r/BEFire Mar 02 '20

Starting Out & Advice Getting started - A beginners guide to investing in Belgium through ETFs

666 Upvotes

A beginners guide to index investing in Belgium

This guide is intended to help Belgians getting started with investing through ETFs (exchange traded funds). It is loosely based on the bogleheads approach. For more information, see the Investing from Belgium bogleheads wiki page.

For more information related to the principles of FIRE or on investing in single shares or bonds, see the BEFire Wiki.

0. Why invest in exchange traded index funds?

This chapter aims to provide sources proven to be useful to beginning index investors.

1. Taxes & compliance costs

There are three main costs associated with index funds. These are:

  • Taxes to the Belgian government
  • Unrecoverable tax losses: also known as dividend leakage
  • Management fees and internal transaction fees

1.1. Belgian Taxes

There are four three taxes relevant for Belgian index investors (NL/FR).

  • Tax on transactions: on every security transaction (buy and sell) there is a tax of 0,12% in case the ETF is registered on a list maintained by the European Economic Area. Otherwise it is 0,35% in case it is not registered in the EER and 1,32% in case it is registered in Belgium.

  • Tax on dividends: there is a 30% tax on dividends received from securities you hold. The main reason why Belgian index investors opt for accumulating funds.

  • Tax on capital gains (bonds): on funds that consist of at least 10% bonds, there is a 30% tax on capital gains when you sell. Officially this only applies to the bond section of a fund, however some banks and brokers withhold 30% of all capital gains of funds which consist of at least 10% of bonds. Contact your bank or broker to inform about their policy.

  • Tax on trading accounts: a yearly withholding of 0.15% applies on all trading accounts larger than 500,000 euro’s. Deemed unconstitutional and was abolished in October 2019.

For a detailed overview of Belgian taxes, including other sorts of investments such as individual stocks, see the flowchart made by /u/KenpachigoRuffy.

1.2. Dividend Leakage

Dividend Leakage is an unrecoverable tax loss, which occurs whenever a foreign company inside an index pays out a dividend to its shareholders.

Whenever a company inside an index pays out dividend to its shareholders, your fund needs to pay taxes. These taxes are based on the tax treaties in place between the country in which the fund is domiciled and the country in which the companies inside the index are domiciled. Also the location where you are domiciled (Belgium) is relevant. In case your fund is domiciled in the US, a 30% dividend tax should be paid. However, because Belgium has a tax treaty in place with the US, this is reduced to 15% dividend tax. In case you would select a distributing fund, this dividend would be further taxed by the Belgian government (30%, as seen in 1.1). On a hypothetical 2% dividend - which is approximately the dividend you would receive from a globally diversified index fund - you would have to pay 0,81% in taxes: 0,02 x ( 100% - (0,85 x 0,7)) = 0,81%. Note that since 2018 it is almost impossible to buy US-domiciled ETFs in the first place as most fund providers do not want to comply with European legislation regarding PRIIPs.

It is beneficial to select ETFs domiciled in Ireland, as they are more cost effective than holding US domiciled funds or Luxembourg domiciled funds. Just like Belgium, Ireland has a treaty in place with the US which means only a 15% dividend tax should be paid to the US. However, unlike Belgium, Ireland does not tax dividends at all; whenever the Irish fund distributes a dividend, the Irish government does not tax it. The Belgian government however, still will tax the dividend with 30%. Accumulating funds which reinvest the dividend in Ireland before it is distributed in Belgium do not trigger a taxable event in Belgium. It is therefore advisable to choose accumulating funds domiciled in Ireland. Repeating the same calculations as above, a hypothetical 2% dividend is now only taxed at 0,30% a year: 0,02 x (100% - (0,85)) = 0,30%. Additionally, because your fund is domiciled in Ireland, you do not have to worry recovering the tax on dividends in Belgium, as this is done by the Irish domiciled fund. Thanks to trackerbeleggen for the explanation.

An overview of unrecoverable tax losses will come later. For now, a partly overview can be found in the Dutchfire subreddit. For funds domiciled in Ireland and Luxembourg these are 1:1 translateable for Belgian investors. Note some of these funds are distributing thus subject to tax on dividends by the Belgian Government. In particular IWDA and EMIM are 1:1 translateable for Belgian investors, while VWRL is comparable to VWCE.

1.3. Management fees & internal transaction fees

Other main costs is the management fee. The Total Expense Ratio (TER) is a measure of the total costs associated with managing and operating a fund. It is usually a yearly percentage automatically deducted from your share value.

1.4. Euro-denominated funds & currency risk

Currency risk is the impact of exchange rates upon your overseas investments. Even though stock market prices might not change, the price of your shares can increase or decrease as a result of fluctuations in their underlying currencies. There are three important currency labels which apply to funds: the underlying currency, the fund currency and the trading currency.

To explain the difference, I will explain the process of purchasing IWDA, listed on both the Amsterdam (in EUR) and London (USD) exchange. A lot of what I will explain is true for other ETFs as well.

The underlying currency: IWDA is a worldwide tracker, with only about 9% of the underlying shares being traded in EUR. The other 91% of underlying shares are being traded in other currencies, such as 60% USD, 8% YEN, and so on. Because currencies can change in price in relation to another, this poses a risk called currency risk. As a European investor, most of your own capital will be in EUR. Therefore, since you are investing 91% in foreign currencies, 91% of the underlying value invested in IWDA is subject to currency risk. Because YOUR own capital will always be in EUR, this 91% will always be true, regardless if you were to invest in IWDA listed in Amsterdam (in EUR) or in London (USD). Had you been an American investor, your own capital would have been in USD, and only 40% of underlying shares would be subject to currency risk.

