.com/en/search.html?search=ETFS on a private browser window. It should say "All Asset Classes (2665)" on top left.
• Now, scroll down to the bottom and change the country to the United Kingdom. This time, it should say "All Asset Classes (1861)".
• Likewise, again scroll down to the bottom and change the country to France. This time, it should say "All Asset Classes (2820)".
• etc.

That is, there seems to be an implicit filtering of the ETFs based on the country selected. I would like to know if it is possible to disable this implicit filtering? The reason is that I don't live in any of the listed countries and hence, I would like to be able to view all ETFs available.

If not, do you know of any other way that I can list all ETFs and the indices that they track? Another tool maybe?

Hi everyone. I want to build my first ETF portfolio after reading a few books and learning a lot online. I don't think I'd like to go the 100% stocks route so I want to add a european government bonds ETF to reduce the volatility of the stock market. I was thinking of splitting it 80/20 between VWCE and a bond ETF. My time horizon of investment is >10 years, I am 35 years old now. I would opt for a bond ETF with a shorter duration or at max an intermediate one. Maybe one of these two:

iShares Euro Government Bond 1-3yr UCITS ETF (Acc)
iShares Euro Government Bond 7-10yr UCITS ETF (Acc)

Are these solid choices to reduce volatility and risk in a portfolio? Do you have any other recommendations? Thanks for all the help :)

Our household has a car from 2006, the car works well, but has become unreliable due to its back-wheel drive and we live in a snowy, mountainy area where an all-wheel drive is a safer choice.

The question is, when it comes to buying a car, what is the way to go:

• all cash
• a car lease
• personal loan

The car we are looking to buy is around 20k, likely a model between 2020-23, and we are hoping it lasts us a very long time (15y).

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!

Hi guys, what's up?

I'm from Brazil and I am studying agricultural engineering (planning to move to computer science) here. I am also got a degree at Electroelectronics technician and electrical maintence

I'd like to do a one-year exchange in Europe, focused on saving money and working, since I got my Italian citizenship this year

I speak fluent English, Portuguese and I'm learning German (A1 up to now)

I've worked as an engineering trainee for a German company called Siemens here in Brazil and I've worked as a busser, host and waiter in the USA.

What areas would you recommend I specialize in (electrician, bricklayer, painter, waiter, bartender, maybe focus on get an internship in STEM area, etc...) to have a better chance of earning a decent salary in Europe, paying rent, basic living costs and still having some money left over at the end of the month?

What countries Would you recommend for this? like Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland etc..?

Ek owns most of his shares through holding companies. A company called D.G.E. Investments, headquartered in Cyprus, owns the vast majority of Ek’s shares. D.G.E. Investments is, in turn, owned by D.G.E. Holding – also based in Cyprus – and its sole shareholder is Ek.

Does that mean he just registers a holding company in Cyprus and gets no tax on his stocks since he does not reside in Cy? Also why Malta? What's the secret here...?

I currently live in Germany and while life here is predictable and stable, things can change quickly and I've considered moving my investments away from my German broker and instead using an international broker. There is nothing keeping me in Germany and I could relocate immediately if necessary.

Does anyone else use an international broker due to stability concerns in their country?

Hi everyone

Today i had My account somehow blocked, i mean i can get in but my card was blocked by them… cannot deposit, cannot withdraw.

I mean i have my savings there and have a trip to london in 2 days

Can someone guide me in This? I’m panacking

Can you consider yourself retired if you have 500k in s&p 500 / all-world ETF and nothing else?

Is it too much risk to be all-in on equities? With a 3.5% withdrawal rate you'd get 17k before taxes. That's around 1400 euro a month. Probably not a comfortable retirement but could allow you to live in Eastern/Central Europe without needing a 9-5 job?

HI all
I was phd student in France for 3 years and was fully funded
I have made pension contributions there as part of my salary ( phd- stipend) for the whole duration of 3 years.

