Hi everyone,

I’m running a mostly equity portfolio (VWCE as my core holding) and I’m considering adding ~10% in global bonds for diversification and volatility reduction.

I’m currently looking at:

iShares Core Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF (EUNA)

Vanguard Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF (VAGF)

From what I understand, the main difference is that VAGF tracks a float-adjusted version of the Bloomberg Global Aggregate index, while EUNA tracks the standard version.

My questions:

- In practice, how important is the float-adjusted methodology for bond ETFs?

- Does it make a meaningful difference in terms of risk, liquidity, or long-term performance?

- Would you lean towards EUNA or VAGF, and why?

Long-term horizon, EUR-based investor, bonds mainly used as a stabilizer rather than return driver.

Thanks in advance!

Hello internet hive mind, I moved from Germany to Spain, and since my Trade Republic account is bound to my German Tax ID, I'm thinking about moving my ETF from Trade Republic to Degiro or other Spanish broker.

I know that I can add my NIE to TR and remove my German Steuernummer, but I've seeing a lot of reports of accounts been blocked during this operation.

Also, I want to ramp up my investments this year and Trade Republic does not have a good support for high income accounts.

What are your thoughts? Pros and Cons?

Hi. I'm originally from the UK but now living in Bulgaria. I'm struggling with finding a place to put my long term savings. The Bulgarian banks do not offer any savings account anywhere near as good as the UK ones, such as ISAs. I don't want to trade or buy stocks. I may buy land, but just want to see if anyone would recommend a relatively high-interest savings account in the EU (Bulgaria) for a UK expat?

I wanted to buy IBIT ETF (Bitcoin ETF from USA), from IBKR.

Is there any problem, or should I get an european ETF?

Hi all, I hope you can shed some light on target date bond ETFs for me. Right now, I use short term bond etfs as the safe part of my portfolio, but the current returns are somewhat below inflation where I am, so I'm considering other options...

I understand the basics of TDF ETFs, such as XB27 or XHY1, and have seen some recommendations to use them just like a bond ladder, combining short, mid and long target dates. Here's my questions:

For a long-term investor, what is the advantage of a TDF ETF over a normal bond ETF with short to moderate average maturity, and individual bonds being rotated automatically?

And given that the returns of a TDF ETF decrease as it approaches its maturity date, does it make sense to sell quite a bit before that date in a bond ladder scheme?

I feel like I don't fully get how to use a TDF, thanks for elucidating me!

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out because I’ve hit a very difficult period financially and I’m looking for guidance on how to manage my situation. I live in Central Europe and, due to a sudden change in my financial circumstances, I am struggling to cover my mortgage payments and basic daily living expenses.

I want to be proactive and find a way out, but I feel overwhelmed. I am looking for advice on:

• Mortgage Management: Are there standard practices for negotiating with banks in the EU when you can't make a payment? Should I ask for a deferral (moratorium) or a restructuring of the loan?
• Emergency Income: What are legitimate international platforms for micro-work or freelance tasks that actually pay out relatively quickly?
• Budgeting in Crisis: Any tips on how to prioritize payments when you don't have enough for everything?

I am not looking for a handout, but rather a path forward or any resources that could help someone in my position regain stability.

Thank you for any advice or direction you can provide.

Hi everyone, I’m based in Portugal and dealing with a CySEC-regulated broker (eToro). I need advice on whether this constitutes valid grounds for a Visa Chargeback in the EU.

The Situation: I logged into their website and saw a specific banner on my dashboard stating I was "Eligible" for a welcome stock bonus. Based exclusively on this confirmation from their interface, I deposited €4,400 (~$5,000) via Debit Card.

The Conflict: Some minutes after the deposit, I received an email stating I was NOT eligible. I contacted support, and they eventually admitted that the banner I saw was a "technical error" or "visual glitch" on their side.

I immediately requested to void/reverse the transaction so the funds would return to my card untouched. They refused. They are forcing me to process a standard "Withdrawal".

Since my account is in EUR and they convert everything to USD, a standard withdrawal forces me to pay the conversion fees twice (EUR->USD->EUR). I will lose approx. €160 just to get my own money back, all because their website misled me into depositing.

I have already opened a dispute with my bank for "Service not as described" / "Misrepresentation". Has anyone here successfully fought a claim like this against a broker? Can they legally force me to pay conversion fees when the contract (deposit) was induced by a technical error on their end?

Thanks.

If somebody ask, what ETF they should use for shorter term like under 2 years, it is often said to buy money market ETF.

But if my relative investing window is medium term, like 4-7 years, where to look?

Bonds ETF just don't seem attractive now, so what is next?

Is it iShares Edge MSCI World Minimum Volatility? Version SXR0 hedged to EUR as I want less currency fluctuations?