The trading currency, being EUR and USD respectively, does make a difference. If a European investor was to buy a fund listed in London (and traded in USD), he would pay an additional exchange rate conversion fee at the time of purchase and sale. If the investor was to buy the same fund, listed on Amsterdam (traded in EUR), nothing would have to be exchanged to a foreign currency, so no additional exchange rate conversion fee would apply.

The trading currency does NOT alter your exposure to foreign currencies (a European investor will always have his own capital in EUR, and will therefore always be exposed to the underlying currency risk, no matter what currency his purchased funds trade in). Therefore, it is only logical to buy funds in your own currency.

The fund currency simply refers to the currency that a fund reports in; NOT the currencies of the underlying securities which pose a currency risk. Is is generally based on the currency used for the underlying index (in this case MSCI). Note that for distributing funds dividends are distributed in the fund currency. Your broker will automatically convert this into your currency for an additional conversion fee.

Hedging: It is possible to hedge your funds against relative currency fluctuations, and thus to protect them from currency risk. Hedging is a form of "insurance" in which derivatives are used to make offsetting trades with negative correlations, eliminating any currency fluctuations that happen. This hedge comes at a cost, usually about 0,20% extra management fees. Because global equities naturally tend to hedge each other as rising currencies are offset by falling ones, it might not always be advisable to use hedged equity funds due to their increased fees.

In fact, most buy-and-hold investors ignore short-term fluctuation altogether. For these investors, there is little point in engaging in hedging because they let their investments grow with the overall market.

In conclusion, when buying worldwide index funds, every investor (whether European, American or other) will be exposed to some currency risk due to the underlying shares being traded in foreign currencies in relation to their own. Purchasing worldwide trackers in a different trading currency does NOT change this fact, and only costs more due to addition exchange rate conversion fees at the broker. Therefore, it is best to purchase funds in your own currency. Due to the unpredictable nature of currency valuations, most investors simply accept currency risks for their stocks, although it is possible to hedge against this risk for an additional fee by investing in hedged funds.

1.5. Conclusion on taxes & compliance costs

As a Belgian index investor, you are looking for widely-diversified Euro-denominated low-cost accumulating ETFs domiciled in Ireland, from a reputable ETF provider. This way, the costs are kept to an absolute minimum:

  • Tax on transactions: 0,12% whenever you buy or sell a position.

  • Tax on capital gains for bonds: 30% tax on capital gains whenever you sell.

  • Dividend leakage: Approximately 0,30% yearly unrecoverable taxes paid to foreign governments when investing in worldwide trackers, automatically deducted from the share value.

  • Management fees: Between 0,10% and 0,30% yearly management fees, automatically deducted from the share value.

  • Currency Risk: If you are an European long-term investor, purchase a fund which is listed in EUR. For the equity portion of your portfolio, it is possible to ignore currency risk altogether, as hedges would only cost more money for something that is likely irrelevant long-term.

2. Funds - Equity

2.1. Indices

The are two major indices used by fund providers: MSCI and the less popular FTSE Russel. While they both offer broadly diversified, market capitalisation-weighted indices, there are small differences in both methodologies and performances, which is why you should not mix them.

The first difference between the two indices is whether they count certain countries as developed or emerging markets. South Korea is classified as an emerging nation by MSCI but has been promoted to developed market status by FTSE. Therefore South Korea is included in FTSE’s developed market index but not its emerging market one, and vice versa for MSCI (Source: justetf).

The second difference is index composition and weights. Because South Korea is classified as an emerging nation by MSCI, the contrast in index composition is clearer in the emerging markets. The lack of said country in the FTSE index means they redistribute the weight over other countries.

The third and final difference is small-cap firms. MSCI world captures 85% of the global investable market, and exclude the bottom 15% as small-cap firms. FTSE all-world invests in approximately 90% of the global investable market, and only excludes 10% as small-cap firms. This is because FTSE defines some firms as large-cap, while MSCI defines them as small-cap. This also explains why FTSE tracks more companies (3,928 vs 2,849), although their small size tends to limit their impact.

Avoid mixing index providers in your portfolio. If you were to combine MSCI world with FTSE Emerging Market, you would not have any exposure to South Korea. For a correct market distribution, it is important to use funds which follow the same index so that all countries, sectors and firms within your portfolio follow the same methodology.

While it is true the FTSE emerging markets has proven to have better performance than its MSCI counterpart up until now, the costs of the fund following the index are more important than the index construction over long-term. Chapter 2.3 will give an overview of the most popular funds used by Belgian index investors looking for global market exposure.

2.2. Fund replication methods

The goal of each ETF is to replicate its index as closely and cost-effectively as possible. Various methods have emerged to replicate the index. The classic method is physical replication. If the ETF directly holds the all securities of the index, this is known as full replication. The development of the underlying index is generally captured well by physical trackers.

Full replication is not always possible. Other replication methods, such as synthetic replication allow to invest in new markets and investment classes. Synthetic ETFs are able to replicate some indices more efficiently and better through swaps (justetf). In case of synthetic replicated ETFs, the ETF does not invest in the underlying market, but only maps them. Because of this, some synthetic trackers, as well as short trackers and leveraged ETFs do not follow the index as accurate as fully replicated ETFs. It is therefore recommended to always choose physical replicating ETFs.

