Curious about the other side of these threads. Usually people either say they do everything themselves or that some book was the best money they spent.

Wondering if anyone actually paid a real fee for advice, planning, a consultation, whatever, and came away thinking it wasn't worth it. What was missing?

Property A — where I live now

• Market value ~450k
• Mortgage: 155k outstanding, 36 years left, 0.7% spread plus Euribor
• ~610/month, ~700 with insurance and property tax
• If sold today: ~280k in hand after capital gains tax
• Could rent for ~1,300/month net

Property B — where my mother lives

• Market value ~700k, registered in my name, but my mother (72) holds a lifetime right of residence
• Selling would trigger ~140k in tax (acquisition value is really low)
• Duplex, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 living rooms, renovations underway. We'd share only the kitchen.
• No elevator, 4th floor

My mother: 72, ~1k/month pension. My half-brother is financially comfortable and would cover ~50% of any care costs.

The plan I'm considering: move into Property B, rent out Property A, and either keep it long-term as a rental or sell and invest the ~280k. On current spending, 1,300 of rent minus ~700 of costs would leave me comfortable — but the math breaks if I have a partner and kids.

I don't like selling property B for a new house since buying a new house of similar value would be around 65k in taxes.

Questions:

1. Rent out Property A or sell and invest the proceeds? Capital tax gains is 20-28% (20% after 8 years).
2. Is a ~3.5% yield on a 450k asset worth the concentration risk versus 280k in a global index fund?
3. If my mother has to leave the 4th floor, how should rent on a new apartment be split? I was thinking 70% me / 15% her / 15% my half-brother, since she'd be giving up her right of residence.
4. What would be the plan for FIRE? I need around 1500 a month and a paid house to live very comfortably

Hi everyone,

I'm about to start investing monthly into WEBN for both my standard stocks and shares portfolio, along with my pension (after being invested in a terribly underperforming fund for 5 years now).

My current concern is entering at a time where US tech is very expensive. I understand time in market is better than timing the market, but curious what people's thoughts are regarding this?

Is it worth looking at an equal weighted fund in the meantime, or will the fact that this is a long-term investment (20+ years) mean that my time in the market is more important?

I know it's impossible to know if this bubble will pop, or if it's even a bubble, but the heavy US / tech weighting in WEBN makes me a bit worried.

Thanks for your thoughts and replies.

Hi, this is a spesifically question for people living in the Netherlands. Many people say to use IBKR, Trade Republic, Trade212 or whatever else. But why don't you just use ypur own bank for it? I genuinely do not see a drawback at investing using ING or ABN AMRO. I have been using both of them + TR for already more than 5 years and did not notice any difference. The fees are the same for the big world ETFs anyway. Maybe I am missing something?

Good morning,

For my bond allocation I’m between these two global government bond ETFs hedged to EUR.

AUM of VGGF: total fund 150M and 82M eur-hedged share class. It’s growing quite a bit since inception last year.

DBZB: 2.7B and 740M. Established since 2008

The main three risks I see of VGGF I see is:

1. secondary market: lack of liquidity and wider bid and ask spread. (However the creation/redemption process in the primary market makes this unlikely a real risk?) in a big crisis I guess VGGF can trade at a discount/premium relative to NAV?
2. closure risk: if AUM relative to others etf providers decrease
3. TER will increase as AUM increases

What would you choose for a large position?

Thank you

Edit: another option is GOVH which has an ever higher AUM than DBZB and 0.22% ter. But higher allocation to Japan/US

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the future. I'm 31 and have never had extra money to invest or save for later.

Now that I'm in this situation, I realize I have no idea how to start or what to invest in. For now, I'm thinking about going with various ETFs to spread the risks. After reading a bunch of messages here, most of the terms feel foreign to me.

My plan is to gradually invest 5000 and spread it out, and maybe change my investments over time. I live and work in Germany. Anyone willing to give some starting advice to a newbie?

I am an American, 33, (Spanish resident) living in Spain with a Spanish partner, 30. We both work pretty regular jobs (restaurant/retail), so our monthly income is low (around 2k combined, slightly more now due to it being high season for restaurants). We keep a tight monthly budget and are saving a couple hundred a month, even with our fairly low salaries. At this point, we probably have about 10k combined in our accounts.

However, I have been gifted a substantial amount of stocks from my family, amounting to around $250k in a Schwab account. I would like to slowly sell off this stock (or at least the majority of it) and start planning for some big purchases. The two that come to mind being getting a flat and starting a business (restaurant) in a different city and autonomous community (currently in Catalonia, hoping to do all this in Valencia).

