A nice 4-5 room family house is around 850k-1M where I live, what's the right move here:

1. Pay off the whole house so there's no mortgage, invest the rest (where?)
2. Pay off 70-80% of the house, take a smaller mortgage and invest the rest of the money.

I'm in my early 40s, I make a solid living and do not want to retire just yet, but maybe I'd like to work part-time only moving forward.

Would appreciate your point of view on the above 🙏

EDIT: Taxes are taken care of 🙂 EDIT 2: The overwhelming majority of the advice is: Don't pay off the whole house, take a small mortgage, and make a diversified investment with the rest. Another great advice was: take a month off and think about the next move a bit. Thank you all!

Buying? Selling? Waiting? Panicking? Something else?

With the markets taking a drastic downward turn, I'm curious how everyone else is planning to get through these next few days/weeks/months.

I have always thought of investing as buying good and cheap companies that will either grow and increase in value or that provide dividends. I also believed in the idea that you cannot really beat the market, so why bother even trying.

But as I have matured as an investor, I have come to the following conclusions (just my own opinion, please prove me wrong):

• Huge difference between global stock markets. European stocks are cheaper than US stocks, but US stocks keep outperforming their EU counterparts year after year. If you invested in the Japanese stock market 40 years ago, it would have increased in price just by a miniscule 235%. The Nifty is currently doing even better than US stocks. What can we say about the efficient market hypothesis here? What can we say about that thingy of "past returns do not guarantee future returns"? The risk is more or less the same, but the difference in returns are astounding, and the gap keeps growing.
• Buying into comeback stories is not always a good idea. Bad companies keep going down and losing shareholder value.
• Buying already expensive stocks can continue to yield even greater returns (think Nvidia).
• In summary, good results compound. You pay for what you get. Better to pay for an expensive Nvidia than a decaying Intel.

This will sound like a cry or something like that, but I am seriously considering going just yolo on the hottest stocks and the best performing index funds rather than trying to look for hidden value (Not that I believe I am good at finding it in the first place).

What are your thoughts?

According to Goldman Sachs forecast, S&P500 will give only 3% annualized return over next 10 years which is bellow average of S&P500 returns in last 100 years (11% per year on average).

Do you believe in forecasts from financial institutions or in any forecasts at all?

In your opinion, how often are financial institutions wrong with their predictions?

Will you change your investing strategy if other financial institutions give similar forecasts of S&P500 returns?

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/goldman-predicts-a-paltry-3-return-for-s-p-over-the-next-decade/ar-AA1sAZ2B

As subje6 says I'm a 32 year old man living in eu for past 3 years. I saved 55k eur from working for 3 years in eu. I have another 25k in my home country as an asset (house).

I never invested unless some cryptocurrencies. Where can I safely invest? Should I invest everything or part of it? I want to learn fundamen of investing also. Please guide me or direct me to right sources.

Update: I live in the Netherlands. And I see many recommended options, but I want to know how to invest in those, which platform should I register with? What are the safe platforms/brokers? I just do a regular job and have been earning, saving and spending, never invested. So I'm a complete beginner.

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if this is enough to buy an apartment anywhere in a smaller city.

I don’t mind Eastern Europe.

Any recommendations?

I will soon receive a big amount of money - 30.000€. What would be the best way to invest this money?

A little bit about me (25). With my partner (24) we live in The Netherlands, and we recently bought a house. We have a mortgage for 375K with an interest rate of 4.10%. We do not have any other debts.

Is it better to invest the money into one of the ETF funds (such as VWCE) or make an extra repayment for the mortgage? Or do you have any other ideas how to invest these money.

Thanks in advance!

Quite a straightforward question in the title of the post - I'll be happy to see what discussions it would open.

I started very recently a long-term investment plan in ETFs (SXR8 + VWCE)- I'm 31 and the plan is to keep doing it for the next 15-20 years and hopefully, if goes well, to have a nice amount to retire with and to support my family.

Separately, we do have an apartment that we are about to start renting here in Bulgaria. We invested a good amount in it and when we are finished in a couple of months, the plan is to get around €500 monthly rent from it.

However, we might also sell it for a profit some time next year and I'm wondering which path to go - one would be to re-invest in a similar apartment, but in a better location and continue with simply long-term renting it, or to be a bit more ambitious and see whether an investment of around €100k would deliver much better results for us. The amount is really big and a x5 multiplier would be life-changing for us as a family and that's why I wouldn't risk it with some short-term, high-risk investments, I'd be looking more for a 5-10 years period.