2.3. All-World, developed and emerging markets

Following the Bogleheads® Investment Philosophy, we are looking for diversification. For Belgians, this means worldwide market exposure, as we generally do not have a home bias (for Belgium or Europe) although exceptions certainly are possible. Some popular funds for worldwide diversification are:

Popular and generally reputable providers are iShares, Vanguard, SPDR and Deutsche Bank.

All-world Ticker TER Index ISIN
Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation (EUR) VWCE 0.22% FTSE IE00BK5BQT80
iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF (Acc) IUSQ 0.20% MSCI IE00B6R52259
Developed markets Ticker TER Index ISIN
iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF IWDA 0.20% MSCI IE00B4L5Y983
SPDR MSCI World UCITS ETF SWRD 0.12% MSCI IE00BFY0GT14
Vanguard FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation (EUR) VGVF 0.12% FTSE IE00BK5BQV03
Emerging markets Ticker TER Index ISIN
iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets IMI UCITS ETF EMIM 0.18% MSCI IE00BKM4GZ66
iShares MSCI EM UCITS ETF IEMA 0.18% MSCI IE00B4L5YC18
Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF USD Accumulation (EUR) VFEA 0.22% FTSE IE00BK5BR733

2.4. Combining funds

To have worldwide market exposure in large cap either pick VWCE or a combination of developed (88%) and emerging (12%) markets. It is advisable to only combine funds which follow the same index (MSCI or FTSE).

2.5. Size and Value factors

Other factors have been identified to further increase expected returns. Most notably Size and Value as explained in the three-factor model by Fama and French. Value stocks have a high book-to-market ratio (as opposed to growth), whereas size simply refers to small companies outperforming big ones. It is very difficult to get proper market exposure to these factors with the limited amount of funds available for European investors. For most beginners the best advice is to stick with a market weighted portfolio consisting of developed and emerging markets as explained in chapter 2.3. and 2.4. If you are looking for additional exposure to the size and value factor consider following funds:

Small Cap World Ticker TER Index ISIN
iShares MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETF IUSN 0.35% MSCI IE00BF4RFH31
SPDR MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETF ZPRS 0.45% MSCI IE00BCBJG560
Small Cap Value Ticker TER Index ISIN
SPDR MSCI USA Small Cap Value Weighted UCITS ETF ZPRV 0.30% MSCI IE00BSPLC413
SPDR MSCI Europe Small Cap Value Weighted UCITS ETF ZPRX 0.30% MSCI IE00BSPLC298

Note that the fund size for ZPRV and ZPRX are small, which might indicate a low liquidity and high tracking error. Larger funds (unlike ZPRV and ZPRX) are often more efficient in terms of internal costs (tracking error) and are much more profitable for the fund provider. In other words, fund size is a good indicator for the funds durability and popularity. Unprofitable funds are more liable to liquidation. This means either you or your provider sells your shares, and you'll receive the net value of your ETF shares at the time of sale. It does not mean ZPRV and ZPRX are at risk of liquidation, per definition. They are serving a niche. Just keep in mind these risks whenever you decide to invest in small funds such as ZPRV and ZPRX.

3. Funds - Bonds

Investing can be risky. Generally speaking, the riskier an investment, the higher your expected returns. The goal is to choose an asset allocation which suits your risk profile. Bonds offer a way to reduce volatility of your portfolio and match your risk profile. Meesman, a reputable index fund broker in the Netherlands made a table which can act as a general rule of thumb for your investment decisions and asset allocation between stocks and bonds. As can been seen, when investing for a duration shorter than 5 years, stocks should be avoided as they are too volatile an asset class. This allocation slowly shifts towards more inclusion of stocks the longer your investment horizon.

Max. acceptable (temporary) loss 0 - 5 jr 5 - 10 jr 10 - 15 jr 15 - 20 jr > 20 jr
-10% 0/100 0/100 0/100 0/100 0/100
-20% 0/100 25/75 25/75 25/75 25/75
-30% 0/100 25/75 50/50 50/50 50/50
-40% 0/100 25/75 50/50 75/25 75/25
-50% 0/100 25/75 50/50 75/25 100/0

As opposed to equity funds it makes sense to opt for hedged funds as it reduces volatility considerably. The most popular options out there are:

Fund Name Ticker TER ISIN
iShares Core Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF EUR Hedged AGGH 0.10% IE00BDBRDM35
Vanguard Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF EUR Hedged VAGF 0.10% IE00BG47KH54

4. Brokers

There are a couple of Belgian and foreign brokers available, the biggest Belgian brokers being Binckbank and Bolero. Smaller ones like Keytrade and MeDirect are also available. Foreign brokers still available to Belgians are Degiro and Lynx. The lowest fees are available at Degiro (Custody account), if you're willing to file your own taxes. The benefit of choosing a Belgian broker is that they declare all taxes automatically. Degiro only does part of it (tax on transactions), Lynx not sure. The cheapest Belgian broker is Binckbank, followed closely by Bolero. The only downside of Binckbank is that is was recently bought by Saxobank, which in its turn is owned by chinese investors. Bolero is owned by KBC which is quite a sizable bank in Belgium.

In short: if you're willing to partly file your own taxes, Degiro has the cheapest rates with a custody account. Otherwise Binkbank or Bolero both seem logical choices.

