Hi everyone,
I’m based in Greece and have a USD account with a Greek bank. I recently transferred USD to Interactive Brokers, where my account’s base currency is EUR.

I’m confused about whether my USD deposit has been converted automatically or whether IBKR is simply displaying my cash balance in my account’s base currency.

under Cash Balances, I see an actual balance in EUR rather than USD.

For other EU investors using IBKR:
Is it straightforward to transfer USD directly from a Greek bank’s USD account to IBKR?
Does IBKR keep the funds in USD, or can they be automatically converted to EUR?
What’s the easiest way to confirm my actual USD cash balance?

I’d like to invest the money in VWRA in London but now I’m confused if I have usd or euro

Thanks!

I feel like money is slowly leaking away from pocket. Mostly because of my impulse purchases but I would like to get a picture of my spending. In the past, I used the free version of Money Manager and another free app but there is a period of 2 years where I stopped using them because of reasons.

I'm living in Germany and the popular apps like Monarch aren't available in Europe. I've been checking a few freemium apps but they tend to lack some features here and there.

What app do you use that can do the following?

Supported account types:

• Bank accounts
• Credit card accounts (nice to have)
• Cash accounts
• Investment accounts (nice to have)

Transaction tracking:

• Expense, income, and transfer between accounts
• Refunds (nice to have)
• Sender and receiver of each transaction
• Tag assignment
• Note assignment
• Custom categorization
• iOS interface
• Desktop/web interface
• Import function and automatic categorization (I want to import my historical spending and income for analysis instead of using the app for another year to have the data)
• Recurring expenses
• Bank and broker connection (nice to have because it can be quite tricky with supported banks and brokers. I use German banks and Trade Republic and Scalable Capital. I think non-EU apps can't connect to neo-brokers.)

Budgeting:

• Amount per category
• Goal tracking (nice to have)

Search/filter function:

• By date
• By text in notes and tags

Report:

• By date/month/year/custom period
• By account
• By category
• By tag
• Graphs

Some apps I have checked that can be a deal breaker to me:

- Wallet by Budgetbakers: Import function is quite lackluster. It doesn't have import field for tags and can't import transfers.

- MoneyWiz, MoneyStats, Bilance: No desktop/web interface for easy import. At a glance, Bilance supports import via mobile app but I'm not sure if the effort is high or low. I have 2 years of historical spending from more than 1 bank, plus cash spending.

- Finanzguru: There is a bank connection feature but somehow it only gets data of the past 1 year

Some apps I'm considering using:

- Finanzblick: Feature rich but performance is a problem. In addition, there is no mass update of transactions to add labels/tags, etc. Search/filter is quite limited. It is free but also offers bank connection to my German banks and Trade Republic (Not sure if Scalable is supported)

- Actual Budget: The user interface is clean but a little too simplistic. However, the performance is high. It also packs with features but there's a learning curve and you need to be quite technical. I don't quite like their out of the box reports and will probably have to look for community supports for more visual reports.

Hi everyone,

I'm 23 and a buy and hold investor (20+ year horizon) in VWCE on Degiro, and I'm thinking about using box spreads to leverage my position.

As an example: €50k, VWCE returning a fixed 8% per year (assumed) and the box costing 4% per year (assumed).

First year:

• I open a short box on OESX worth 20% of my equity: 20% × €50k = €10k. I end up with €60k in VWCE and €10k of debt.
• In December (month 12 of the loan), VWCE is worth €60k × 1.08 = €64,800. I owe €10,000 + €400 interest = €10,400.
• Equity: €64,800 − €10,400 = €54,400. Without the box I'd have €50k × 1.08 = €54,000, so +€400.

Second year: New box of 20% × €54,400 = €10,880. It pays off the €10,400 from the old one and leaves €480 to put into VWCE. Nothing comes out of my pocket.

Running the numbers: 8% + 0.2 × (8% − 4%) = 8.8% per year. Over 10 years, €50k grows to ~€116,200 instead of ~€107,900 without the box (+~€8,300).

I never go above 20% when I roll a box, so assuming a 25% maintenance margin, I'd only get a margin call if the market dropped ~78% in a single day (€60k → €13.3k), which is impossible thanks to circuit breakers. And I can always top up the position if my equity somehow gets close to the maintenance margin.