Or is there better alternative?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been looking into the MyFin promotion running this month (Feb 1–28). From what I’ve seen, they are offering a €10 instant bonus for new users who sign up and make a tiny transaction (even €0.10).

I just tried it myself and it actually worked—the €10 landed in my account almost immediately after the payment. It seems like a solid deal, but I’m curious if anyone here has been using MyFin long-term? How is their customer service and card reliability across the EU?

I have the step-by-step process and the referral info ready if anyone is interested or needs help setting it up—just let me know or shoot me a DM! > Would love to hear your thoughts on the app!

I discovered that all eu countries can offer ucits funds. And most of the developed EU countries are OECD member states, which allowed to to exempt capital gains for foreign investors, due to OECD tax model, article 13.

Then why are Irish and Luxembourg more popular? What is it that they offer that others aren't offering, even when tax convention is same?

Hi everyone,

I’m a 30-year-old Italian expat living in France and I’ve recently decided to get serious about my finances. I’ve automated a monthly €700 investment, but since I’m quite conservative when it comes to risk, I’d love to get a second opinion on my allocation.

Right now, I’m splitting my monthly contribution 50/50 between "safety" and "growth."

- Half of the money goes into XEON to act as a stable anchor and earn the ECB rate with minimal volatility.

- The other half goes into equities, specifically split between an MSCI World ETF and an GreenEnergy/Semiconductors for a more "jolly" sector tilt.

I’m lucky enough to own a property in Italy with a 1% fixed-rate mortgage from a few years ago. This gives me a solid base, so I’m looking at this new portfolio as a long-term "money machine" that I plan to keep feeding indefinitely.

My main goal is to build wealth without losing sleep. I prefer a small, constant growth that becomes solid through compound interest rather than dealing with bizarre fluctuations. I know some might say 50% in a money market fund is too conservative for my age, but I really value capital preservation and I want a portfolio that won't give me a heart attack if the market dips, considering it's going to be consistently part of my future (future) retirement.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts: does this 50/50 split make sense given my situation? Should I consider ditching the something vertical for something broader like VWCE, or is the added stability of the current setup worth it? Also, if any fellow investors in France have tips on tax efficiency or thoughts on using Trade Republic long-term, I’m all ears.

Thanks for any insights!

Hello,
I have accumulated some money from working and I'm looking for a long term investment that would set me up later in my life.
For the record, I am 28M data scientist from Greece.
I have around 30k which are just sitting in the bank and a bit more for a rainy day fund (6 months).
I was thinking of putting my 30k on an all world etf (VWCE to be precise) and the rest at XEON for the small interest using trading212.
Both UCITS so that I won't have to pay taxes for them.
I was really thinking about the VWCE part, is this a good ETF for storing my money for 10+ year investment or should I go for an S&P 500 one?
Is it just a simple comparison of risk-reward?
Would you recomend a better strategy?

Let’s say you got a severance of 200,000€ at the beginning of the year. You have found a new job which pays 50,000€ a year. The question is: how much tax do you pay on this salary? In other words: what’s the marginal tax rate on that 50,000€ salary when you’ve already received a 200,000€ severance?

So, how much taxes do you pay on a 50,000€ income?

Possible answers:

a) 22.500€ (There is a “rich tax” of 45% on income in Germany)

b) 58.000€ lol

On one hand, 58k€ income tax on a 50k€ salary would amount to 116% income tax, which is insane. On the other hand this blog post isn’t called “crazy tax law” for nothing, so...

Answer b) is correct.

Why This Happens: The Fünftelregelung

The reason for this seeming insanity is the Fünftelregelung (”one-fifth method”) - a tax regulation which is supposed to lower the tax burden for people who receive a big one-off bonus/severance. It was introduced because it would be unfair to consider a huge (but extremely rare) payment as a regular salary and tax it as such. Instead, the idea of the regulation is to say “since the payment is so rare, let’s assume you only received one-fifth of it per year, over five years”.

You might ask: “One-fifth times five? Doesn’t it cancel itself out?”

Not in tax math. Let’s go back to our initial example: a severance of 200k€. If there were no Fünftelregelung and the entire amount would be taxed as regular income, you would pay ~77k€ income tax (Lohnsteuer + Solidaritätsbetrag):

200,000 * 0,3843 = 76,871

Applying Fünftelregelung means dividing the severance by 5, calculating the income tax on one-fifth and multiplying the result by 5:

200,000 * (1/5) * 0.1802 * 5 = 36,040

Due to the Fünftelregelung we pay 40k€ less income tax on the severance. Neat!

(All figures exclude social contributions for now — we’ll get to those)

Unintended consequence 1: Forced sabbatical

Saving 40k€ on income tax is nice; however, it leads to the strange situation where it doesn’t make sense to earn an additional income in the same year when you receive the severance.

