On this page I will publish the findings of my research towards index investing (with Vanguard) for Europeans and The Dutch in particular.
Disclaimer: I am not a professional investor nor do I claim to be one. You are solely responsible for your own financial and investment choices. I am not responsible for inaccurate information in any of my blog posts. I am merely sharing ideas and findings of my very amateurish investigation on index investing.
I wrote a guest post for JL Collins called Index Investing with Vanguard for Europeans.
EconoWiser 
I am very interested to read your findings. Been reading up on a lot of ERE, MMM, Jcol and the likes lately and am very curious as to how I can implement investing in Vanguard in the Netherlands. Will keep a close eye on your blog.
Hi Tim! Welcome! If you click on the “investing” category on my blog you’ll find lots of posts on my research.
Hi Mrs Econowiser!
This is Ruben from Spain. I´m also very interested in index investing from Europe, particulary from Spain. So far i have some Vaguard VI shares, but the cost of keeping the account plus tax leaking is prohibitive!!!
Regards and congs for your blog!
Hi Ruben, welcome!
Yeah, the tax leakage is a pain in the butt! The EU has been trying to do something about this since 2004…but they haven’t managed to convice member states just yet…
Index investing is becoming more and more popular in Europe, so there have got to be brokers who will pick up on this and start offering index investing opportunities at lower costs.
It’s too much of a hassle. And we also pay more (0,50%) if we buy in Euronext market.
Plus, if we go for Vanguard, on the American market, there is a serious EUR/USD exchange risk. And lots of dividend leaks.
So, I opt for Think ETFs. Think Global Eq. (0,18%) is were 2/3 of my investments go. The other 1/6 is in Think Total Market UCITS, (0,40%) mainly looks at western European countries. The other 1/6th is in Think AMX UCITS ETF. (0,35%) Invests in Dutch AMX market, with quite high dividents. Yes, I go quite offensive.
Greets from the Netherlads.
Why do you only invest in Vanguard ETFs? I recently moved to the Netherlands and the first thing I needed to do was figure out the best way to invest efficiently. I currently invest using Interactive brokers (2-3 euro per trade, total cost) ,and invest monthly, but i preferred the European based ishares products over the vanguard.
my monthly portfolio investments are as follows:
25% World Exposure iShares MSCI World Core UCITS ETFs IWDA.AS
25% World Dividend iShares STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 UCITS ETF (DE) ISPA
20% Emerging Markets Core iShares MSCI Emerging Markets IMI UCITS ETFs EMIM.AS
10% Real Estate iShares Developed Markets Property Yield UCITS ETFs IWDP.AS
20% Fixed Income Core iShares Euro Corporate Bond UCITS ETF IEAC.AS
The MERs are low, (often slightly lower than vanguard, but we’re splitting hairs on that one), but vanguard does not provide options for real estate for fixed income. also, the world exposure and emerging markets reinvest dividends automatically, so saves me the hassle and cost of doing that.
would love your thoughts on why the vanguard etfs are better (VWRL, VHYL, VFEM).
Hi Ian,
I know this post is from last year, but I’m new here and would love to know the answer to this myself. I’m just getting started in the investment world and trying to figure out the best way to invest for myself. I’ve read lots of info about Vanguard and Meesman here, but am curious to hear Econowiser’s opinion on iShares ETF’s.
Thanks for all the info everyone. I’m learning a lot.
For fellow Belgians, my blog post on the subject might be interesting: http://flightfulness.com/index-investing-in-belgium/
Post still available somewhere?
Coming back to the idea of index investing for Europeans, I have an experience that may be relevant here. As an European expat, living in a few countries, I had to deal with taxes a few times. And it is amazing how each country work hard to make things difficult.
– In Spain you pay per dividends, and capital gains when you sell the ETF.
– In Germany the government dislikes accumulation ETFs and they are almost banned. You must own only ETFs that distribute dividends, otherwise taxes are a bureaucratic hell. You must document the dividends already reinvested, and pay taxes for them (although they are **potential gains**, you did not sell anything yet!).
– In The Netherlands the government assumes a 4% benefit and you have to pay 1/4 of it each year. In other words, you pay 1% of your investment due to taxes, even if the value of your fund decreased.
Imaging moving from country to country, explaining to tax officers that the accumulation fund already paid a fraction of the capital gains in Germany…
Econowiser, bedankt voor deze blog.
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Looking forward to your findings as well!
I’m interested in this topic as well, and hope more updates are coming soon. I’d be very happy to connect with you and others from the Netherlands interested in this topic.
Greetings,
Financial Freedom Explorer
Hello, my name is Pascal and I found this blog through JCollins or MMM, I’m not sure anymore. There have not been many posts here lately, hopefully this blog is still alive because it is very interesting.
It seems to me that at the moment (especially after the upcoming Binck Funcoach fee change) it is the cheapest option in the Netherlands to buy a Vanguard global index fund is through ING. They offer IE00BFPM911 with TER of 0,15%. ING charges 0,24% until 75k and after that 0,12%. No transaction fees in and out. They do charge 16 euro a year for the account (which may not make it the cheapest for the first 11k), plus you need to have an account which is not free.
Am I correct? Does anybody have any experience with ING on this kind of investing (buy and hold long term).
Kind regards,
Pascal
PS I hate that it is so difficult to find good and transparant information about all this in the Netherlands. I called ING with a few general questions about investing through the app (don’t like that, seems unsafe) and they needed to know my postal code, address and date of birth before answering.
I see I made a typing mistake. ISIN of the fund is IE00BFPM9N11.
Hi Pascal,
I also bank with ING and have opened an investment account with them “zelf op de beurs”. Mostly all information with ING is in Dutch especially when it comes to investment products, so that is a bit annoying.
