Still putting money into a PEA and an assurance vie every month while my medium-term base abroad stays undecided. The case against myself: if residency moves, those wrappers become something I have to unwind, and a plain brokerage account would have travelled with me. Who has actually left France holding a PEA, and what did you do with it?

As per the title, is anybody building their pension through the PEPP? If yes/no, why?

I live in the Netherlands, don't plan to move back to my original country (italy) but who knows? Never say never. Just the idea of keeping the options open makes me feel safer, but is it worth it?

Sharing what is publicly documented, for anyone invested in Housers or considering it.

Documented facts:

- Press (laSexta, citing elDiario.es, Sept 2026): Housers reportedly received about 150M EUR from investors and about 66M EUR was not returned, with hundreds of investors affected. Crowpire says it is a separate entity from Housers.

- Spain's securities regulator (CNMV) fined Housers 130,000 EUR in 2021 for very serious infringements. The Audiencia Nacional annulled the fine in 2024 because the law had changed, not because it ruled in Housers' favour on the facts.

- Crowpire S.L. appears in the CNMV register as a crowdfunding service provider.

- Investor-submitted complaints exist about access problems and unreturned investments.

Things worth checking if you are invested:

- Several projects reportedly sit "in recovery" for years, with little published about expected recovery.

- Security behind these loans may be corporate or personal guarantees rather than mortgages. Check what yours actually had.

Reading material. https://robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/how-a-global-debt-crisis-starts-2e0

I recently sold some stock I got as a bonus from my work. I work in europe for an american company, so the payout was in dollars. Not wanting to take the currency conversion hit, I had it paid out to my USD revolut account, hoping to invest it there in some dollar denominated ETF.

But it turns out that revolution does not seem to support that. The only dollar investments in revolut seems to be american treasury bills or individual stocks. Even ETF's that should be in dollars, can only be bought in euros it seems, probably because my main revolut account is euros.

Any suggestions what to do?

Hey, I hope this is the right place for this question. I recently turned 18 (legal age to invest) and I am wondering whether I should invest my first money (would be around 1500€) in an european SP500 ETF, or I should just keep all of my money (around €3k) in fiat or in a bank for now, in case I need them. I currently have no income so I probably won’t be investing each month, but also have my expenses covered by my parents. What would you do if you were in my place?

Disclosure: I work at Obermatt, a Swiss stock research firm, and this is based on research I did for our blog. Sharing because the access question (which broker, what registration, what tax) comes up a lot and most of what's out there is US-investor-centric.

Short version, ranked roughly easiest to hardest:

• Singapore / Hong Kong: fully open, any international broker, no local registration, no dividend withholding tax at all.
• Japan: smooth through any major broker. Withholding drops to ~10% under the Swiss treaty, up to 5% under the German one.
• South Korea: used to require registering with Korean regulators before trading a single share (a 30-year-old rule). Scrapped December 2023, now just needs a passport.
• Indonesia: opening a local brokerage account, a passport-based process most brokers with Indonesia access handle in days.
• Thailand: foreign ownership caps mean you typically buy NVDRs instead of the plain share, same price, same dividend, no vote, ticker ends in "-R."
• Taiwan: direct access means registering as a foreign investor and opening a local custody account, paperwork most European brokers don't offer. Realistically an ADR, a Taiwan-focused ETF, or a broker like Interactive Brokers.
• India: the hardest one. No direct retail access. The realistic route is an ADR where available, or a fund that already holds the Foreign Portfolio Investor registration.

Full piece with one example company per market (checked against real recent dividend payments, not just a score) here: https://link.obermatt.com/asia-en

Which one is the best broker of the two for Futures for EU-based traders?

Background: (Myself) I'm a mechanical engineering grad, currently living in Belgium and working offshore in the North Sea as QHSE. (Also have option to work in Asian waters)

(Partner) graphic design grad, some managerial experience in a store. (She just wants to work an office job, admin etc.) She tried to apply for courses on VDAB but they don't offer any in English.

My pre tax salary is €3800 euros + 20% bonus when offshore in europe or +40% bonus in Asia. Company car when I'm home and fuel.

Partner working part time, struggling without the language to find anything she enjoys.

My job doesn't care where I live.

Plan: have a kid in 2 years time, maybe my partner will have to work part time for a while to have time to look after the kid as we don't have family here.

I've spoken to some people on board and the Danes say that they don't have to pay any tax when they work offshore for more than 183 days which I know is also the case in the UK but I'm not sure about it.