In case you pick Degiro, some funds are included in their core selection which means you can trade them for for free once a month or continuously in case the transaction size is larger than 1,000 euros and the transaction is in the same direction as the previous transaction (buy -> buy and sell -> sell. Buy -> sell and sell -> buy are not free).

5. Sample portfolios

A popular choice is IWDA and IEMA (88/12) on Degiro. Both IWDA and IEMA are part of the core selection of Degiro which allows you to purchase them for free once a month (or more in case explained above). Another popular option is IWDA and EMIM (88/12), as EMIM also includes emerging markets small cap. Note that IWDA does not include developed markets small cap, to which IEMA is complementary if you wish to exclude small cap exposure. The main reason EMIM was so popular is because it was the cheapest option until the TER was lowered for IEMA.

A second popular choice is VWCE. This is a single fund which essentially accomplishes the same as above. It is available at most brokers, and my personal choice for simplicity above everything else. Note that this fund is currently only available on XETRA, which might imply higher transaction fees at your broker. Also note that some brokers - including bolero - charge a higher TOB (Tax on transactions): 1,32% instead of 0,12% whenever you buy or sell a position.

A third option - much like the first option - is to combine VGVF and VFEA (88/12). While they are not part of the core selection in Degiro, the total costs when accounting for dividend leakage are equal to IWDA / EMIM. Unlike iShares, Vanguard only uses securities lending for efficient portfolio management. Note that these funds currently only are available at XETRA.

For those who are looking for small cap exposure it is possible to add WSML to your standard world exposure. This could for example be 75% IWDA, 10% IEMA and 15% IUSN. I personally do not recommend this as mixed small cap does not capture the size factor in a good way. Instead, it is only the value portion of small cap which are accountable for the outperformance of small cap stocks vs large cap stocks. If you want to capture the size factor into your portfolio you need to find small cap funds which only consist of value stocks. I've linked two accumulating funds above (ZPRV and ZPRX) which do so, however are very small and therefore have their own set of problems. Until a proper small cap value stock becomes available in Europe, it is perfectly fine to leave small caps out of your portfolio altogether.

Changelog

This post was last updated: 5th of August 2020


r/BEFire 8h ago

Bank & Savings KBC mortgage - salary condition

15 Upvotes

This is a question about saving potentially €2,50/month, which might be a ridiculously low number, but hey, the small bits add up.

We have signed/agreed to a mortgage with KBC. One of the conditions for a 0,05% discount on the yearly interest rate was "Je beroepsinkomsten (loon, inkomensvervangende uitkeringen, ...) doen toekomen op een betaalrekening bij KBC Bank." (= ~have your salary deposited to KBC).

I already have an account with KBC.

Will my gf (also named as kredietaanvrager) have to do the same?

KBC doesn't offer free bank accounts for 24+ y.o.'s.

If someone has experience with this, kindly share it. Thank you!


r/BEFire 1d ago

General Monthly income + age discussion

11 Upvotes

What's your monthly income + age?

I didn't ask this question in /BESalary as it wouldn't include investments etc.

Note: income is not only salary but also all other income streams included\*


r/BEFire 1d ago

FIRE Side hustles

7 Upvotes

What are good Side hustles besides your job to get faster fire?


r/BEFire 1d ago

Starting Out & Advice Looking into buying a strategic metals ETF namely VVMX what do you people think about this ETF?

10 Upvotes

So basically what the title says, looking into buying this ETF because I think the demand for such metals will go up.


r/BEFire 2d ago

Investing A question for the stock pickers here

10 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

This question is specifically for the stock pickers among us.

Have any of you managed to spot companies like SanDisk, AMD, Micron, Nvidia, etc. before they really took off? If yes, how did you identify them early?

I'm not looking for generic advice like "just buy index funds" (my portfolio is already diversified enough, and this would only be for a small amount of YOLO money). I'm more interested in understanding the actual process that successful stock pickers follow.

Some questions:

- What made you bullish on these companies before the broader market caught on?

- Do you follow certain YouTubers, newsletters, analysts, podcasts, or subreddits?

- How do you do your own research? Do you read annual reports, earnings calls, industry news, semiconductor roadmaps, etc.?

- Were there any specific indicators that convinced you that AI, semiconductors, cloud computing, or data centers were about to explode?

- How do you distinguish between genuine long-term opportunities and hype?

- Have you had more successes or failures with this approach?

Also, looking ahead, which sectors are currently on your radar?

- Quantum computing?

- Robotics and automation?

- Nuclear energy?

- AI infrastructure?

- Biotech?

- Something else entirely?

I'd be particularly interested in hearing from people who have consistently outperformed the market over several years and can explain their investment process rather than just sharing their biggest winners.

Thanks!


r/BEFire 1d ago

FIRE 29M in Belgium, 69% savings rate, able to FIRE at 31

0 Upvotes

Hi all! I have seen some interesting posts about the net wealth trajectory in Belgium, and so I would like to show mine. This is mostly an encouragement post to show that IMO it's possible to reach FIRE in belgium at early 30s without a very high income, as long as you make the right budgeting decisions and are frugal.

Short story

I am 29yo working as an employed software engineer in Belgium. I only came to Belgium 3 years ago; I came from another country (where my income was half as is now). I already had a frugal lifestyle and I kept it. I live with my girlfriend, in a rented apartment, no kids or pets. Gross wealth and costs are separate from my girlfriend, who is also chasing FIRE with her own portfolio. My net employment income is 3.6k€.