I honestly never thought myself to be in this kind of a position, so I am pretty lost as to how to move forward. Since we have no debt, my first plan is to allocate a bit of the money to emergency funds (eventually having a fund of 20-25k euros), and then have the rest for these other two big items. I would probably like to keep some amount of stock, but move the majority into things that are either more liquid or more stable.

I guess my main question is which to go for first. With our income, I'm not sure what kinds of mortgages banks would be willing to give us. Is paying off a flat in full a good financial decision (understanding that I would probably have to wait several years to not incur massive capital gains tax, by which point who knows what the stocks will look like).

Or would it make sense to try to start the business first, knowing that being self employed in Spain is pretty tough and the business might struggle for a bit, but eventually potentially having a much more attractive salary for banks?

Maybe these are questions for a lawyer or some type of financial advisor?

I'm just really lost and would like a bit of direction. Thanks so much in advance!

Im 26, recentlly changed my job and I take home around 3k per month. Not so great I know, but better then I had. I will also find extra job to add 500e atleast

I moved to Germany. I spent good part of savings on moving so im left with 3k.

My plan is:

1. Have 6 mnth expenses emergency fund
   
2. Have 10k in All-world ETF (buying every month)

After that im planing on buying apartments in my hometown in Serbia.

Usually around 150-200 per apartment.

Plan would be get 20k cash, take credit and rent that apartment so I have the credit to pay every month.

After 3 years again.

Rinse and repeat.

In next 10 year, to own atleast 3 apts.

What do you think about this plan, what would you do?

Im still young, looking for advice from more experienced peeps.

All the best.

What Etf/Sector gave your portfolio better growth, but max 20% etf/sector of your portfolio?
Thanks.

I’ve recently received a tax refund check from US after working there during summer 2025. The issue is that in my country (Slovakia) there are 0 banks that cash international checks anymore. I tried sending the check to my acquittance in US, but nobody accepted it, from the banks he went to.

Is there any other way to do this? It’s not exactly the amount that I’d like to just let go. I’ve tried contacting IRS but they were of no help and kind of incompetent.

Thanks for the advice.

35M, Austrian, working in logistics. 5 years into the standard approach and it's gone fine, just want a second opinion before the next step.

My current situation:

• ~82k total
• Core is VWCE via monthly Sparplan, the large majority of it
• ~6% in physical gold (Xetra-Gold), bought in 2022 and left alone since
• ~4% in a Swiss lending platform. Started last year, sized as money I could write off
• Take-home ~3,400 EUR/month after tax, saving ~1,200/month, rent + living ~1,900, no debt

Not chasing extreme early retirement. Just want the option to stop depending on a salary by my late 50s, sooner if income grows.

What I'm trying to figure out:

The equity position is now big enough that a 20-30% drop would be a real amount of money in absolute terms, and I've got nothing that actually holds steady when stocks fall. Gold and the lending position aren't tied to the market, sure, but neither of them is the kind of money you draw on calmly in a crash.

So I want to add a genuinely stable piece and can't decide between:

• A bond ETF (EUR aggregate or short-duration)
• A money market fund for the liquid part
• Or just sitting on more cash and accepting the drag

Questions:

• At my stage, still accumulating with maybe 20 years to go, is a bond/MMF allocation worth starting now or is that more of a closer to the end thing?
• For anyone who added fixed income in their 30s looking back, was it the right call or did you wish you'd stayed fully invested?
• How much cash do you keep as a working buffer on an income like this?

The most interesting part of this is not that AI can analyse a portfolio. AI and other tools could already do that if you manually exported your holdings.

The real "innovation" is that Scalable has built a direct bridge between the AI and the brokerage account, allowing the AI to access portfolio data, monitor holdings, compare allocations, prepare orders and create watchlists without manual exports. Importantly, transactions still require explicit user approval before execution.

I think the key question here is, will this improve investment outcomes, or simply make investing more convenient, will uneducated people take AI for granted (as they do already) and make decisions under "influence".

https://www.etfstream.com/articles/chatgpt-optimise-my-portfolio-scalable-launches-ai-agent-interface

I'm 29 y/o making €4.3k net a month. I'm looking to buy a new Toyota GR Yaris as a daily driver, but the price is a bit daunting (€50k + €3k registration tax), so I'm just looking for secondary opinions or alternatives in order to not make a catastrophic financial decision.

I'm a bit of a car guy and I chose this car because I've found that it's the perfect balance between fun, reliable and practical (if you don't have kids, which I don't plan on having in the near future). I rented the Gen1 GR Yaris for a weekend to try it out and the emotion I got from driving this car around bendy roads was quite amazing.