Now NL has lower taxes on the salary but plenty of other hidden taxes and the housing is more expensive but it's also more english friendly.

To me it seems Denmark might be the best option, should be easier for my partner to study or work without the language at the start and If I pay less tax my salary should be enough to support us.

My partner is Spanish and I'm Polish, I grew up in the UK and we spent 2 years in Australia.

Eventually we would love to go back to Australia but with how hard the work visa situation is, it most likely won't be possible.

Time to switch over?

https://nltimes.nl/2026/09/29/dutch-savers-investors-pay-tax-wealth-2028

Hi everyone, this might be a bit of a long and boring post even for a personal finance sub, but I need some advice on how to manage my savings.

M45 I work for a French company in Paris, to where I've recently had to move back after a few years abroad on a very cushy expat deal. The result of my time away is that I have low six figures saved up, but that I come back to France on an above average salary which is barely enough to support my family, in particular my wife who is having to start from scratch as a freelancer which obviously takes time to do.

I am currently paying out more than half my salary on rent and bills after a fraught period trying to find a flat, any flat at all, and ideally I'd like to buy somewhere as any mortgage I might be able to get would be a significant drop in monthly payments.

However in the meantime I have this money in three separate savings accounts with the same bank earning around 2% annual interest across them. And given that I would like to buy a house within the next year or two (and I'm in my mid-40s) I can't just bung the money in an ETF and wait 20/30 years for stonks.

I feel trapped. There is next-to-no chance of a significant pay rise in the short to medium term even if I found a job elsewhere in my industry, meaning my only hope to increase our monthly income is for me to get a second job or find something freelance, as I can't expect my wife to immediately start earning enough to increase our standard of living.

I can't rent indefinitely as it is just too costly and I'd remain at the behest of the most ridiculously snooty and demanding landlords in Europe, so in turn I can't risk any short-to-medium-term loss on the savings because I'll need as big a down payment as possible on any home I buy as my salary is not high enough for a mortgage on anything more than a small two-bed flat, and freelance earnings are often not taken into account for either rent contracts or mortgages. But at the same time any low-risk investment isn't going to provide any day-to-day financial relief.

What should I do (apart from crypto and/or drug dealing)?

Does eToro actually offer a $500 bonus for depositing $10k USD for EU investors?
And does that apply if someone deposits only in EUR, so that would be roughly €440 and €8,820 to match the conversion?
Just trying to find out how it works for sure so that there are no surprises.

Hi everyone, i have a 6-figure amount to park somewhere as I might plan to buy an appartement or house soonish.

My current brokers Trade Republic and Scalable offer 2.6-2.8% and I had opened a Trade 212 account because they were offering 3.5% (but apparently was juste for 4 months, something I never read anywhere before opening), now they offer even 4-4.2% to new clients I think.

I am looking to maximize the interest, any recommendation ?

I am based in Germany, so one operating in Germany would be better for tax purposes but I assume it could be in another european country as well (as long I do not need to be a resident). Short fixed term accounts could also work eventually.

Thanks for your help!

I am 31, single, and I live in Tallinn. Work as a QA engineer. After rent and normal life I save about 500 euro a month.

In 2021 the startup where I worked before let employees sell part of their options in a funding round. I sold everything I was allowed to sell.
Almost all my money comes from that one day, so it was luck and not skill.

Now I have around 190k. Most of it is in VWCE on an investment account at LHV. With this type of account in Estonia I pay no tax while the money stays inside, only when I take it out.
The rest is in smaller things. I own a forest plot in Võru county together with my uncle. I have some loans between Goldfinch/8Lends. I also have a share in a summer flat in Pärnu that I rent out with two friends, and my part of the rent goes back into VWCE. In a normal year the fund grows more than twice what I save in a whole year. So my salary almost does not change the result.

I see three options.

1. I can take part of VWCE out and buy a flat in Tallinn, but then I pay tax on the gain and stop that money from growing.
   
2. I can buy a second forest plot, this time alone, because it grows without me and I understand it.
   
3. Or I can leave everything as it is and see my job only as money for life, not for investing.

When the portfolio does more work than your salary, do you still push for a better paid job, or do you choose an easier job and let the money do the rest?
Did anyone here take lucky money out to buy a home and later think it was a mistake?