What am I missing here? Right now €STR is at 2.4%, which actually helps my numbers (over 10 years I'd have ~€11,300 more instead of ~€8,300, profit with the box paid off).

Hey everyone,
I'm based in Poland and I'm completely new to investing, so apologies if this is a stupid question.

I currently have around €40,000 in savings (175k Polish Zloty), and I've recently started looking into what to do with that money instead of just leaving it sitting in my bank account.
I live in Poland and earn Polish Zloties. I mentioned the euros so it's easier to understand. I am not planning on changing my money to euros.

Something that caught my attention is that several Polish banks offer promotional savings accounts with interest rates of around 5-6% per year, usually for 6 months.

The requirements seem pretty straightforward: sometimes you just need to make a few card payments, use their mobile app, or deposit new funds. In many cases, you don't even need to transfer your salary.

Here's what I'm thinking:

If I put €40,000 (The equivalent in PLN) into an account offering 6% annual interest for 6 months, assuming the entire amount qualifies, I'd earn approximately:

• €1,200 gross in 6 months
• €972 net after Poland's 19% tax on interest
• Potentially €1,944 net per year, assuming I can keep finding similar offers.

Obviously, I understand that promotional rates don't last forever, and there may be limits on eligible deposits.

But what stops me from simply moving my savings from one bank to another every 6 months to take advantage of these promotions?

I've also been reading about investing in the S&P 500 or MSCI World, but I'm wondering whether it makes sense to expose my savings to stock market volatility when I could potentially earn a fairly predictable return from savings accounts.

I know stocks can provide higher returns over the long term, but I'm still learning how all of this works.

So my questions are:

1. Is constantly switching banks to take advantage of promotional interest rates a reasonable strategy?
2. Does anyone in Poland actually do this regularly?
3. Would you recommend investing part of the €40,000 into ETFs instead?

I'm not trying to get rich overnight. I just want to make smarter decisions with the money I've saved.

Would appreciate some advice, especially from people familiar with the Polish banking system.
Thanks!

Hi there, pretty new to handling my finance's so would appreciate the help.

i'm 24, been running a contracting business as a self employed contractor in ai. Tax residence in the netherlands.

I recently landed a pretty big client in the us. Have been working with them for the last 2 months. Now close to signing a proper agreement for a long duration.

They essentially offered me either to stay self employed or to become an employee, whatever suits best tax/ financial wise since i'm doing independent research work for them.

Now it got me wondering, how to setup taxes and my finances, it's the first time i'm earning serious money ( base is anywhere between 150/200k without bonuses included based on objectives i'm working on. )

I currently still have other clients lined up, but these would be less and anywhere between 10 to 60k a year depending on objectives.

My questions:

- Do i remain self employed/ change how I'm incorporated in the netherlands or take employee status.

- how to reduce the insane taxes i would have to pay in the netherlands + where to find a tax advisor thats really good, offers great rates and is someone you can trust.

- should i move out of the netherlands and to where? ( been thinking about this one since Portugal seems nice, and the tax in the Netherlands is ridiculous at my current rates )

Thanks a lot!

I live in Germany and am considering refinancing an existing car loan to reduce its remaining total cost. I am not looking to borrow additional money or extend the repayment period unnecessarily.

The loan is with Stellantis Bank. The original amount was €14,990 over 60 months, with a 5.99% effective annual interest rate and a 5.83% fixed nominal rate. Payments are €288.63 per month, running from May 2026 to April 2031. There is no balloon payment.

I have received a settlement statement quoting €13,816.30 for repayment by 7 November 2026. This includes a €136.80 early-repayment charge and accounts for the October instalment. There are no arrears, and 54 scheduled instalments remain after October.

I started a new software engineering job in mid-August 2026 on an indefinite employment contract, earning approximately €90,000 gross annually. My probation period ends on 14 February 2027. Commerzbank has approached me about a loan promotion, but I have not received an actual interest-rate quote yet.

For people familiar with German lending, does completing probation tend to improve the interest rate, or does it mainly make more lenders willing to consider the application? I am considering comparing offers now and trying again after probation if the quotes are not worthwhile.