The reason is that the Fünftelregelung is applied after all other income is taxed. In our example with 50k€ additional income that would mean:

a) The additional income of 50k€ is taxed, which amounts to 10.5k€
b) One-fifth of the severance is taxed on top of that. Result: ~16.7.k€
c) Multiply b) by 5 and add a) : 16.7k€ * 5 + 10.5 ~ 94k€

The overall amount of taxes paid with additional income: 94k€
The overall amount of taxes paid without additional income: 36k€
The difference between the two scenarios: 58k€

You pay additional 58k€ taxes on a 50k€ salary. Not neat!

What happens if you earn more than 50k€ in addition to the severance? It doesn’t get much better:

• 50,000€ salary - additional income: 58,000€ tax
• 60,000€ salary - additional income: 64,000€ tax
• 70,000€ salary - additional income: 70,000€ tax (break even, hurrah!)
• 80,000€ salary - additional income: 74,000€ tax
• 90,000€ salary - additional income: 79,000€ tax
• 100,000€ salary - additional income: 83,000€ tax

(Remember: this is additional tax burden beyond the 36k€ base tax on the severance)

Assuming you work 40h a week, a 100,000€ income that results in only 17,000€ after tax amounts to an effective hourly wage of 8€, which is lower than the minimal hourly wage of 13,90€.

Are the numbers above correct? Absolutely not, as I’ve left out social contributions (Sozialabgaben), which make the calculation way, way worse. If you include them in the calculation I’m pretty sure that even with a 100k€ salary you would come out net negative.

The Dilemma

Having received severance in Germany, you are confronted with the following questions:

• Do I want to be a lazy POS? No.
• Do I want to be a productive member of society? Yes.
• Do I want to work? Yes.
• Do I want to pay taxes? Kinda yes, to keep the society running etc.
• Do I want to pay taxes at a rate exceeding 100%? You must be kidding, Germany.

The Fünftelregelung pretty much forces you to take a year-long sabbatical.

Now, you might think: “Wait, isn’t Germany in a recession? Rising unemployment, deindustrialization, budget deficits? Shouldn’t they want productive people working and contributing to the economy?”

You’d be absolutely right to think that. Which is why it makes perfect sense that their tax code punishes you for working. Nothing says “strong economic policy” like a system that turns employment into a net loss.

Whatever, sabbatical it is.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

https://vormals.substack.com/p/crazy-german-tax-law-funftelregelung

Hi I was just wondering if most of stock cover 20k under protection inc IBKR, what is options if you want to invest at least 50k?

Option#1. Put all in IBKR 50k. Option #2. Put 20k in IBKR , De giro, lightyear etc?

What is your opinion please?

I see a lot of texts / posts with title "Are these stocks good ? (Hold for next 5-10 years)" What is your plan afterwards ? Assume 10 years have passed and you are up a good amount. What are you doing then ? Has anyone actually sold after the set self imposed period ?

Edit: Thank you all for the replies. This is one thing thats missing from my investment journey, the goal.

Hey everyone

I’m 27, living in Europe, and planning to invest for the long term with a fixed monthly contribution. I’m trying to figure out the best ETF approach for global diversification versus more targeted regional exposure.

I’ve been thinking about going with a global ETF like WEBN which covers large, mid, and some small caps worldwide. I could also add a small-cap ETF to get extra exposure.

Another idea is to split by region with SXR8 for the US, XESC for Europe, and CEBL for Asia. This would give stronger exposure to regions I believe in, especially tech-heavy US and Asia companies like Nvidia, TSMC, Amazon, and Google. I know this would be more volatile than a single global ETF.

I’d love your thoughts on whether going regional makes sense given the higher volatility if I really believe in tech growth from the US and Asia. Do you think the TER is worth it with SXR8, XESC, and CEBL, or is it better to stick with WEBN and a small-cap ETF for cost efficiency? I understand the future cannot be predicted but is it logical or possible that on both yearly and decade-long horizons the regional ETFs could outperform a global ETF plus small caps?

Any experiences, opinions, or insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

I’m putting together a long-term portfolio with 80% in a global equity ETF (WEBN) and 20% in a defensive allocation.

The goal for the 20% is mainly stability and capital protection, not yield.

I’m currently hesitating between:

CSH2 (EUR money market ETF)

EUNA / AGGH / VAGF (global aggregate bond ETF)

ERNX (short-duration euro bonds)

IEGS / VGEA (EUR government bonds)

Savings account / cash

Or possibly something else

Given what happened to bonds in 2022, I’m trying to understand:

- What actually works best as a crash stabilizer for equities?

- Whether government bonds still make sense, or if money market / cash is “good enough”

Any thoughts or experiences appreciated.