Gross Wealth

Current value: ~265k

Yearly balance (2025)

Purely from a mathematical perspective, given that my costs were 14538.98€ (14538.98 x 25 = ~365k€), if I continue to invest at this rate, I could retire early in two years at 31.

However, I will probably continue working at least for one or two more years besides 31 to have more financial margin. My real target is 530k, which results in a SWR of ~2.5%, or a higher SWR with a higher spending, to account for if we change for a more expensive city/country in the future.

Most costs are shared with my girlfriend. I achieved last year a savings rate of around 69%. The biggest cost is the rent, which is around 930€ for a 2-bedroom fully furnished apartment in a medium-sized city in Flanders (not Antwerp or Ghent). We don't have a car, as I work remotely, we live near her workplace and we also live near a train station. We are happy with renting and we don't see the need of buying a house/apartment in the future, more on that decision below.

The second biggest cost is related with travels (which is a big part of Leisure + Transportation + Travel acommodation + Restaurants categories). We travel around 3 times a year to our own country and around 3 more times to european countries.

Decision log

Stock allocation

Right now my stock allocation is around 96% World Stock ETFs and around 4% Crypto (Bitcoin and Ethereum).

At early retirement I will probably reallocate 20% of portfolio to Bonds (maybe Bond ETFs or individual bonds), but with such a high savings rate, I will only do it 2 years before I am 100% sure that I will retire. That should give me enough of a buffer to cover 6 years of retirement spending. I am also totally OK with delaying early retirement for 1, two or three years if a big drop in the stock market happens.

ETFs

I used to have IWDA+EMIM until this year, when I started to buy SPYY. I prefer SPYY instead of SPYI because I don't see the need of to pay an additional 0.05% in TER to invest in small cap stocks, which is not proven to be beneficial (with the exception of small-cap value stocks); it's hard for larger funds to properly capture the small-cap market, so I decided to leave them out and reduce TER. Crypto is a shot in the dark: currently I already realized gains equal to my full initial investment, and I am not too worried if it disappears overnight.

Buy vs Rent

This is a very debated topic everywhere, and also in Belgium, which is typically a country with a buyers' market. After running through the numbers, we are comfortable with renting forever, for different reasons.

Financially for us it makes no sense to buy: the city in which we live in has low-ish rents when compared with house prices, and over the long-term the difference between renting and buying (mainly when we are 100% in stocks) comes down to chance.

Emotionally, also given that we are in Belgium not for long, we would like to keep the flexibility of moving in the future if we need to. Her job is very location-specific, so it's probable that we need to move in the future.

Personally, I also like that we don't need to take care of any house expense and we don't have to budget for house renovations, so we can have a lower emergency fund and have a predictable rent every month. I guess it gives us some stability knowing that if anything changes (job loss, great opportunity in another country, etc.), we can just pack our things and move without being worried with a house. Even inside Belgium, being within a walking distance from our jobs is something that we value a lot.

Brokers

Currently I am using Interactive Brokers and Degiro as my main brokers. As I said above, for me flexibility is important, so I want to stay with brokers that operate in various countries, preferably that are big players in Europe, and that have low costs. Interactive Brokers is a no-brainer, as it's the biggest broker in the world and the one with a longer track record. I also like Degiro because it operates in many countries in Europe and has a very high number of clients and assets under management, which gives me some safety. All other brokers for me are more expensive or don't have the safety that any of these two has.

I don't mind handling my own Belgian tax reporting, so broker tax-support features aren't a priority for me.

Also, I like to have more than one broker because of safety. Not because I am afraid that the broker will fail and lose all my money, but in a worst-case scenario, it's not impossible that I am hacked or the broker goes bankrupt and I am left several months without being able to withdraw from my account.

Employment vs Freelancing

Probably the biggest lever for me as a software engineer right now is to change from employment to freelancing, which would probably boost my savings rate to 80% or more. It's something to consider for the future, mainly if I want to quickly get to a higher net worth.

Tax harvesting

I have been debating if I should use tax harvesting or not (sell and rebuy 10k of gains every year), but I am probably not going to do it. For me, the advantage is really low and the risks are real: the risk of an increase in the stock market between the sell and buy price could make me lose more than the 1k gain every year. Probably not worth the effort, considering that I could do that 1k just by waiting some days with my current portfolio.

UPDATE:

I didn't know this would be so controversial :) Thanks for the feedback. Many of you didn't read the whole post, so let me write it again:

I will probably continue working at least for one or two more years besides 31 to have more financial margin. My real target is 530k, which results in a SWR of ~2.5%, or a higher SWR with a higher spending, to account for if we change for a more expensive city/country in the future.


r/BEFire 3d ago

Pension Minister Jambon legt plan op tafel om pensioensparen goedkoper te maken, Vooruit vindt het te vrijblijvend

11 Upvotes

r/BEFire 2d ago

Investing Individual stocks advice?

0 Upvotes

Hello, I'm new to investing and am looking into individual stocks. Does anyone invest in SPA? Utilities like Engie? Any semiconductor or biotech you would recommend?


r/BEFire 3d ago

Taxes & Fiscality Help declaring KuCoin account in tax-on-web

2 Upvotes

Hey all, this is a long shot, but does anyone have experience declaring a KuCoin account (or another foreign account) based in the Seychelles?

