If you’re investing from Europe, you most probably spent a lot of time researching ETFs and determining your asset allocation. And given the plethora of investment strategies and products you can choose from, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, especially as a beginner. In this post, I’ll cover how a European investor’s core portfolio should look like. Using these tips will position your stock portfolio for best performance in the long run. You might consider it a suggestion. Core Portfolio Description The MonkWealth-approved core portfolio has a few key characteristics: It contains exclusivel ..read more

Building a one-fund portfolio is quite popular with European investors. That’s why the question of VWRL vs IWDA pops up quite often. Both VWRL and IWDA are part of DeGiro’s core selection of ETFs (traded free of charge), which makes them even more popular for smaller investors in the EU. In this post, I’ll cover the essential details for both ETFs and will give my take on the matter. VWRL Ticker symbols: VWRL, VWRD, VGWL; ISIN: IE00B3RBWM25 VWRL (Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF) is an ETF by Vanguard that tracks the FTSE All-World index. It is a market-cap weighted ETF that tracks over ..read more

Including an emerging market ETF in your portfolio is a great way to increase diversification, especially because of their lower correlation with developed markets ETFs. If you already invest in IWDA or you’re not happy with the internal allocation of VWCE, you might want to add an emerging market ETF to your portfolio. I’ll list a few options that are available in Europe and declare the winner afterwards. Emerging Market ETFs Comparison 1) EMIM Ticker symbols: EMIM, EIMI EMIM (iShares Core MSCI EM IMI UCITS ETF) is an iShares ETF tracking the MSCI Emerging Markets index. It has a&nb ..read more

The Byzantine generals problem is a distributed computing problem introduced in 1982, in a paper of the same name.1 In this post, I’ll give a simplified summary of this formulation of the problem. Then, I’ll explain how the Bitcoin blockchain, and its use of Proof of Work, solves it. The Byzantine Generals Problem: Summary If I can summarize the Byzantine generals problem in a simple sentence, it’d sound like this: How can we guarantee that multiple geographically distributed entities can reach consensus? It sounds simple, but the complexity of the problem arises once we stop relying on assump ..read more

In my blog, and probably many others, you see “the stock market” being portrayed as a “safe long-term” investment. A place where people put their hard-earned money and assume life-long gains. How is everyone so sure that the stock market will go up? I’ve been an investor for many years and enjoyed massive gains from various types of investments. The only way to achieve this is to have a 100% conviction in the process. Because only then, you’d allow yourself to invest a large portion of your savings/productivity and knowing, with full certainty, that you’ll be well off in the future. If yo ..read more

P2P Lending (peer-to-peer lending) is quite popular with European investors. It represents a way of investing where private individuals can lend money in return for interest payments. A P2P platform matches those willing to lend with those willing to loan and facilitates this process. Due to the nature of my blog, I was contacted by a couple of P2P lending platforms for affiliate promotion. Instead of doing that, I decided to let you know why I avoid P2P lending. 3 Reasons I Don’t Do P2P Lending 1) Low Returns First and foremost, the returns one can expect from any P2P lending platform are qui ..read more

Rebalancing means redistributing your wealth across different investments, in order to match your target allocation. Understanding asset allocation is crucial in order to understand the need for rebalancing. So if you still haven’t, make sure to read this post: Asset Allocation. Rebalancing Explained Rebalancing usually happens on frequent intervals or when the asset allocation drastically shifts. An investor’s allocation can shift due to an asset overperforming the rest of the portfolio, or a certain investment lagging behind. Whatever the case is, this leaves the investor with a wealth ..read more

A US ETF is usually the core of most investors’ portfolios. For Europeans, the questions of CSPX vs VUSA or VUSA vs IUSA often pop up. In this post, I’ll do my best to answer the trilemma and give my recommendation. CSPX Ticker symbols: CSPX, SXR8, CSP1; ISIN: IE00B5BMR087 CSPX (iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF (Acc.)) is an ETF tracking the S&P 500 – an index composed of the largest US companies weighted by market-cap. It has a TER of 0.07% and it’s an accumulating fund (it reinvests the dividends instead of distributing them to investors). Currently, the fund manages $55b wor ..read more

A lump-sum payment is a term that describes a payment that happens once, at a particular time, as opposed to multiple smaller payments. If you accumulated a somewhat large amount of savings, you might wonder how to put them to work. At the end of the day, if you just dump them in the market, there are countless scenarios that can happen. In this post, I’ll classify these scenarios in a few categories and explain what each means for your long-term portfolio. The Nature of a Lump-sum Investment As a beginner index investor, the best moment to do a lump-sum investment is now.  You ..read more

Having control over your seed phrase is equivalent to having control over your crypto. I already covered the importance of self-custody before, so if you’re reading this post, make sure to know the basics. With that being said, let’s dive into how you can protect your seed phrase and increase the security of your cyrpto assets. 1) Never share the words with anyone This is the only thing you need to do to be safe. If you do it properly, you’re an expert in crypto security. People complain about “getting hacked” daily – check any crypto/DeFi subreddit. But all of the stories end up having t ..read more