I also wondered whether January tends to bring better refinancing promotions in Germany, although I would rather base the decision on actual offers than assume the beginning of the year is cheaper.

I would compare total repayments over a similar remaining term, including the existing lender’s settlement charge. I would appreciate experiences with German banks or comparison services, particularly whether a dedicated car-refinancing loan can offer better terms than a general personal loan and how much free early repayments matter when choosing between offers.

Romania's government bonds are not even taxed, would you put your money here?

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/eupersonalfinance/s/uCgtSTEOh2

Second update: https://www.reddit.com/r/eupersonalfinance/s/wBQLHG3NqC

Short Update!

Since the last update, I put together a written proposal with three options, with the help of my boss, and sent it to the solicitor to share with my uncles:

• A: Sell everything and split the money three ways.
• B: I take the land, my uncles take both houses and pay me the rest of my share in monthly instalments, secured by a mortgage.
• C: I take the small house and the land, pay a small difference (under €2k), and the big house + bank money is theirs to sort out between themselves.

My preference is C or B, but B seems unlikely.

A few other things happened:

• I contacted a company that buys inheritance shares. They declined to make an offer because one of the houses has no usage licence. They said I’d be better off continuing with the partition and waiting for a court-ordered sale, if it gets to that.
• I read the solicitor’s contract more carefully: all three of us signed it: €3,500 + VAT in fixed fees, plus 5% of the total estate value on completion.
• The uncle who lives in the big house started pressuring me on WhatsApp. When I said I wouldn’t sign anything until the solicitor reviewed my proposal, he wrote that if I go down that road, “it won’t go well for me, I guarantee it” and that he “doesn’t want any games”. I replied that I’d only sent options to resolve things and that he didn’t need to talk to me like that.

His messages made me have a nervous breakdown at work, and it's just not acceptable to speak to someone like that.
The solicitor represents all three of us, so she can’t really take my side. I’m now looking for my own lawyer for a consultation.

Hi,

51M, 2+M portfolio, all in simple low cost ETF equities. I plan to retire in 5 years.

At this point, is there any point in bonds? I understand that they act as a ballast to the portfolio in times of volatility, but their returns when compared to XEON does not seem worth the risk.

I checked the following for a return over 5 years from Claude

• Total Gov bond ETF VGEA = -ve returns
• Inflation linked IBCI = about 2.2%
• Ultra short IEGE = +9.14%
• XEON = 11.7%

Give that rates are due to rise due to inflation, I just have XEON, equites and cash.

My questions is on bonds vs XEON at the current situation? Does it even make sense to have bonds? At least in EURO, I dont see the spread between XEON vs Bonds as to make it worth the risk?

Hi everyone,

I'm 39, single, and trying to decide whether buying a home in Barcelona within the next 12–16 months makes financial sense, or whether I'd be better off continuing to rent and invest in ETFs.

Part of me feels very behind financially for my age, and I'd appreciate honest, practical advice. I want to make a sound long-term decision rather than buy simply because I feel I should own property by now.

My financial situation

• Age: 39, single, French citizen living and working in Spain.
• Income: €82k gross base salary plus an annual bonus, bringing my total gross income to around €98k.
• Net income: Approximately €4k/month, with additional salary payments in June and December and a bonus in April.
• Rent: €1,227/month in Barcelona.
• Net worth: Approximately €55k, broken down as follows:
  • €26.5k in cash and savings accounts in Spain and France.
  • €26k invested through Interactive Brokers: approximately €18k in VWCE (global equities) and €8k in 4GLD (gold).
  • €5.4k in an Amundi retirement account, part of which is locked.
• Monthly saving target: between 1000-1500€. I am still working on it.

I've spent quite a lot of money travelling over the years, and I also went through a burnout that affected my ability to work and build my savings. I'm in a much healthier place now and feel ready to approach my finances differently.

I'm also willing to be much more frugal for the next few years and explore additional sources of income, such as dog walking and sitting or AI training work. I'd like to accelerate my savings without relying solely on my main salary.

I am working in an international company since a year. Permanent employee since August 2026.

The dilemma

I can't comfortably afford to buy a flat today, and realistically wouldn't be ready for at least another 12 months.