They offer a service for index funds known as “Bankgiro” or BG. If you buy a BG fund, you can set up an automated monthly deduction from your bank account and directly into the fund. With this fund there are no transaction costs. Keep in mind though that these funds are not as liquid as ETF’s and if you want to sell them it takes looong. Like 3-5 days!!! Ofocurse that is also the point.
Good luck.
Thanks for your reply. I already opened my own account with ING and starting buying IE00BFPM9N11, much to my satisfaction.
Please be aware of the ‘servicefees’ that ING charges for doing _absolutly nothing_:
Variabele servicefee per Beleggingsrekening
Belegd bedrag Percentage over het belegde bedrag
Tot en met € 75.000 0,24%
Over het meerdere t/m € 500.000 0,12%
Over het meerdere t/m € 2.500.000 0,06%
I invest via DeGiro as they charge nothing for investing in Index funds (trackers)
I’m with Guido on this one: De Giro does not charge any money for investing, with two exceptions: Dividend payments handling and trading more than once per month in a core selection (kernselectie) ETF.
Hi,
Thanks for your blog.
I can see many people I follow advising only to get the Vanguard Total US Stocks , for the stock part of your portfolio.
It would be the ETF VTI if I am correct .
I’ve started my investments with VWRL (in Euros) which the Vanguard Total World ETF .
What is your point of view on this please ?
– Should I add some VTI ? Maybe to be a little bit more aggressive as VTI is having better results during the last years .
– Should I continue with VWRL ?
Thanks a lot
Hi
i’m from italy, living in new zealand, looking forward to invest on both sides, as soon as i can put my hands on vanguard! recently i’ve trying to open some accounts with online brokers.
people talk about “etoro”. i’m a newbie but it seems to me that they trade CFDs (wich i’m still trying to understand what they are).
I’ve searched on your blog and on jlcollins blog and moneymustache blog. no one mention on cfds.
that to me equals that cfds are not good. i’m not trying to find cfds, i’m trying to buy vanguard, but i want to be sure that i don’t get CFDs instead. they seems to go too far from the real thing.
can you help me with this? i don’t want to start investing in the completely wrong way.
thanks!
Dear community,
I am new to the world of investment and after reading and doing some research I have decided to invest in ETF’s (trackers). Based on what i read from peoples experience and the information provided on the websites I have narrowed down to invest in the ETF’s (trackers) as provided by meesman and DeGiro. Does anyone here have experience with investing in trackers as offered from DeGiro? They mention there “Kern Selectie” ETF’s (trackers) are free. Does any one have experience with DeGiro?
Thanks
Did you make a decision on what platform to use?
Hi,
thanks for all your thoughts, they are really clear and simple to follow. I currently have some stocks at https://live.trading212.com/ and apparently there is the option to buy Vanguard EFT, as per below screenshot.
https://www.screencast.com/t/Q8IjVh0Dz (I have the platform settings in Spanish, but I guess the names are the same). Do you think it would be a good option to buy through this platform and keep adding money to them?
Thanks again for such onderful content.
Hi Mrs. EconoWiser,
I came into your 2020 Vanguard ETF for Europeans blog on JLCollinsnh and hence, now I am here on your blog. Great stuff, thanks for sharing.
I am trying to get started and while this part was very quick on your post, which is find a broker, a cheap one..
There are many great low fees or even free ones, like Degiro, trading212 and IBKR….
My real problem and it’s a big deal for me, is protection against malfunction and banckruptcy of the broker. While many posts talks about investing, I have made an intensive research and found out that you are never actually risk free.
In Europe I mean.. if you’re in US or Canada, you’re lucky as your local regulators not only regulate the broker, but you also have insurance schemes that covers you up to USD 500000 in US and even 1M CAD in Canada…. In Europe though, EU based brokers like Degiro or any other, are only covered up to 20,000 Eur.
While these brokers are regulated by local entities (for example for Degiro, AFM in NL), This doesn’t prevent criminal acts or frauds, actually AFM has just fined Degiro for non complying and putting investors in danger.
Even the biggest broker, IBKR, was recently fined I think 35M USD or so for AML and others..
I was leaning towards IBKR as it’s UK entity covers up to 85,000 GBP, however, with Brexit close, IBKR is moving it’s EU based clients that were on the UK entity to a new entity based in Luxomborg, again with the lousy small coverage of 20,000 Eur.
I find it amazing how in Europe, we pay the highest taxes and get the lousiest protection !
Can you share with me your opinion on the topic? I want to get started, but I also don’t want to be risking my capital, especially at times where big names going bankrupt is not so uncommon.
Cheers from an expat living in Portugal !
Hi Sameh, yeah, Wirecard comes to mind (not a broker or custodian but fraud nonetheless). I looked into this some time ago too. No easy solution to my knowledge. Custodian diversification is what I do.
Hey Econwiser,
I saw that I can invest in Vanguard Total World Stock ETF via eToro and was wondering if you could help me clarify if it was the same as Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF. EToro say they charge no fees so seems like a good place to start investing if this is true
Do you happen to know if it is possible to invest in Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS via eToro?
Hi, would you say that just FTSE All World is enough? I understood I need to have bonds as well to balance my portfolio.. But what would happen in the worst case scenario I just keep on buying more FTSE All World stocks, without selling, even when the course drops?
I understood from Ray Dalio’s book i.e. his holy grail scheme that I should add a lot more asset classes to make it ‘all weather portfolio’ But that would not be the simple path right?
Please if someone can shed some light on this..
Mrs. Econo thank you for all you do, I’ve stumbled upon your blog from JL Collins blog, as probably many people here
Greetings from sunny Croatia