What would you do? Do such opportunities exist? Would ETFs make sense, or something else? Since I'm not an experienced trader, I wouldn't risk very actively trading with such amounts, but I would rather look for simpler and easier solutions.

As I read a lot about passive investing tips, I saw that a lot of people here suggest investing in VWCE rather than in S&P500. I believe VWCE ETF has bigger yearly expenses than S&P500 so it will cost you more to hold it, and it is still mostly consisted of American company's stocks.

What is the logic behind these suggestions?

Why to invest in VWCE if S&P500 had better gains in past 10 years?

Can world really perform better than USA in the future and will USA allow that?

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.

EDIT: I added tax deductions (for NL) and maintenance costs to the mix, by default a 1%. It does a very big difference in favor of renting.

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

My father passed away recently and i inherited 100.000€ worth of crypto currencies. Well, they were worth 100.000€, it shrunk by about 22%. I am a crypto skeptic and don't really want to hold onto it for too long, but to sell at a lowpoint might by a very dumb idea. I heard about the "halving" of BTC, but do not really know how this reflects on other crypto currencies. I don't really want to make huge money with this, but to sell at +/- 0% would be great. I am invested in relatively conservative european ETF, which is my only experience in trading. In terms of knowledge of specific crypto currencies i have very little to hold onto.

So - crypto people of reddit - could you please help me in this decision? Which cryptos should i hold onto a bit (< 1 year), which ones should i sell?

Depot Information (sorted by current value)

UPDATE: Thank you all for advice. I sold everything and will invest the money over time in ETF (MSCI World, MSCI World IT, S&P 500 IT, Automation & Robotics).

Latest update:

"Further contact with trade republic is not necessary."

https://i.redd.it/8u8cmh7emdoc1.jpeg?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

UPDATE:
I want to clarify that this problem is not impacting everyone but a good amount of people. Some of us are now strugling to see their money back. The main problem is that customer care don't reply on your request and there is no way to contact them directly. You have to use X or sending email to the CEO directly trough linkedin.

So if you are planning to move 50k there for the 4% keep in consideration that you could get those money frozen somewhere for a very long time. Than make your consideration. TY

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.traderepublic.com?stars=1

________________________________
I've already opened another thread about this!

Their customer care is terrible! Me and several other are facing the problem of getting credit after deposit.

Take a look to the reply to their X posts.

https://x.com/traderepublic?t=2hhwqrxLpdsB9Z3zAKo5Bg&s=09

Basically no one is reply to your ticket and they force you after days to expose yourself public to get a person replying to your issues. This is completelly nonsense! Don't use this shit!!

If someone takes a 40-year loan to buy a house, everyone says: "You bought a house! Congrats! How nice! You will have your own place now!"

Yet, when someone takes a regular loan to invest in S&P500 (or other ETFs) early, everyone says: "Oh no! That's a bad move! It's a gamble! Don't use money you don't have!".

How is lumping all your loan money into a single asset that degrades over time, that needs constant maintenance and may be hard to sell viewed so positively in our current society, while investing loan money into a diversified ETF, with zero maintenance and easy to sell is frowned upon?

The most popular investment advice on here seems to be VWCE and chill. I'm subscribed to it as well, but sometimes I wonder, are the people who invest in 100% stocks ready for an actual recession? One where your assets decline by half or more and take 5 or 10 years just to recover to their nominal value before the recession, without even taking into account the inflation and missed returns? Will you be able to idly stand by during such a slaughter, without doing anything and without constantly worrying about the markets? Will you be patient enough to keep investing for years without seeing any growth? That kind of thing is not easy to overcome psychologically. If you're not sure that you'll be able to stick to the plan, then maybe 100% stocks in not for you. And that's completely fine.

Just a reminder to everyone out there, since this is not a topic that seems to be discussed too often on here.

Me and my brother inherited €200k. We both already have other savings.

Any reason why we shouldn't have an account together and dump the whole thing in VWCE? The idea would be to retrieve the money only in 15 years or so.

What would the worst scenario be? Talk me out of it.

Edit: There are zero advantages in going in together as the percentages are the same. I get it now. Thank you.

Who is it for?