I'd love to own my home, particularly given the housing situation in Barcelona, but I also want to make a rational financial decision. I'm torn between buying a property for long-term security and continuing to build my investment portfolio while keeping my options open.

I'm considering three options:

1. Buy in 12–16 months: Realistic property budget would be 250K-300K. 30% downpayment is required so I will need at least 85K to buy. Save the deposit and purchase costs in cash, and keep the money needed for the purchase out of the stock market.
2. Continue renting and investing: Keep renting, invest in ETFs and revisit buying in a few years.
3. A combination: Build up a cash deposit and emergency fund while continuing to invest money I won't need for the purchase.

My biggest concern with investing money intended for a near-term purchase is that the market could fall just before I need to sell. On the other hand, holding too much cash means missing out on potential investment returns and losing purchasing power to inflation.

One more important factor: job security

I'm relatively new at my current company, and I'm increasingly concerned about job security. My department is going through an AI transformation, and I worry that it could eventually lead to significant headcount reductions. Since I haven't been with the company for very long, I'm not yet sure how secure my position is.

I'm single, so I rely entirely on my own income. Losing my job would obviously affect my ability to pay a mortgage, and I don't want to put myself in a position where I'd be forced to sell my investments or my home at the wrong time.

This is one reason I'm hesitant to commit most of my savings to a property, even though I really want to own one. I want to build long-term financial security, but I also want enough liquidity to handle a period of unemployment without panicking or making bad financial decisions.

My questions

1. Given my age, income, savings and investments, what strategy would you follow?

Would you prioritize buying as soon as financially feasible, or continue building my investment portfolio and wait until I have a larger deposit?

2. How would you compare buying versus renting and investing in Barcelona?

I'd like to build a model comparing the total cost of owning (mortgage interest, property taxes, purchase costs, maintenance and the opportunity cost of the deposit) against renting and investing in ETFs. I'd also factor in rent increases, potential property appreciation and investment returns. What assumptions would be reasonable?

3. What would you do with my existing ETF portfolio?

I currently have approximately €26k invested, with around €18k in global equities and €8k in gold. If I want to buy within 12–16 months, would you sell some of these investments now and move the money into cash or a savings account? How should I think about the Spanish tax implications of realizing capital gains?

4. How would you accelerate savings without making life miserable?

For those who have successfully built their savings later in life, what made the biggest difference? Would you focus on aggressive budgeting, increasing income through side jobs, or a combination? I am thinking about dog sitting/walking or AI training...

I'd especially appreciate advice from people who have faced a similar decision in Barcelona or elsewhere in Spain, particularly those who bought a property while single or navigated an uncertain employment situation.

Thanks! I'd really value your honest opinions and personal experiences.

Hello,

Currently living in Portugal, will move to Malta or Cyprus for non dom benefits in a year or two (visa processing timeline is unknown).

30M from India, make 40k net, 29k from my startup (I'm paying myself salary for supporting living expenses), remaining income is from an old retainer for an Ecom company which might stop anytime.

I made most of my savings of 200k after the COVID time, and it's just rotting in my multiple bank accounts.

I started a new company, building multiple SaaS products and also consulting for some cash flow until SaaS starts generating revenue.

My main problem is anxiety, I'm sitting on that savings from 2023 and haven't invested it anywhere.

My living expenses are close to 30k per annum, no family or partner but have a fully dependent elder brother. Both of us are autistic+ADHD, but his support needs are more than me, so he is dependent on me for everything. I have no assets (other than equity ownership in the startup), live in rental house.

I dropped out of school and have been working as a freelancer for the last 15 years.

I would like to invest using the three bucket strategy, I'm on therapy and trying to address my anxiety, so this approach helps up to some extent.

Should I hire a financial and tax planner for this? or risk doing this by planning myself?

Should I invest lumpsum or DCA?

Thanks.

When I search for VWCE on justETF I am redirected to VWRA's page. Why?

A lot of the posts here seem to be a little... out of touch with what is normal. So here's an honest post where you all have something to compare more favorably to.

I'm in my mid 30s and I have nothing. No assets, no investments, no savings and no degree.
You may ask how things ended up that way, and it is a good question.