Now I am working in Ireland and I might retire outside European union in future
Is there any way to get back my french pension contributions?
or withdraw my pension contributions to a french bank account?
Or transfer my french pension contributions to my Irish pension account?

anybody facing similar situations kindly guide me

Thanks

Hi everyone, I am trying to understand tax implications and best broker/ account type, if I invest in global market and eu market ETFs. I am thinking a mix of "green", dividend, and general. I already have some other savings as a safety cushion. And bitcoin. I am thinking to use Interactive Brokers as seems to be generally well regarded.

Goal is mixed portfolio with a generally long term investment, may look at some shorter term to have liquidity to purchase property in the next 10 years. 35, German citizen, but not resident in EU, but paid in Germany and pay taxes in Germany.

Is Interactive Brokers a good broker for me? What type of account if so? What will my tax implications be from Global markets? I understand US stocks I'd have to pay US taxes? which I'd like to avoid...

It will be a larger deposit and then monthly contributions to the investments.

Many thanks

As the post title suggests, I recently created a Python file that simulates X years of accumulation phase considering an ETF portfolio and Y years of decumulation (withdrawal) aka retirement. The accumulation phase assumes investing a certain amount each year while the decumulation phase no longer includes an annual investment amount but rather a withdrawal amount to cover expenses. This withdrawal amount is calculated as: withdrawal amount = annual expenses - net mandatory pension - net complementary pension. The withdrawal amount also takes into account the taxes that disinvestment entails; these taxes are calculated at 26% on capital gains using the average purchase price method.

Having said that, necessary to provide some context, here are the main input data (parameters) taken from the config.yaml file:

\``yaml`

# Phase durations (in years)

accumulation_years: 10 # Accumulation years

withdrawal_years: 10 # Withdrawal years

# Annual amounts (in euros)

investment_amount: 20000 # How much you invest each year

withdrawal_amount: 30000 # How much you want to withdraw each year

mandatory_pension: 15000 # Mandatory pension net of taxes

complementary_pension: 5000 # Complementary pension net of taxes

# Market parameters (in percentage)

mean_return: 9.61 # Expected average return

std_dev_return: 16.91 # Volatility (standard deviation)

inflation_rate: 3 # Inflation rate

# Technical parameters

batch_size: 1000 # Batch size for simulations

\```

Let's get to the questions:

1. To make the simulation more realistic, what could I improve or implement? The market parameters you see above are derived from VWCE's returns from 2004 to 2023. The italian inflation rate is manually set; the actual average appears to be 1.78% over the last 10 years or 1.91% over 20 years. The inflation data is only used for adjusting the annual withdrawal amount during the decumulation phase and the mandatory pension.
2. Would it make sense to include black swan hypotheses? If so, with what probability of occurrence?
3. Any values or special cases that I might have missed and that would make sense to handle?

Thanks in advance to anyone who wants to contribute.

Hey everyone!

Over the past year and a half, I’ve managed to accumulate about €25k in VWCE, primarily because it’s an accumulating ETF and simplifies tax concerns. I’m still relatively new to investing, so I went with VWCE to avoid the hassle of declaring taxes on dividends.

Recently, I decided to sell a portion of my holdings, specifically €15k, but I haven’t actually withdrawn the funds from my IBKR account. Right now, I have €15k sitting in cash on the platform and €10k still invested in VWCE. I’m planning to reinvest the €15k back into VWCE because I don't need the cash anymore but I’m unsure about the tax implications.

Should I declare taxes for selling the €15k, even though I plan to reinvest it right away? Or would this only apply if I withdraw the funds out of IBKR? Any advice on the best approach would be really appreciated. If I need to declare them, what is the approach and how can I calculate the profit?

Thanks!

People say that the rent in vienna is cheap, that you can find apartments for around 600 a month, but when I an searching for an apartment I find more than 1000 euro per month, except he ones which are really far away from the city center, which are around 800-1000... so I wonder am I doing something wrong? Are there sites or services that helps you find cheap apartmens? (I want to live there, immigrate woth my boyfriend so i am not looking for rooms) Thank you in advance!

Hi, I've recently started my journey in personal finance.

A percentage of my income goes in a global ETF, and I'm looking into where I could put my money that I want to keep not invested, to get some interests.