In CAP everything is fine, but when I also want to declare it in my tax form on tax-on-web, the Seychelles have 2 options:

Seychelles (verlaagd tarief) = "reduced tariff"

Seychelles (vrijstelling) = "exemption"

Does anyone know which one to choose?

Thanks in advance.


r/BEFire 3d ago

Starting Out & Advice Welke broker als beginner

7 Upvotes

Ik ben dus van plan om te starten met de aankoop van ETF’s. Ik had in gedachten een 75/25 verdeling te doen qua aandelen en obligaties.

Ik wil starten met een 20k en vanaf dan maandelijks bij aankopen. Het plan is om dit geld voor de lange termijn te laten staan.

Ik ben enkel nog niet zeker over de broker ik twijfel nu tussen Bolero of Saxo.

Wat zijn jullie ervaringen of aanraders?
Als iemand een aanrader heeft voor een obligatie etf mag je die ook altijd laten weten.


r/BEFire 3d ago

Investing Investeren met vennootschap

2 Upvotes

Hey!

Ik lees al een tijdje mee en dacht een goed plan te hebben, maar ik ben daar nu niet zo zeker meer van.

Recent van mijn eenmanszaak naar een vennootschap gegaan en ik wou dus met de vennootschap investeren in ETF’s.

Nu lees ik dat het eigenlijk beter is om privé in ETF’s te investeren en met de vennootschap 3 jaar te wachten, dividenden uit te keren en ook die dan verder te beleggen?

Wat ik dan nu zou doen is om een 15K van de eenmanszaak al meteen in ETF te steken als zijnde privé geld en daar dan verder op te bouwen.

Die 15K is een deel van het bedrag dat nu nog stilstaat op de rekening, wachtende op een berekening van de personenbelasting. De overschot betaald normaal alle onkosten daarvan dus die 15K kan “gemist” worden.

Kan iemand mij hierin volgen of ben ik volledig mis met mijn gedachtengang?

Bedankt!


r/BEFire 4d ago

Brokers Keytrade opt out

4 Upvotes

I already invest in Bolero.

I want to invest at keytrade too since I have alot of money saved there and the fees are lower.

But can you use the opt-out option there?

I can’t seem to find it anywhere, I assume it‘s because the period has past and I will be able to opt-out again next year before may.


r/BEFire 6d ago

Starting Out & Advice Love to make money, hate to spend it

49 Upvotes

2 months ago I finally reached my first financial goal of a 100K net worth, which is according to the rich the hardest to get. Now that I reached it, I am thinking about the "why" question. "why do I do this"? The conclusion is that I get happy by making money, but I hate spending it on "non-assets".

Is this a healthy mindset? If not, how can I fix this? I would love you guys' input!


r/BEFire 6d ago

General Sharing my story

73 Upvotes

Hello everyone

Long time lurker and just made an account to make this post.

First of all, I want to thank this community for changing my life.

I started investing when I was 22 years old in May 2023 in IWDA. Back then I was still a student, so I couldn't invest a lot. I started from €0 because I fell for a "get rich quick" scam, almost resulting in losing all my friends because I dragged them along with me. I learned then, that getting rich quick doesn't exist and that you have to invest long term. Started working full time in october 2023 for a market vendor (same job I've been doing as a student since I was 16) after I quit my studies. Once I started working, I started tracking my income/expenses and started living more frugally. My starting salary was 2600 net per month and I could invest around 2k each month.

End of 2023:

ETF: €4000
Bank account: €400

Fast forward to 2026. 25 years old now and I really turned my life around. I still keep track of all my income and expenses. Still work at the same company. My salary is now at 3200 net per month and I invest 2500 per month on average. I also found a good balance between investing, living frugally and enjoying life. I have travelled a lot the last few years and my friendships have never been better. I also work out 3 times a week (not that it's important information, but i guess it shows that I really try to improve my life). I still live at home and I'm not planning on leaving in the next 5 years. (You never know what will happen, but this is how I see it at the moment)

Current financial situation:

ETF: €91 500 (This is including profit, I invested €72 500 myself)
Emergency fund: €5000
Bank account: €2300

It's absolutely insane that I will probably reach 100k net worth next month. If you would have told me in 2023 that I would be in this situation in 2026, I would have never believed you.

I just wanted to share my story with this community and maybe encourage and show people that a lot can happen in 3 years and that you can really achieve something if you put your mind to it.

Thanks in advance for reading and thanks again for changing my life.

If you have any questions, I will gladly answer them.


r/BEFire 5d ago

Investing 25M – €40k spaargeld, maar nog geen duidelijk plan. Hoe zouden jullie dit aanpakken?

4 Upvotes

Hallo iedereen,
Ik ben een man van 25 jaar met een netto-inkomen van ongeveer €2.300 per maand.
Momenteel heb ik ongeveer €40.000 op een spaarrekening staan. Daarnaast heb ik nog een moto die ik waarschijnlijk voor ongeveer €15.000 zou kunnen verkopen, aangezien ik nog twee andere motoren heb en deze eigenlijk niet nodig heb.
Mijn probleem is dat ik mijn spaargeld niet langer op een spaarrekening wil laten staan. Ik wil het graag investeren zodat het op lange termijn meer opbrengt.
Tegelijk zit ik met een dilemma. Ik ben nog niet zeker hoe mijn toekomst eruit zal zien. Op termijn zou ik België, en mogelijk zelfs Europa, willen verlaten. Dat kan binnen enkele jaren zijn, maar evengoed pas veel later. Daardoor wil ik vermijden dat mijn geld vastzit in investeringen waar ik moeilijk uit kan stappen als mijn plannen veranderen.
Mijn vraag is dus:
Hoe zouden jullie in mijn situatie €40.000 investeren als flexibiliteit belangrijk is? Welke investeringen laten toe om relatief eenvoudig aan je geld te kunnen als mijn plannen wijzigen, zonder dat ik alles gewoon op een spaarrekening laat staan?


r/BEFire 6d ago

General Beginners guide and student investing

9 Upvotes

Is the beginners guide still completely effective? Just it being 6 years old feels like it's outdated.