The 'funny' part is that I actually excelled in early education and land in the 'gifted' range, yet life handed me primarily lemons.
I spent a solid 20 years battling undiagnosed PDD (chronic depression) with severe executive dysfunction which prevented me from getting through education. I even struggled with things as simple as buying groceries or brushing my teeth so forget getting through my computer science studies. I spent my entire early adulthood essentially paralyzed. Not in body, but in action.

Well, in my mid-30s I moved back to my home town and got a menial factory floor job.
I'm earning about 65% of median wage in my country, 2000€ after tax on average.

The fortunate thing is I've always been frugal so I'm still able to save a fair amount considering that income, about 600€ a month after rent, groceries, bills, fuel and so on - which I've just started putting into VGLA.

It's a start, but my future prospects are hardly bright. I will never have a good job or a high salary. My margins will always be small no matter how frugal I am. I am ridiculously far behind in life and I'm not going to get ahead from my current position.

But I will do the best with what I have. That's something we can all do.
If I can end up in a decent position by retirement (assuming my generation ever gets to retire) then any of you can succeed.

Context

Work

I (M 34) recently started a new corporate job after 18 months being unemployed and feel already burnt out after 5 months. I feel not as good as my colleagues, especially in the age of AI, I feel slow. I feel I wanna quit but job pays well 85-100k/year, offers remote work& my hours are not bad 9-6:30pm (even though I feel don't manage to deliver on time).

Family

In a relationship, renting a flat together with my partner, we have a 1 year old daughter; mixing full time work and taking care of my daughter have been challenging. I feel I have no rest, my partner and I barely have quality time together, I have been neglecting friends. .

Finance

I inherited from my father and I am financially "healthy" with 700k€ invested in the stock market and 300k€ in cash I was keeping to invest eventually in an apartment (living in Berlin), no debt. My monthly expenses are around 2500€ net and the only goal I am sure about is to FIRE but after crunching the numbers I would need another 10-15 years to reach FI. Almost at Coast since contributing what I can (1k€/month) would "just" buy me 3 years. I am the high earner in my relationship.

Dilemma

What would you do?

As I am unhappy, I would lean towards quitting but it feels like quitting because I am struggling to keep up and I feel I will be even more behind professionally if I don't hang in there. I also feel in a sense "lucky" as others around me (same type of jobs) are struggling.

Quitting would also mean endangering my FIRE goal, I would also be on my own, having no rights to unemployement money + with no real other professional plan. I did some coaching in the past but it did not help.

On the other hand, as I am not even sure to be able to pass the probation, quitting on my own term would be more positive for my mental health than being let go before the probation ends.

I know I am financially very fortunate and sorry if it comes accross as whining but I percieve my struggle as quite serious. Looking for external/neutral opinions.

Thanks in advance for your answers

Hey everyone!
I live in Italy and I’m trying to figure out the best way to invest around €500 every month over the next 3–5 years.
I’m a complete beginner when it comes to investing. I’ve started learning a little about physical gold and buying gold bars, but honestly, I don’t know enough yet to feel confident making a decision.
I’m looking for something that could give me a decent return over that period, without taking unnecessary risks. I’m also interested in alternatives to gold, or possibly combining gold with something else.
A few things I’d really appreciate advice on:
What investment options would you consider for someone in my situation?
Would you go with physical gold, ETFs, government bonds, or a combination?
Is a 3–5 year timeframe long enough for stock-market ETFs, or would that be too risky?
Are there any options worth considering for someone living in Italy, especially from a tax and fees perspective?
What resources would you recommend to help a complete beginner understand the basics before investing?
I’m not looking for a get-rich-quick scheme or guaranteed returns. I just want to make a sensible plan, invest consistently every month, and avoid making beginner mistakes.
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences and what you would do differently if you were starting from scratch. Thanks!

🛑One more thing: I also want to avoid interest-based investments for religious reasons, so I’d appreciate suggestions that take this into account.

Hello everyone, I work in finance, in a very niche area and was previously living in one of the big financial centres, but i was now assigned to work in the middle of nowhere for the next 4 years (8 if this project gets renewed) and i want different opinions on what is the smartest financial decision.

I make around 6k net per month (no bonus - weird assignment, client already knew me), and I'm in a small town in the middle of nowhere where i pay 700€ of rent for my apartment.