I've seen that Trade Republic has a 3,25% return interest rate, do you know of other alternatives?

Just looking to understand if this is the best I can get at the moment or if there are other better choices.

Sorry if my english is not great, hope this was understandable enough.

Thanks

Hello,

Here is a post on someone moving to Malta for retirement with retirement account/pension in USA accrued in the past. I wonder if anyone can provide some comments/feedback on whether the deduction is accurate. Here it is:

The person currently lives in EU, holds EU citizenship and has no USA citizenship nor Maltese citizenship. The person worked for a few years in the USA, where accumulated a 401k retirement account and built a US monthly pension (starting at age 65). The person intends to move to Malta and live there in retirement.

I have read Article 17 of the US Malta Tax treaty of Aug 2008 which states: "Pensions and other similar remuneration beneficially owned by a resident of a Contracting State shall be taxable only in that State".

I have read the "Guide to the US Malta Tax Treaty" by Lewis Grunfeld CPA, at this link: https://www.cpasforexpats.com/post/us-malta-tax-treaty , and, in particular, I have read the passage where it states: "Taxation of US-Sourced Passive Income - Passive income from U.S. sources, which is not tied to a U.S. trade or business, is generally taxed at a flat rate of 30% if earned by a non-resident alien. However, the US Malta tax treaty lowers this rate and, in some cases, totally exempts it from US taxation for certain types of income". And in the table below this text, it shows a table which for the case of Pensions states:

Pensions - Tax rate 0%* - Treaty Article Citation: 17(1) *The rate applies to both periodic and lump-sum payments

Additionally, as it has been confirmed by a Malta Tax advisor I spoke to, EU nationals can benefit from the "Malta Non-Domiciled Tax Residence Scheme" by establishing residence in Malta under the Malta Ordinary Residence system. According to Maltese tax law, an individual is considered a Non-Domiciled resident in Malta if he/she spends more than 183 days in Malta (as the person would be living in Malta for the great majority of the year). Non-domiciled residents of Malta are taxed on a remittance basis, meaning only the portion of their foreign income remitted to Malta is taxed. Income above 35,000 EUR not remitted to Malta is subject to a minimum tax of 5,000 EUR. Any Malta locally derived income and capital gains are subject to income tax in Malta on source basis, at the applicable Malta resident personal income tax rates. This website explains that: https://www.cc-advocates.com/immigration-law/taxation-of-permanent-residents .

Based on the information above, it appears that, under the USA-Malta tax treaty, a US pension (and/or a distribution from a US 401k in lump sum) could be exempt from USA taxation, if the individual is a resident of Malta (because of the US-Malta tax treaty and as mentioned in the "Guide to the US Malta Tax Treaty"). Additionally, under Malta's non-domiciled tax residency rules, if the US pension and/or a distribution from a US 401k is not remitted to Malta (but for example to another country in Europe), it would only be taxed in Malta at 5,000 EUR (minimum tax), if such income not remitted to Malta is greater than 35,000 EUR.

So, it seems that a large 401k distribution and/or the US monthly pension (for example both totaling 100,000 USD in a calendar year) could be remitted to another country in Europe (not Malta) with no US tax and taxed in Malta with only the 5,000 EUR minimum tax, if the individual is resident of Malta under Malta's non-domiciled tax residency rules.

My question is whether this deduction is accurate.

Thanks

Hello everyone,

M24 with a net worth of approximately €80,000, divided into 65% VWCE and 35% between AGGH and BTP. My plans have changed, and I would like to buy a house in about 4-6 years, so I am considering rebalancing my portfolio.

Living with my parents allows me to save almost all of my salary. I had a Savings Plan (PAC) of about €1200 per month, which I divided between AGGH and VWCE, but I have currently stopped it while I look for a better solution.

I would like to increase the bond portion of my portfolio to reach a hypothetical 50%. How should I proceed? Is it advisable to continue with the PAC of AGGH or do something else? Would you recommend keeping the money in my account and then purchasing a batch of bonds, or should I go for bonds with a maturity date to set up a PAC?