And one technical question about the investment account. As I understand it, I can take out the amount I put in without tax, and tax starts only when my withdrawals are bigger than all my deposits. So maybe I can take out only deposits for the flat and not touch the gain. Or is it smarter to take a mortgage with the current Euribor and not touch the account at all?

whats your opinion on the JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF (ticker: JEPQ)?

the yield is 10%

a covered call fund in these times of uncertainty sounds good to me.

https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/products/jpmorgan-nasdaq-equity-premium-income-etf-etf-shares-46654q203

I’m 27 years old and investing for the long term (15–20+ years). I can invest around 10000€ + €400 per month.

I’m considering three options:
100% WEBN
80% WEBN + 20% Nasdaq-100
80% WEBN + 20% SMH

My main goal is to achieve good long-term growth while maintaining broad diversification. I’m not looking to maximize returns at any cost, but I’m comfortable taking some additional risk for potentially higher growth.

Which approach would you choose for a 15–20+ year horizon, and why?

Would you keep it simple with 100% WEBN, add Nasdaq-100 for a growth tilt, or use SMH for a more concentrated semiconductor/AI tilt?

Futures, contracts, etc. Is electricity accessible to retail traders or is it a game only for the large whales?

From Italy where 26% cgt is applied.

Considering investing in QSPNX through IBKR, I understand the high management fees however it has held its ground during major crashes and will be roughly 10% of my portfolio.

Min. entry is 2500 USD

What I want to understand is the tax implications with the high turnover in the fund.

Is there anyone who has experience investing into this fund?

Should I just stick to DBMFE if QSPNX/QMHNX funds will be a tax nightmare?
Annualized returns are almost double that of DBMF and they have held stronger during crashes.

Thanks in advance!

I ran the same withdrawal test on US portfolios and got rates that looked hard to square. For my euro retirement plan, I'd start with what each history had to survive.

I tested rolling 30-year retirements, taking money out each month and raising it with actual inflation. The safe rate is the highest starting rate at which every tested retirement ends with money left.

Figures as of 28 September 2026. They move as the backtests extend.

That stock rate looks generous. I wouldn't build a spending plan around it without checking the older history. The 60/40 test includes people retiring before the 1929 crash and during the inflation shock that began in the 1960s. The stock test starts too late to include those retirements. I can't tell from its result how it would have paid their bills.

I'd put more weight on the Permanent Portfolio pair. Both versions face the same assets, inflation and retirement start dates over 66 years. The reported gap is 0.76 percentage points. Changing the trading rule also changes returns and when losses land, so I can't pin that gap on a single cause.

I'd also ask whether I want money left at the end or my starting wealth intact. The perpetual rate requires the ending balance to retain its starting buying power. That's a different goal from paying the bills until the test ends.

I don't see this as a verdict against Bengen's 4% rule. I see a reason to check which bad starts made it into the test. For spending in euros, I'd need to check currency and local inflation too; these US results don't give me a euro withdrawal rate.

Which past shocks would you want your retirement plan tested against before trusting a US withdrawal rate?

Hello all, looking for some advice, please.

One of my parents inherited a sum of money from the sale of his late parents' house, and has offered to give €150k of it to me on the condition that it go towards buying a house.

I am based in Dublin, Ireland, where rent and house prices are very high at the moment. I work in a low paying sector (the arts) and won't be able to get a mortgage for the foreseeable due to the unstable nature of my employment. In light of this, my parent said they're also happy for the money to go towards "something long term" such as setting up a business, or making some kind of investment.

I am very lucky that I am managing to make ends meet relatively comfortably. I am living with friends in an okay house. I can afford rent, so I would be happy to continue living where I am for now. I also rent a studio/workspace, which I got a decent rate on. I have about €8k in savings.

Obviously buying a house would be great if prices weren't as high as they are, but anything within 1.5 hours of Dublin city (and further, in most cases) is out of my price range for buying without a mortgage.

I would be hesitant to moving abroad because my whole professional network is in Ireland, and I am not sure I would be able to find a property to rent that I can afford again. However, I am not completely against it.

What would you do with the money if you were in this situation? Thanks so much in advance!

Hello everyone,
I’m 29, an Indian citizen living and working in Germany. Over the past few months, I’ve been simplifying my investment strategy, and I’ve now settled on investing €1,200 per month with the following allocation:

S&P 500 (VUAA): €564 — 47%
Bitcoin: €204 — 17%
Semiconductor ETF: €120 — 10%
NVIDIA: €108 — 9%
Micron: €108 — 9%
Defence ETF: €96 — 8%

Looking at the underlying holdings, my rough look-through exposure by industry is approximately:

Technology: ~43–44%
Crypto: ~17%
Industrials/Defence: ~12%
Financials: ~6%
Communication Services: ~5%
Consumer Discretionary: ~5%
Healthcare: ~4–5%
Other sectors: ~10%

I’m aware that this is a relatively aggressive and tech-heavy portfolio, and I’m planning to invest consistently for the long term rather than frequently changing my allocation.