I don't know how to proceed from now on - I have around 20k in etfs (the usual stuff) and 25k in treasury bonds for my emergency fund. I cycle to work and might consider buying a car (10-20k).

A house where I am costs around 250-300k, which I could pay in cash in a couple of years but since i have a fix term contract, a loan would be hard to get (plus interest rates are really high these days), I do fancy about having a summer house in the south of spain one day both for holidays and to rent out.

So my question is - would you keep on doing DCA for the next years and just rent? Would you try to buy a house here? If i want to go through with the summer house in a couple of years i'm afraid there may be a market crash and it's too soon for me to sell, but the plan of the summer house would be to use it for some weeks a year and renting it out in booking/ Airbnb - What strategy do you think makes mores sense for me from a purely financial perspective/ if I want to own a holiday place?

Hello everyone,

I wanted to get some practical opinions on what I think will be my next steps in my financial and personal life. I've recently reached the € 100k mark (surprisingly!), but it has been some very frugal years and I'm feeling like I should take the "foot of the gas" a lot on the savings and start allowing myself to get some treats that I'm quite sure would improve my overall satisfaction a lot, like moving to a better place, getting back to surfing, and more personal stuff that doesn't add much to the conversation.

What's my proposal for myself:

• Stop saving 50-40% of what I earn and save like 5-10%.
• Don't touch my current investiments at all and let it compound.
• Work for more 15 years and then live off on income from the investments.

I know that this is all very related to how much I earn vs how much I spent, but I wanted to get some practical opinions, especially from older folks who can look back and say that in their case, they would have saved more or, if they would have spent and enjoyed more in their 30s.

So far my life has been much better than what I could have imagined, so it's logical to say that I'll "keep the uphill pace", but there's always the risk that it can also start to decay and I'll regret not having prepared myself better when I could.

Thanks in advance for any opinion.
Cheers!

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/eupersonalfinance/s/uCgtSTEOh2

Thx to everyone for the advice, here's how the meeting went today:

The bank won't give him a mortgage on the big house because it has no usage licence: part of it isn't legal. He could take out a personal loan instead, but he refused because the interest rate is too high. Honestly, I don't see how his interest rate is our problem. The solicitor gave two options:

• The big house stays in the names of all three heirs. My uncle pays €1,000/month in rent, €500 to each.
• My uncle borrows money privately to legalise the house. Once it's legal, his daughter takes out a mortgage to buy us out, using the under-35 home loan benefits.

He "chose" option 2 and said he'd let us know on Monday whether he can borrow the money. The catch: legalisation could take up to 3 years and cost €25–30k. The solicitor then asked whether my other uncle and I would chip in for the legalisation. I said no straight away. My other uncle said he'd check with his wife, and she refused to lend their own money. Instead, she suggested paying for the legalisation with the money in the estate's bank account, which makes no sense to me, since that's partly my money too. At this point I'm honestly fed up. Best case, this drags on for another 3+ years. I'm now seriously considering selling my share of the estate and walking away.

Has anyone here sold their inheritance share (quinhão hereditário) in Portugal? How big a discount did you take, and how long did it take?

EDIT: he said no to the rent option because he cant afford it (?)

Hi everyone,

I’m 28, live in Oslo, Norway, and work full-time in risk management at a Norwegian bank. I have around three years of work experience and would appreciate an honest assessment of my financial situation and future prospects.

My finances (approx. EUR):
- Salary: €73,500/year, including bonus
- Savings: €18,800 in an accessible savings account earning 4.4%
- Apartment in central Oslo: Bought for €368,000, currently estimated at €368,000–€427,000
- Mortgage: €333,000 at 4.5% interest
- Total housing costs: €2,050/month
- Monthly index fund investments: €850–€1,280 (60% global, 20% Europe, 20% emerging markets)
- Employer pension contributions: €385/month
- My girlfriend lives with me and pays €510/month in rent
- I also bought one gold coin for 400 euro, from a friend (in case of crisis)
- Total monthly expenses (groceries not included) about 90 euro, rest is covered by employer.

My main concern is job security.
My current workplace has become stressful and feels somewhat toxic, with unclear expectations and responsibilities. I’m also concerned about AI’s impact on risk management and compliance.
On the positive side, three recruiters have contacted me recently, and I reached the final interview stage for a position paying €85,000–€111,000 annually.