Hello,

I've been interested in investing for over two years, and I actually started investing a year and a half ago. I began with Bitcoin in 2023, and since the beginning of the year, I’ve also invested in the NASDAQ 100 through a PEA (French stock savings plan). My portfolio is very simple and geared toward the long term (retirement or even inheritance), which is why I’m able to take on some risk.

However, my situation is somewhat unsual. I am currently on a VIE contract. This is a particular type of employment contract:

• A French company
• A French employment contract
• A position abroad (ie not in France)
• Duration up to 2 years
• No taxes
• No social security contributions (for retirement)
• Fiscal residency in France

The key factor is that I would like to stay where I am, in Poland. I’m not entirely sure that I’ll be able to, as it depends on job opportunities.

Given this, I’m unsure of what to do. Since I don’t have a guaranteed possibility to stay, it would be a shame to close my PEA (which, to my knowledge, has no equivalent in Poland) only to restart it later, as there is a 5-years threshold to get tax reduction. It’s only a few months old and holds less than 5k euros, so it wouldn’t be disastrous (and the gains are minimal so far). I’m considering pausing my investments in it and switching to an ordinary securities account, but I don’t know if that can be transferred from one country to another either (if not, it wouldn’t make much sense to do so, except for a *slight* cost advantage in ETF fees for that ordinary account compared to the PEA).

As for Bitcoin, I’m also uncertain about what to do. I’d like to hold on to it for at least a few more months before selling, as it’s in an upward trend. Keeping it for the longer term also seems like a reasonable idea. Depending on its value, it could be used as a down payment for a potential primary residence (still within a five-year horizon).

Do you have any recommendations?

Looking for ways to park some money. On US they have nice solutions like money market funds e.g. VMFXX/VUSXX or ETFs e.g. SGOV/USFR that put you money into short term govt t bills. These are not easily accessible for EU since 2018.

Do we have some UCITS versions of these?

So far I have found out only one promising solution — iShares USD Treasury Bond 0-1yr UCITS ETF, with Dist and Acc versions (LSE:IBTU/LSE:IB01).

Their EUR counterpart iShares Euro Government Bond 0-1yr UCITS ETF (Gettext:EUN6) looks not that impressive.

Any information I should know about these funds? Any other funds I missed?

I live in Germany and currently have shares of a US company. I sold part of them with a profit (considering the price in USD), but I keep the money in a USD account. I never converted the USD to EUR, but I spend some of them using a credit card linked to the account while traveling abroad. My question is how to calculate the profits to report to the Elster next year? Is it possible to keep the USD in the brokers account and only report the profits when covering back to EUR? If not, which date should I use to calculate the exchange rate? The total profit would be around 200 to 600 EUR depending on which date I check the USD/EUR rate. However, it may exceed the € 1000 Freibetrag when I add interest from savings accounts.

I am based in Germany and work for a US-based company. I have some company shares as investment. The stock broker my company works with is also a US based company. When I sell my shares, I can transfer the money directly to my bank account in Germany and pay a big banking transfer fee, or transfer to a US-based bank account like Wise and then move the money to Revolut in Germany and overall pay a much smaller fee. This is like the norm that a lot of people do. I'm just wondering if I transfer big amounts like 100-200k euros in a couple of transfers using the second method, will I maybe get a call from somewhere? Have you ever done something like this? I hear the second approach is not flagged only for smaller amounts.

Hi all, although many may have invested in crypto, many still invest in stocks, unit trusts, real estate, small businesses etc. or some just keep it in the bank being the safest choice.

How would you invest based on the amount that you have? Could we plan it accordingly based on examples below,

1. < EU25k - put in FD earn interest rate between 1.5-2% p.a.?

2. EU30k-50k - a mix of FD and unit trust?

3. EU60k-100k - stock & real estate investment?

4. EU100k-200k - startup/ business investment?

5. EU200k and above - a portfolio of the above mentioned? or else?

What would a typical or generally acceptable type of investment here and what is considered good rate of return?

Would appreciate your advice and sharing if you have experienced in this. Thanks!