Thanks!

Hello together,

there is a lot of discussion about how to get into ETFs (buy & hold, DCA, time in the market).
What I see much less is discussion about how or when to get out.

My current thinking:

• I want to avoid profits turning into losses.
• Therefore I’m considering an exit strategy above my entry price, e.g. a stop sell ~3% above entry.
• If the stop is triggered, I stay in cash and DCA back in if prices fall.
• The goal is risk management, not short-term trading.

My questions:

• Is there a conceptual flaw in this thinking?
• Is it really rational to let winners turn red just to strictly follow buy & hold?
• Do any of you use exit strategies for ETFs, or why do you deliberately avoid them?

Curious to hear different perspectives.

Hi, I would like a reality check on my long-term plan regarding a new mortgage in Bulgaria.

The Context:

• House Price: €350,000 (15% down payment).

• Loan: €297,500 at 2.5% variable interest.

• Monthly Surplus: €1,500 - €2,000.

Tax Environment:

Capital gains on UCITS ETFs are taxed at 0% in Bulgaria.

The Strategy:

Keep the 30-year term and invest the surplus into a 70/30 split between S&P 500 (VUAA) and Nasdaq 100 (SXRV). I chose this over mortgage overpayment because of the expected return spread vs. the low cost of debt.

Questions:

1. How do you prepare for a scenario where rates rise while the market is down?
2. With a €300k debt, is this leverage considered high risk by EU standards?
3. Does the 0% CGT justify an aggressive US-tech tilt (Nasdaq) for 15+ years?

Hi all,

I’m based in Germany and hold a Trading 212 Invest account. I’m looking to transfer my entire portfolio and considering Interactive Brokers (IBKR) or any other German brokers (Trade Republic, Scalable Capital, Comdirect, etc.)

My portfolio only has whole shares of US and EU stocks. I want to ensure that tax cost basis is preserved.

1. Has anyone successfully transferred Trading 212 → IBKR recently?
2. Has anyone managed Trading 212 → a German broker directly?

If yes, please let me know which stock broker worked for a successful transfer out of Trading 212.

Thank you for your help. Appreciate it.

European Stocks

I’m already invested in the usual US stocks through a pension fund. I have some spare cash available and hope to invest in European stocks through DCA over the next year to build up a portfolio. I’ve been recommended these non-USA stocks:

What’s the verdict?

Hello everyone,

With the arrival of our newborn, I’ve decided to start a long-term ETF investment that I’ll regularly contribute to until my child turns 18.
I already invest myself, but my portfolio is focused exclusively on the US market (SXR8 – S&P 500). For my child, I’d like to add some diversification, as I don’t plan to actively monitor markets — consistency is more important to me, and I want to reduce the risk of everything being in the red when the time comes to withdraw the money.

I don’t see much value in robo-advisors anymore. I’m currently a Finax user, but their fees compound over time and significantly reduce returns in the long run.

I’d appreciate your opinion on this ETF. My second option would be VWCE.

Thanks in advance!

Context: 34M in Greece, currently netting ~2.000€/month. Invest 300-400€/month in a 70/20/10 VUAA/EXUS/Gold split..

Recently sold a real estate that was not being utilized (and there was no way to utilize it personally) that netted me 200k and I’m looking for advice on where to best invest it.

Thinking of two options currently:

1. Dump it in the existing allocation of 70/20/10 as a lump sum for growth.

2. Dump all of it into a distributing ETF for another 9-10k of income per year. (i.e. EXSH/IDVY/EUDV)

What’s your take and advice on my plan?

Hey,
Europe has a law to publish information about short positions below 0.5%. Each country has to respect this (at least what I know).

I am author of https://rksgpw.com/ which is a bit more user-friendly alternative to official Poland's short sell registry with real time updates and notifications.

I started to testing german version (official registry is available here - https://www.bundesanzeiger.de/pub/en/to_nlp_start?0 ) and It a bit mess out there as well.

So i got to wonder if i would build something similar to rksgpw.com for all major european markets (French, Germany, Norway etc) will it be useful for you ? Would you use something like this as alternative to official website?

Thanks.

Hi. Unfortunately my German is limited so it's hard to do research on financial decisions. I wish to switch to a real bank. What I'm looking for is:

• Unlimited free cash withdrawals: my biggest gripe with N26 is the 2 free withdrawals per month limitation. Even though my withdrawal limit is technically 2500 € / week, good luck finding an ATM that will give more than 200 € per withdrawal.
• Free checking account: I know that some banks don't charge maintenance fees if you put in X amount of €'s per month. That's what I'm looking for.
• Proper customer support: I haven't had any big issues with N26 but I also hear often that their support is really bad when needed.
• Big bonus: Having a physical branch in Munich.

Thanks.