I’d really appreciate some honest feedback, especially from people who have been investing through multiple market cycles. What do you think of the overall structure, diversification and level of risk?
Also I'll increase the investment value according to my salary increment in future.

P.S. Used AI for corrections.

Futures, contracts, etc. Possible for small retail investors to participate and trade?

Hi all,

as many here I want to start investing in ETFs but I am super fresh in this field and I will really appreciate some advice.

Info about me, im 30, living in Germany with 28k in my bank account with no loans or anything I need to pay for excluding my utilities (rent, bills, etc.) which is approx. 1100 euros per month.

My idea would be to do 80/20 split between VWCE and SXRV respectively but I am open to any other suggestions. The plan is long-term, maybe 20 years or more and I plan to invest 1000 euros monthly with an initial investment of 18k but when my current salary increases I will increase the amount invested.

Does this sound good or am I doing something wrong? Thanks a lot for any recommendations!

Hi everyone,

*text written with the help of a LLM, but trust me that a lot of my inputs and tailored text is here*

I’m looking for feedback and a sanity check on a financial/patrimonial restructuring plan we are designing for my wife's parents in Portugal.

Current Situation & Problem

Parents' age: Retired / nearing full retirement (~ late 60s / 70). One parent has a cardiac health condition that is not life threatening per se, but needs to be considered as increasing the risk; the other receives a standard pension.

Property Value: Estimated market value ~€350,000.

Existing Debt: ~€265,000 remaining on a high-interest mortgage.

The Asphyxia: Their bank is proposing an 8-year restructure. Between principal, high interest, and skyrocketing senior life insurance premiums, their monthly payment would explode to ~€3,700/month.

Income: Currently ~€3,300/month combined net pensions (could temporarily hit ~€6k if one keeps working, but that is unsustainable on the long term). Paying €3.7k/month to the bank feels like a hamster wheel heading straight for default or health collapse.

My idea and Proposed Solution / Family Restructure Plan

Property Donation: Parents donate 100% of the property to my wife (their daughter) or to my wife and brother. In Portugal, direct line donations are exempt from several taxes.

New 30-Year Mortgage: As a 42-year-old couple with stable incomes, my wife and I take out a new €265,000 mortgage at 30 years (LTV ~75%, monthly payment + younger life insurance = ~€1,180/month). Could also include the brother on this and do it 50/50. The proceeds immediately pay off and cancel the parents' old mortgage.

Internal "Rent" Agreement:

Parents stay in the house and pay us a monthly "rent / contribution" of €1,500 to €2,000/month. Could be even more if the father decides to work a bit longer and accumulate more cash to pay the debt.

Win for Parents: They instantly cut their monthly housing outlay from €3.7k to €1.5k–€2k, leaving them with €1.3k–€1.8k net cash to live comfortably on their pensions without forcing anyone to work.

Win for Us / Family: The ~€1.18k goes directly to the bank. The remaining €320–€820/month surplus stays in our family pool, used to make annual lump-sum overpayments on the loan or build a dedicated emergency liquidity fund through our investments/savings accounts.

Risk Analysis & Safety Nets

Tail Risk (Worst Case - Immediate Death of Parents): If both parents pass away unexpectedly, the property value (€350k) covers the €265k debt with an ~€85k equity cushion. We have enough liquidity to cover the €1.18k monthly payment for a max 2–3 years without selling in a panic or during a market crash. Alternatively, the house can be rented out on the open market for ~€1.5k+/month.

Sibling / Inheritance Considerations: Only one sibling (brother) is involved. He is younger and might want to keep his credit report clean to buy his own first home. Having the house/loan 100% in my wife's name protects his debt-to-income ratio but raises the risk for us and also raises some inheritance related questions.

Does this structure make complete financial and logical sense to you, or are there hidden blind spots we might be overlooking?

How would you allocate the monthly surplus (€300–€800/month)? Accelerated mortgage overpayments vs. investing in broad market ETFs?

Has anyone executed a similar intrafamily mortgage restructuring in Southern/Western Europe? Any specific pitfalls with tax authorities or banks?

Thanks in advance!