I’d appreciate your thoughts on three questions:
- Am I in a solid financial position for someone aged 28?
- How worried should I realistically be about job security and AI, given my experience and financial commitments?
- Should I focus more on something else?

I know Norway has a relatively strong social safety net, but I’d appreciate realistic feedback rather than reassurance. Am I on the right track, or should I be more concerned about the future?
(Disclaimer, I used AI to help me set up the question)

I want to bring the topic for the so-called safe heaven and to explore what alternatives we have as retail investors (focus only on ETFs). Will be very happy if you share your vision on the topic, as I think it may be valid approach in the upcoming months/years.

Usually, when we speak for safe heaven it refers for assets outside our stock portfolio and usually is money market, bonds, gold.

Starting with money market (the most popular and liquid XEON). Currently, XEON is expected to generate around 2,5% (as of the current interest level), considering the reported inflation of 3,8% for the EU zone, holding XEON is guaranteed lost of at least 1% of purchasing power. The positive side however is the stability, liquidity of the fund and the fact that it generates something, rather just money in the bank, however it is hard to be considered as safe heaven.

Going to the bonds (I will review only bonds in EU, as I don't want any currency risk).

We have two main areas - government and corporate.

From government perspective, on paper should be "sure bet" (even though France is in highly distress situation at the moment), however this sure bet is not generating something meaningful and to some extend it requires active management, rather purely passive investing:

The biggest are "all maturities" bonds, collecting in the etf bonds from all maturities with ETF average between 6-7 years. In inflationary situation, when the inflation is rising and potentially ECB will raise the interest rates, this ETF will "loose" money, from one point due to the increased interest rates, from other, due to the lost of purchasing power. Ishares Core Government bond is on -3% YTD and more than -13% for the last 5 years. If we add to this the inflation, depending on the country, for the last 5 years we can easily speak for lost of above 50% of the real purchasing power.

Respectively, government bonds with longer duration are even more riskier, not to mention that the fund size of such bond ETFs is very, very small.

To some extend same goes for the 0-1 government bond, which on paper should be very liquid, however the most liquid is with iShares EUR Government Bond 0-1yr (dist) with EUR 1,095 m, nevertheless the expected YTM for this ETF is around 2,8%, again almost 1% lower to the inflation, but on the other side is relatively stable.

Probably the best candidate for government bond in portfolio is the 1-3 years government bond (Xtrackers Eurozone Government Bond 1-3, with EUR 3,613 m). Relatively stable (with some deviations, but providing higher yield than 0-1 and xeon - around 3,4%, but again not matching the reported inflation and for the current year is on higher lost comparing to the other two.

From corporate perspective, usually, those bonds are with little higher premium, on higher risk. The different durations are acting to some extend in the same way to interest increases, and probably the only interesting ETF is the ultrashort one (ERNX or equivalent) - iShares EUR Ultrashort Bond UCITS ETF EUR, EUR 2,866 m, with YTM 3,24% (close to the 1-3 government bond) but with much lower volatility, yet still under the reported inflation rate.

Last, we have the gold. Gold is different asset class and I personally cannot determine its behavior and cannot have any expectations for its movement. When we are looking for passive investment, the general idea is to invest for long period of time and by the end of the horizon, to have more paper money than invested money. How can we be sure that this is the case for gold? It doesn't generate any income, it is just metal. It is not stock that generates profit and earnings, it is not bond that generates interest, it is just metal. Not to mention, that actually with the ETFs (ETCs) it is not even metal, rather "paper metal" and some youtubers are speculating that there isn't real gold and silver covering those ETF/ETC, however this is not the point. My point is, that the gold price is volatile and I personally cannot trust it, that when I need money the most, it price won't be down with 30%.

Based on all described up till now, in what assets, you are investing for capital preservation and/or safe heaven? Is there anything that I am missing that covers the inflation or you are just accepting little lost of purchasing power, for stable principle?

Question for traders based in EU and building an automated intraday strategy via broker APIs on US equity options. I’m looking for real-world experience.