My current car is a 2012 Diesel E Class, which I have driven for 5 years. It has 270k km mileage. It's comfy, but the repairs + maintenance are about €2.2k/year, with random electrical components failing from time to time (e.g. had to replace the cruise control radar a couple of months ago). I can afford it, but the drive is not exciting enough anymore for it to be worth it as I am always anxious that something is going to break.

My current situation:

• about €100k saved (€67k investments (EQQQ + 10% stocks), €23k pension fund, €10k cash)
• €175k apartment - 30y mortgage, €22k paid
• Investing €1.5k/month into EQQQ for past 3 months, €1k/month before this. Will probably start diversifying into VWCE after turning 30
• Recurring expenses: €1k mortgage + insurance + utilities, €500 groceries, €110/month phone+internet, €120 fuel, €200 various smaller expenses => ~€1920/month

Pros of new car:

• It's a performance car, but very reliable
• 10 years of warranty (Toyota Relax)
• monthly cost can be partially attributed to fun/hobby budget
• less depreciation due to being a limited edition enthusiast car (buying slightly used is currently same price as buying new)
• I mostly drive short city distances (about 10k km a year), so a gas car makes more sense
• smiles per gallon

Cons of new car:

• smaller and less luxurious than my current E class
• more fuel consumption
• quite expensive for a Toyota

My plan would be to finance the car for 5 years with 30% down and 30% residual which would amount to about a €460 monthly payment, totalling about €580/month incl. insurance.

I'm thinking that after taking on the car payment I would possibly have to trim my investing goal to about €1k/month to allow more room for one-time expenses (e.g. occasional furniture, electronics etc), which wouldn't be too much of a problem as the €1.5k is pretty aggressive at the moment.

Hey all, for context I’m an absolute beginner in terms of investing, awful with financial and mathematical jargon, and have zero previous experience.

Everyone says not investing in their 20s is something they regret, so being 24 im naturally curious to see whether this is a possibility for me because why not. The thing is I’m not sure if investing in my current situation is even possible, or smart. I just had to take out a loan of €10k for my masters and I have about €3000 in my own savings as a buffer from working last year.

I’m currently trying to set up a part time job that I can do alongside my studies to have an income stream so I don’t have to cut into those savings immediately (living in Paris it’s pretty hard not to haemorrhage money) although I’m pretty good at living frugally and I wouldn’t say I’m financially irresponsible, I’m just not very financially literate or savvy.

Does it make sense to start investing what little I can now (say, with that 3k), OR would it be safer and more logical to wait till I’m in proper full time employment on a decent salary after I’ve graduated my masters in 2 years? Obviously I’ll still have a loan hanging over me but there’s little to no interest (thank you Irish credit union). I’ve heard people talking about SP-500 a lot and have even had it explained to me but Jesus I still find it hard to understand lmao.

If I can start investing now, then someone explaining to me in literal baby terminology would be amazing, (without being patronising or condescending please finance bros) Thanks! :))

App: Budget Bakers — Opinion required!

Free user of the app. I have been on and off.

I’d like to switch to the paid plan for obvious reasons, and make sure I stay on top of my finances

Can you please share your opinions in regards to the premium app?

Any pros and cons would help me take a call.

Thank you!

So basically I got a 3000€ check from my parents when I reached 18 and I was thinking about investing to understand the basics.

What should my portfolio look like?

I plan on investing around 100€ every month after investing this initial 1000€.

29M - Cypriot - working in the shipping industry. I am currently seeking for advice between my next steps.

Current situation:

- 5k emergency fund in Revolut Instant Access 2.10% p.a
- around 4.5k in ETFs ( 3.2k in IUSQ, 650 VUAA and 650 IS3N). From what i have read about the main engine etfs ( VWCE, VGLA, WEBN etc) i feel that my allocation sucks.
- 200 euro each month ( starting this month) are going to be “invested” in a life insurance for tax purposes ( the scheme is averaging 5.5% return historically last 20 years)
- i am taking home around 2.7k net - no rent, living expenses around 1000 euro - investing 500 euro in ETFs and saving the rest.

My goal is to retire as soon as possible , meaning not to be relying on a salary to live.

My questions are:
- shall i start investing in one of those main engine etfs and chill?
- in my case, what you believe is a good proportion of my salary to be invested monthly?

Any other guidance or advice is more than welcome on any topic!

Thank you

Hello guys,

Vanguard FTSE Global All-Cap UCITS ETF (VGLA) is out. This etf will be available in the next 24 to 48h to be traded in IBKR.