Is there anything a student should know before investing? Like from a tax perspective or anything else that might be different for a student?

Is keytrade enough to start investing or should I immediatly use a platform dedicated to investing? I saw that you can't buy etfs on keytrade, only stocks.


r/BEFire 6d ago

Starting Out & Advice 25yo beginner with €24k: Where to start for long-term invests/FIRE

10 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I (25M) am a young Belgian worker living with my partner. I started working in early 2026 after finishing my studies. I earn around €2,100 net per month, excluding benefits (meal vouchers, eco-vouchers, hospitalisation insurance, pension savings, and commute reimbursement—all provided by my employer). My partner earns slightly more than I do, but doesn't really have extralegal benefits.

Together, we’d like to start saving to buy a home, ideally in about 3 years. On a personal level, I currently have around €24,000 in savings (nearly 1 year of salary).

However, we are both well aware of how crucial investing is these days, given the very low yields on savings accounts, rising inflation, and the uncertainty surrounding our future state pension. Because of this, we are becoming increasingly interested in investing (and incidentally, in the FIRE movement).

The issue is that we are complete beginners, although a family member has started walking me through the basics. He began investing in ETFs when he was over 50 and regrets not starting earlier. That’s why he strongly encourages me to get in as early as possible. In his view, over a very long horizon (investing over 30 to 40 years), time is a far more powerful driver of returns than the actual amounts invested.

He personally uses "Easyvest", a broker based in Brussels. He felt it was ideal for his situation, mainly because:

  1. It’s based in Belgium (so they handle all the tax declarations and TOB automatically),
  2. It allows for an "autopilot" setup, and
  3. Unless I'm mistaken, he believes the fees are relatively low.

However, he pointed out that one downside of Easyvest for me is the €5,000 minimum initial deposit required to open an account. Considering my age and our goal to buy a house in the coming years, he thinks locking away that amount right away might hinder our home-buying objective.

After doing some research and taking his input into account, I’m considering Saxo to get started. I’m particularly interested in their "Saxo AutoInvest" feature, which allows you to invest automatically in ETFs for €2/month. Having an automated, "set-it-and-forget-it" system is a major requirement for me as a beginner right now.

My family member also advised me against investing in bonds due to the 30% Reynders tax.

Another point worth mentioning: as I noted above, my employer contributes to a group insurance/pension plan for my future retirement. My partner’s employer does not, so she recently started contributing around €85/month to a personal pension savings plan (épargne-pension / pensioensparen) with BNP Paribas Fortis. Is it worth it for me to open a second personal pension savings plan on my own? And for my partner, is it actually worth continuing with hers?

Given my young age and my intention to invest for 30–40 years (assuming that's indeed the most profitable and reasonably safe long-term approach), I feel comfortable taking on a higher risk profile.

Based on my profile and all these details:

  • Which platforms or brokers would you recommend?
  • Should I use a single broker or split between multiple brokers for diversification?
  • Given my income, savings, and situation, roughly how much should I invest per month? Should I also invest an initial lump sum?
  • Which ETF(s) should I invest in?
  • ...

Any advice, suggestions, or feedback would be greatly appreciated! I’ve been reading up on FIRE and browsing this subreddit, and I really want to avoid making typical beginner mistakes.

Thanks for your help!


r/BEFire 7d ago

Bank & Savings Meerwaardebelasting : Bank wil geen waarde bepalen van nieuwe aandelen

15 Upvotes

Ik heb in mei 2026 aandelen op naam geruild naar andere maar beursgenoteerde aandelen.
Deze nieuwe aandelen zijn op de effectenrekening gestort.

Volgens mijn interpretatie van de wetgeving mag ik de meerwaarde laten bepalen door een valuatie van de initiele aandelen op naam , gebaseerd op de indicatieve waarde per aandeel van het jaarverslag (waarde 31/12/25).

Ter illustratie waarde jaarverslag : 100 Eur per aandeel.
Huidige beurswaarde nieuw aandeel : 80 Eur per aandeel.

Conclusie :

Als ik de nieuwe aandelen verkoop mag ik minwaarde boeken van 20 Eur per aandeel, en dit blijft voor 2026 geldig.

Probleem :

Mijn bank wil de waarde niet op basis van het jaarverslag aanvaarden maar eist een "financiele overdrachtswaarde bepaald door een erkend financieel instutuut".
Aangezien het een ruil is, en deze niet beursgenoteerd waren is er geen waardebepaling via een broker of andere bank. Zolang zij dit niet krijgen, hanteren zij de nulwaarde, wat wil zeggen dat ik 100% meerwaarde zou moeten slikken. Dit is uiteraard niet aanvaardbaar.