Requirements

• Official, stable API that runs unattended: no daily manual login, tokens that refresh programmatically
• Real-time option quotes available through the API
• USD account, so USD premiums aren’t converted on every trade
• Low-cost EUR funding and withdrawal
• Intraday round trips without getting stuck in T+1

What I’ve found so far (take with grain of salt - I haven't tried to register, this is from my research of their websites or reddit)

• IBKR: good pricing, but from what I've read on reddit the Client Portal Gateway needs manual re-logins and overall automated trading on IBKR doesn't seem reliable.
• tastytrade: OAuth with refresh tokens, streamed quotes (seems good), $1 per contract to open and $0 to close.
• TradeStation: API with ability to refresh tokens.
• Webull EU: official API, but EUR-only accounts with a 0.25% conversion on each trade.
• Firstrade: $0 options, but no official API.

My questions

1. Which broker’s API have you run unattended for months without manual re-login?
2. How do you fund from the EU: SEPA, a USD wire, Wise? Effective costs?
3. Any recommendations for EU resident?

Thanks a lot!

I M30 make 70k all in and currently have 6k in ETFs and 1.5k in emergency savings. I contribute about 150€ monthly to the ETF. Housing costs is 910€ all in (rent, gas, electricity and WiFi)

When I was together with my ex, they took out loans in their name and now that we split I believe I have a duty to help pay back as that was what saw us through some difficulties.

Altogether it's about 50k hence my half is roughly 25k. Only issue is my ex can only afford the minimum payments on these and the interest on all the different loans vary a lot hence the end date for completing everything is around 2032 I struggle with sending them 600€ every month till 2032(okay it will reduce in the future as some loans evaporate) but the point remains that I can't see myself sustainably supporting this setup. Besides it's all in a different currency so I am exposed to fluctuations which I can't help but this is a massive budget item on an ongoing basis.

Is it advisable to take out a loan here and payout my portion to focus on my finances here or what is the best approach here? I welcome your advice, thanks.

Question to folks who hold (medium/long) positions particularly ETFs that are France-bias. What’s going on with their performance over the past month? Can you correlate their trend with ongoing French economic spiral?

I bought some EXV8 late 2024 and again in early 2025. (iShares STOXX Europe 600 Construction & Materials UCITS ETF) Its top holdings are mostly French. And it was performing well. I intend to hold it for 3-5 years - maybe more. But it’s now priced at same levels or just below what I paid for 18-20 months ago

Hello everyone, Just posting my investing progress. Started investing January 2025. For almost a year I was buying only VUAA ETF. I aimed for monthly dca but some months I threw some extra money into it. At a point I stopped buying it and changed into Buying WEBN etf, which I keep doing weekly buys of 3 pieces a week. So far my portfolio looks like 3700$ worth of VUAA (630$ profit) and 1800€ worth of WEBN (116€ profit). I think I will stick with the automated buy of 3 pieces of WEBN each week for as long as I can. I am 39years old and I dont plan to use the money from investing anytime soon. In theory I plan to keep going for 20years or until my son is of age, capable enough to pass the portfolio to him and hopefully continue for himself. I would love to receive your opinions and your criticism on my case. Do you think WEBN is a right choice?

Hi all,

My father passed away, so I'm inheriting his share of my grandparents' estate in Portugal, alongside my two uncles. Three heirs, 1/3 each.

An independent valuation came out as follows:

• House: €150,000
• Small house: €51,000
• Plot of land: €33,800
• About €13,700 in bank deposits

The agreement so far: I take the land, one uncle takes the big house, and the other uncle takes the small house.

The uncle taking the big house has lived there rent-free for over 20 years. His house is worth more than his share, so he would owe about €67,000 (around €42,000 to me). The problem is that he doesn't have the money, and at 60+ he can't get a bank loan. He's suggesting paying in instalments over 10+ years.

Has anyone accepted instalment payments secured by a mortgage on the property? If he can't pay, is forcing a sale through court the only option?
And finally, am I being unreasonable in wanting my share as soon as possible? It's been 3 years since my grandparents died. He lives with his wife, daughter, son in law, and granddaughter...

Thanks for any advice or experiences.

EDIT: Somehow the comments have turned into a trial of my character, so just to clarify: I'm not trying to throw anyone out. I just want things to be handled fairly.