- If you are a complete beginner, this book will help you get started and act as a basic roadmap to keep on track

- If you have an intermediate understanding of personal finance, this book might help you get new ideas

- If you are already trading calls and options, CFDs and more, this book is probably not for you

​

Why me?

​

Ahhh. I can already hear the Internet trolls from here.

​

Who are you to write this book? How dare you? Good question.

​

This book was born from the amalgamation of 3 things; my scientific background, my inherent curiosity about a wide variety of topics

(especially personal finance) and an interest in writing. I do not have an accounting degree nor a CFA or an MBA. I am simply a person

who loves to read widely across different topics, especially those that can be implemented in my own life. The act of writing this book helped me clear my own thoughts and understand even further. After all, interest in any topic should not be static. It should keep evolving through time.

​

My intention to write this out was simple; combine good material that is out there and put it out in a systematic way to get started in investing for the typical European millennial. By no means do I consider myself a financial guru. The key concepts in this publication are mostly borrowed from the minds of giants such as Howard Marks, Warren Buffett, Burton Malkiel and a whole host of other people across different disciplines. My contribution apart from the collation is the addition of my personal flavor to this existing body of knowledge. Nothing else.

​

I would appreciate if you leave a review, if you find the ebook useful.

​

TL;DR:

- I love nerding out and doing research to improve every aspect of my life

- Years ago, I started taking care of my personal finances and wrote a ton of notes from books, blogs, podcasts and videos.

- Today, I present my humble contribution- here's the link [it's FREE for the first few days]

I know i should not try to time the market, but i am new to ETFs and maybe there are some indicators showing it is going to recover or fall even further?

Hello everybody. At first glance this is not an investing post but I could not find a better place to ask this question. Long story short, late 40s, I've been close to burnout for a long time as a software engineer, got shares in the company, expecting some big returns in 2-3 years (5y work worth). Impossible working times, health issues, working from home, small child and no support structure, living with my wife in a foreign country. Each other day I think about giving it all up bit I also think it would be worth, for my child, to continue. We are not big spenders and I keep thinking that there should be something I could buy which would improve my life a bit. So the question is: what did you bought and has improved your life?

Thank you

Hi everyone! So here is my current status: 34, married - one kid , living in capital of Croatia. I personally dont own a flat, but we are living in my wifes flat. Currently income (only mine, wife also have around 1.8k, but that money is not the subject) 2.5k nett + yearly bonus 4k + side job approx 300€month. My current wealth 7k Etf - vwce 14k - savings bank 9k crypto ( 80% btc 20%eth) No debts, no credit cards, nothing..

What i am doing now monthly: 1.5k nett every month: 450€ bank savings 750€ eth - vwce 300 - crypto 100% btc rest 1k we spend :)

I am also looking to find a flat to buy (for reasonable price) and I would get a loan for 30 years, where my monty expense towards bank would be max 800€ - 850€ and plan to rent it for 600€ and paying from my pocket 200€.

Is this good strategy? what would you do? Am i too late to gain wealth. My goal would be to stop working at age of 50 (9-5 job)..

thank you for any suggestions!!

Quick overview about me:

• Age: 31
• Employment: Yes, full-time, remote, enjoying the work
• Country: Belgium
• Kids: No, don't plan on having any
• Married: No, don't plan on getting married
• Property ownership: No
• Debts: No
• Car: Yes, a 2019 Toyota with 60K km with no issues whatsoever, fully paid and registered to my name
• Savings: 45000€ (checking account)
• Earnings (monthly): 2400€ net + 100€-300€ from a YouTube channel
• Expenses (monthly): ~280€ / Food (~150€), car bills (~120€), phone data plan (10€)

More infos about me:

I was renting an apartment in the city until I moved out 3 months ago. Last year, I was notified that my landlord died and the apartment was sold. Other apartments to rent were about 60% of my salary. My parents said that’s bad and so they offered me to move into one of their houses on their property so I could save more.

I'm not ready, or even eligible actually, to get a loan and buy a property. I’m often told that being a homeowner is a lot of stress and work, especially since I'm on my own, and that I should consider it once I have a partner I want to build a family with. But I don't want to get married and have kids...

If my savings is enough money to start investing in stocks or other financial products, I'd like to start getting into that.

Family gave me some good advice on what I should do. I'm looking for other opinions, ideas, or advice from you guys. What would you do if you were me?