Vraag
Heeft iemand hier al ervaring mee gehad, of heeft iemand advies hoe dit te weerleggen/op te lossen ?


r/BEFire 7d ago

Taxes & Fiscality Tax declaration - honest mistake penalty

5 Upvotes

I got into a legal cohabitation start of 2025 (which means it only applies for my 2026 income).

However, I forgot to tick this on the declaration which wrongfully gave me a 5k tax relief for 2025.

Practical consequences? Should I wait for final tax decision or will it come with a penalty?

For info, I don’t live in Belgium anymore. Although I don’t think that changes anything.


r/BEFire 7d ago

Investing Thoughts on Bolero stock sprint

3 Upvotes

Hi all,

I recently started using Bolero and found the game called Bolero stock sprint where you choose a few stocks and over a period of 2 weeks compete with others with respect to overall returns.

While this game relies on short term gains, I found this very interesting because it allows me to see how I am doing or where do I stand with respect to others or in general test my knowledge of current market.

What have you guys learnt from this using Bolero(I reckon not many use it) or other similar games?


r/BEFire 8d ago

Bank & Savings Saving vs. investing

12 Upvotes

Me and my girlfriend just bought a house and we are struggeling to figure out how much to save and how much to invest from now on. We obviously want to invest as much as possible, but we also want to save enough so we can buy a new kitchen, furniture, bathroom, car, etc. when we need it.
Deciding how much to save for a holiday, gifts, ... is straightforward, but how do you decide how much to save for those major expenses that will come in 10+ years?


r/BEFire 9d ago

Starting Out & Advice 22 years old, building my future in Belgium – looking for advice

24 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m 22 years old and originally from Ukraine. I currently live and work in Belgium for a fast-growing Belgian B2B company in the used car industry.

My net salary is around €2,300 per month, plus meal vouchers. I’ve managed to save about €18,000 in cash, and I’ve also invested around €3,000–3,500 in an accumulating ETF(VWCE). My goal is to continue investing €300 every month while building my savings.

I’m trying to build my future in Belgium. I recently completed English level 2.4 and will continue with level 3.1. Starting in September, I’ll begin learning Dutch because I want to integrate fully and stay here long-term.

One of my biggest goals is to buy a home in Belgium. I currently pay quite a lot in rent, and sometimes it feels like I’m paying for someone else’s property instead of building my own future. I’d much rather put that money toward my own mortgage.

I’ve also been thinking about buying an older house that needs renovation. I studied to become an electrician in Ukraine and have practical construction experience. I can do a complete electrical installation in a house from scratch and I’m comfortable with many renovation tasks, so I believe I could save a lot of money by doing much of the work myself.

I’m also considering getting my Ukrainian electrician qualification officially recognized in Belgium. Although it’s a vocational qualification rather than a university degree, I have real hands-on experience. I’m wondering if changing careers and working as an electrician would be a smart decision, especially if it offers better long-term salary and career opportunities than my current job.

Another idea I’ve been considering is starting a small mobile detailing business on the side while keeping my full-time job. I worked professionally as a car detailer for quite a while, so I already have the skills. Of course, I would need to invest in equipment and eventually buy a suitable vehicle, so I’m trying to figure out whether that would be a smart move.

The only thing that makes me hesitate about buying property is my residence status. I’m Ukrainian and currently have an A card, so I’m not sure how that affects long-term plans such as getting a mortgage.

If you were in my position at 22 years old, what would you do? Would you focus on buying a fixer-upper and renovating it yourself? Would you get your electrician qualification recognized and switch careers? Would you start the detailing business as a side hustle? Or would you focus on something completely different?

I’d really appreciate advice from people who have experience with property, renovations, investing, skilled trades, side businesses, or building a long-term future in Belgium.

Thank you!


r/BEFire 9d ago

Starting Out & Advice Portfolio review & what to do with €70k cash? (BE/PL expat)

8 Upvotes

Hey guys!

I'm married with one kid, and we're immigrants from Poland, living in Belgium for about 4 years now.

Our combined income is around €70-80k net a year.

Here is where we currently stand:

Debt: €450/month car payment (about €10k left to pay). No other debt.

Cash/Emergency: €20k (sitting in a MeDirect savings account at ~2.5%).

Investments: ~€10k in Saxo Bank, all in ETFs (75% WEBN, 15% AVWS, 10% ETC Gold). I DCA €1,000 every month.

Crypto: €10k in Bitcoin.

Real Estate: 2 building plots in Poland (valued at around €70k).

Lump sum to invest: €70k in cash.

I could easily spare €1,600 or even €1,800 a month, but we don't want to invest every penny and live super frugally (we have an 11-month-old baby). That's why we decided to stick to investing at least €1k/month.

Please rate my portfolio and let me know what you would change or adjust.

The main question is: what should I do with that €70k? Dump it into the market?

I thought about buying an apartment to rent out (I already have some experience being a landlord), but the Belgian system seems pretty harsh on small owners. My second thought was to just pay off the car loan but it's still a hefty sum left.

What do you guys think? Thanks!


r/BEFire 9d ago

Real estate Renting out a garage

2 Upvotes

I hope this fits here: we just found tenants for our apartment, but they're not interested in the garage. That means tjat we have to rent that out separately.

The law says that, when you rent out a garage, you need to register the contract AND get a VAT number. That seems like a lot of hassle, though we'll be exempt from paying VAT, because of the low yearly revenue. So, I don't even see the point.

What would you do? Strictly follow the law or do it 'the Belgian way'?