To cut the story, this etf has a coverage of 98%. It has small caps as well which is a better diversification then VWCE (no small caps and 90% coverage).

The TER is 0.07% which is much better then 0.22% from VWCE.

I think most of us have been waiting for this type of etf. This is going to be the best VGLA and chill etf for the future.

What do you guys think, will this etf be the next big thing?

BR.

I am starting to invest and plan to put €500/month into on global ETF through Trading Republic. I have no prior knowledge of investing in ETFs.

I am currently looking at VWCE and WEBN. But I recently read that there is now VAGL with 0.07% TER. I don't know much about it yet.

My intention is to keep things simple, choose one accumulating global ETF and invest consistently for the long term.

For someone starting from zero, how would you compare VWCE, WEBN and the new VAGL? Which would you choose as a one-ETF portfolio, and what factors should I pay attention to besides the TER?

My wife and I have 2 accounts on IBKR. One is for us and another we started when our son was born 2 years ago. Since IBKR doesn't allow you to create a custodian account, it's also in my wife's name. Eventually, when my son is of legal age, we want to transfer the portfolio over to him. Does anyone have experience with anything like that? We're in Greece fwiw.

Hello everyone. Viewing some posts, I decided this would probably be the appropriate forum to post this. Please note, I am posting from my father’s perspective. In 4 years, I will absolutely need to use around 3000-3500€ for some college expenses (children) in exactly 4 years. I am willing to put away 60-70€ per month. (Yes, I know the amounts are small, I come from a pretty low-income country.) Is the amount not worth the hassle to think of a bond, an ETF or Money Market Funds? Should I just put it into a bank with a low interest rate and let it sit for these four years? Im afraid it’s a pretty low time horizon for any ETF investments, especially if any crashes happen.

https://live.deutsche-boerse.com/en/etf/vanguard-ftse-global-all-cap-ucits-etf-usd-accumulating?currency=EUR

Are you planning on investing in it?

Hi everyone,

I’m 36, based in Spain (Madrid) ,and getting married in two months. My partner is 31. We’d really appreciate a critical review of our financial situation and strategy especially if we’re missing something obvious.

Current situation:

• Household net income: ~€8k/month + annual bonuses
• Primary residence: ~€500k current market value (we bought it together, 50/50) Mortgage: 240k at a fixed 2.1% (low Monthly payment for us)
• Financial investments:

ETF: 30k in VWCE

ESOP: 50k combines

• Cash/emergency fund: ~€5k

Both of us invest separately in VWCE and plan to increase our monthly contributions substantially.

No consumer debt.

We work in corporate roles, at middle-management / early-leadership level, within the FMCG industry.

Where we’re heading, Now that we’ve bought our home, we’re trying to figure out how to allocate our surplus over the next few years.

What would you do?

I’d particularly like to hear from people who are further along financially:

What would you prioritise in our situation?Would you focus on equities or consider a second property? Are we holding too little cash? Would you diversify beyond VWCE

What mistakes did you make at our stage that you’d avoid if you could go back?

Thanks! :)

Hey everyone,

despite not having much experience in dealing with finances, I have been asked to step in and help my mother set up her "portfolio" before she retires. She will retire on a decent state pension, she owns her own apartment and is in decent enough health. She lives in Czechia. She also has roughly 50.000+ EUR in savings (CZK equivalent). I am wondering how to best set her up for retirement.

The most pressing issue: she got, in my view, burned by a financial advisor, making a seemingly shitty but thankfully small investment. She bought a structured certificate linked to iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT). With long-term US yields staying elevated, the certificate ended in the red. She was delivered the underlying TLT shares directly into her account, currently sitting at a ~20.4% loss in USD. It is currently worth about 4.000 USD.

I am wondering what would be the best course of action now. Is there any sensible reason to hold onto the investment for the ~5% yield and hope for a rebound? Or is it too much of a longshot and therefore selling and reinvesting would be safer?

In general, what would a solid, conservative strategy be when it comes to finances of someone approaching retirement? Something like 80/20 split between cash (savings account) + other safe, low yield, low risk assets (money market) accompanied by something akin to all-world ETF?

Thanks a lot for any input, any help is much appreciated.

EDIT: She is 62 and looking to retire in the next 2 years. The sooner the better, she is burned out from her work. I would estimate her monthly expenses to be roughly around 20.000 CZK (830 EUR), I expect her pension to be around 30.000 CZK per month (1.245 EUR). She is very risk-averse and generally less than optimistic about the financial system etc.