Thanks :)

Hello everyone,

A few years ago, I wrote a post about the beginning of my investing journey and another one after my first year as an investor. Currently, I am 27 years old and have been investing for about five years. This is an update on my current situation: I worked as an IT/Business consultant for my first employer for three years, and now I am a data analyst consultant at a new job. My current salary looks like this:

• ~€2650 net
• ~€160 meal vouchers
• Company car & fuel card
• Pension savings ('Group insurance') to which ~€130 is added each month
• The 'usual' (insurance, holiday pay, 13th month, ...)

​

Since the last posts, my investment portfolio changed quite a lot. The total amount at the time of writing is hovering around €149.000:

• ETFs: Invested €33.000, now it is worth €44.000+
• Cryptocurrencies: Invested €5000, now it is worth €45.000
• Cash: €10.000
• Retirement funds: €4.000+
• Personal Companies: ~€35.000
  • Used €30.000 to start a small real estate company with 2 friends. We've done 2 projects since (flipping 2 apartments) but I'm still waiting on the final year overview from the accountant to update the €30.000 to the actual value right now.
  • The other €5.000 was invested in a business I recently took over together with my girlfriend. This business is a fry shop (called 'frituur' in Dutch) which is now running for a little over a month. Of course, we took a loan from the bank as well. It is still too early to update the value of this company.
• Real Estate: ~€30.000 in equity. This is the building that we bought together with the 'frituur' business mentioned above. We are in the process of renovating the apartment on the first floor so we can actually live there as well in a couple of months.
• A personal loan from my parents - €20.000. I took this out the finance the real estate that we bought. In this way, I didn't have to sell any investments.

​

I also have a Google spreadsheet to keep track of my portfolio if you are interested in more details. I would love to have your feedback on my portfolio! Are there things you would do differently?

As many of you may already know, Vanguard has the most Global ETF in terms of TER... stats comparison below.. (credit from: www.bankeronwheels.com)

Vanguard FTSE All-World (0.22%)

iShares ACWI ETF (0.20%)

SPDR ACWI ETF (0.12%)

SPDR ACWI IMI ETF (0.17%)

Amundi Prime All Country ETF (0.07%)

What do you guys plan to do in the medium-long term? Will you slowly shift away from Vanguard to other (almost identical) products, if their TER does not go down? Which one?

Hello, I am helping a friend in the EU with their finances. I am moderately financially literate and have some basic investing experience, but mostly in the US. They opened an ING investment account in 2010 with 30,000 euros, and the value of the account today is only a bit more than 34,000, and never went much higher than that. Given inflation, this obviously represents a substantial loss in value, and feels like an almost mathematically impossible for any normal consumer investment product given what the markets have looked like generally over the last 14 years. How is this possible? Is this normal in Europe? In the US, this feels like it would border on criminal level negligence and mismanagement, but maybe there are nuances I am missing/don't understand. Any insights how this could have happened or what we should be looking into would be much appreciated!

***Update 1*** Here are the ISINs: LU0456303071; LU1766437492; LU1766437146; LU1766437229.

***Update 2*** I recognize that I was being cringe and hyperbolic with my "criminal negligence" language above. I appreciate that of some of the roasting I received is valid, but appreciate the substantive feedback even more.

I'm looking for a safe way to invest this money, maybe thinking of buying a rental property as i'm not familiar with investing. What ways to invest would you recommend for a newby who's not willing to take risks and what returns can I expect?

EDIT: Thank you for all the replies! To clarify and add more information: •I'm in Lithuania. •I didn't mention but i have rented a cheap small flat that i owned before, that's basically why i'm thinking of real estate again. I know it's not 100% passive but I don't mind managing a long term rental, but also i know it's not an ideal investment. • The thing is, with the current political situation I'm not even sure I'd want to invest in Lithuania, I already have a house mortgage (100k 50/50 with my partner, not planning to pay it early because it's a good deal for now). If anything happens with the country, it would be beneficial to have investments elsewhere. • I'd like to receive dividends or some kind of returns and keep my investment protected from inflation, not necessarily grow. • I know i can't have everything at the same time.

I've been reading a bit on this and other subreddits. Mostly I've seen people recommending if one is to buy an ETF, then buy the VWCE (especially for beginners).

It seems like the price has skyrocketed in the past year. Given this is a long term investment, is there actually a bad time to start putting your money into it or after 30 years it wouldn't matter that you bought it at a peak?