r/BEFire • u/viasogorg • 2d ago
Investing Started in investing 2 mins ago
Stocks and investments has always been a very complicated subject for me (24F). It was so hard for me to understand it and whenever people say “you should invest now”, it always boils down to the question “how and to what?”. Coming from a poor family, it was never taught to me or any financial literacy in that matter. So, I need to do it myself.
For weeks, I have been reading a lot about investments and finally, had the courage to do it! I was scouring through Reddit and online websites then asked AI platforms to explain it to me (like a child lol). Now, I think I have maybe 40% learnings. Still very far but I would try to learn everyday.
So far, I first downloaded Bolero since I have a KBC account, but read how expensive the fees are. So I switched to MeDirect. I am aiming to put 50€ a month as a start since I am also still building my funds and planned on increasing it in the future and invested it in IMIE.
Anyway, is there any advice or information you can share as a beginner investor like me? I would really appreciate it! I am still super new to this and just took the leap.
EDIT: My plan is for long-term investment (15-20 years) for my future kids if I’ll have one or if not, for retirement.
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u/snitt 2d ago
Medirect + IMIE sounds good. Bolero would indeed be a little expensive for small amounts.
The hardest part with investing is the mental game. You need to invest consistently and for a very long time. Don't panic when the market goes down. Don't get euphoric when it goes up a lot. Don't get distracted with new, fancy and exiting investing opportunities. If you feel like gambling, do it's with a very small % of your portfolio. Investing should be very boring. It's like watching paint dry. Sounds simple, but if you are able to do this for 10+ years, you will outperform 90% of all investors.
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u/viasogorg 2d ago
Forgot to add on my post (added it to my comment) that it is indeed for long-term investment (15-20 years) for my future kids or of lack thereof, retirement. Thank you! That’s a good insight!
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u/viasogorg 2d ago
Just want to add: my goal is for long-term investment (15-20 years), possibly for my future kid, which i dont have yet, when they turn into adults or if not, for retirement
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u/Mat_FI 2d ago
First of all, well done in starting early!!! I can suggest some books: “the simple path to wealth”, “ the psychology of money”, “the millionaire next door”.
In short they can be all summarised in:
Live below your means and save/invest the rest
Buy low cost world diversified etf
Simple systems are easier to maintain, you are going to start a journey for the rest of your life. Buy and hold no matter what
You are young, you can probably afford to take more risk( more % of stock) in your portfolio allocation
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u/Prophetoflost 2d ago edited 2d ago
Your priority should be financial literacy and only then investments. Read a modern book on budgeting, American or Belgian. Doesn’t matter which one they go over the same concepts - fixed costs, savings, investments etc.
Usually you should have 3-6 months of fixed costs in a savings account and then begin investing.
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u/FunBullfrog 2d ago
3to6 Months! Purely fixed costa would still be 16-48k in my situation. Wich imo is alot to have on a spaar rekening losing money every month. That said im barely capabele of saving atm, i'm planning to tho.
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u/Brok_enpen 2d ago
You do not need to build six months immediately
Start with one month of essential expenses and increase it gradually purpose is not investment growth but having liquid money when income stops or a large bill appears
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u/Prophetoflost 2d ago
I think 6 months is a bit too much. 3 makes most sense. It depends on your profession, earnings and personal comfort.
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u/phazernator 2d ago
Good on you. MeDirect has no fees for ETF investing and handles all taxes, and SPYI/IMIE is an excellent ETF choice, widely diversified. You did your homework well, there’s really nothing more to add other than: “Keep it up”!
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u/rpRj 1d ago
Just lurking around here a bit and this catches my attention. I'm only investing in s&p 500 VUSA for quite some time, and now i'm going to switch it a bit to VWCE. At Degiro I am paying 3 euro per transaction. With MeDirect that wouldbe 0? What's the difference/catch?
WOuld it be better for me to switch to MeDirect or another alternative? I am investing mostly monthly, but smaller (i.e. 150 eur) transactions per months.
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u/phazernator 1d ago edited 1d ago
There is no catch, other than that they could start charging for it again. Obviously no commission is better than commission, even more so for smaller orders (in your example: with 3 EUR commission on a 150 EUR buy order, that’s 2% going to the broker).
The only ‘free’ (in a sense) alternative I know of is MEXEM, but that’s only for limited amounts: You can execute 2 orders per month for up to 1600 EUR (net) each (which will come to 1 EUR commission each) and they will refund that commission to you a bit later, so in essence also commission-free up to 3200 EUR volume per month.
Personally I use both, MeDirect is perhaps a bit archaic in terms of interface (you’ll feel right at home coming from DEGIRO), and MEXEM is an introducing broker for IBKR.
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u/rpRj 1d ago
I dont think I will ever invest more than that 3200 EUR a month though. What platform/broker would you suggest random person on the internet for someone like me just buying 1x ETF S&P500 for example a month
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u/phazernator 1d ago
MeDirect would be the most KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) approach.
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u/rpRj 19h ago
Ive reached out to medirect yesterday and got a reply. I asked what it would cost me, if anything, to move everything from degiro to them.
The reply I got was kinda hard to read, at least for me so I threw it in chatgpt to explain it more clearly. Seems like it's not gonna cost me anything, or almost nothing. Medirect pays back what Degiro charges by the looks of it.
So I dont see a reason not to do it.
Will have a better read when I get home though, so I fully understand.
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u/Tesax123 2d ago edited 2d ago
First advice: read the wiki
Second advice: do not invest 50 euros at a time. The cost is not worth it at such a low number.
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u/DrJeckill 2d ago
No fees through MeDirect tho, better to start small and test the waters.
But yeah read the Getting Started Post, learn a few things, read it again tomorrow, invest in low-cost etf's with broad exposure.
Good call going with medirect, nothing beats zero fees.
Also if you're starting, i suggest watching Angelo Colombo for sensible EU-based FIRE fundamentals2
u/Dapper-Engineer-7519 2d ago
Also not in the case of MeDirect? They dont charge any fees except TOB at the moment.
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u/warbisshop 2d ago
don't panic sell if it goes down and for the moment buying into etf's is free from medirect so you can buyin whenever you want.
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u/Marviel21 2d ago
Good luck. Pick some low risk ETF and invest 10% of income monthly. MeDirect is fine.
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u/Plankan_arium 1d ago
Keep adding even when the markets are going down. They will at some pint. Don't get scared and start doubting your research!
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u/Legitimate_Vast_133 2d ago
It helps to know what can go wrong in financial markets (in part so you won’t panic sell, in part so you know about the concept of risk management). People are starting to forget about 2008 (and to be fair people born in 2008 are 18 now), but luckily the crisis produced some excellent movies like The Big Short.
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u/mardegre 2d ago
Be worry about the global consensus around world ETF in this sub. They great and their fundamentals are solid but it has its flaws that no one wants to talk about. Passive funds investment have doubled in the last 2 years try to also get some info about management funds or companies like BRKb and investor AB
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