I'm interested to hear your opinions about peer to peer lending. For those who don't know the concept, these sites basically directly connects people with some leftover cash to people who want to borrow it, cutting out the bank that would traditionally sit in between them. Some examples are http://w...

The way I see it 2 things can happen, the politicians will finally stop dragging their feet and do something to fix the Euro or the next time a crisis happens a big member like Italy or Spain will default and drop out of the Euro. In the first scenario you want to hold a mix of bonds of all the memb...

Averaging doesn't work because the percentages are multiplication factors. If you think about this very simple case, an imaginary investment where in year 1 your money gains +50% and in year two your money loses -50%. You might think that you end up with the same amount you started with, but that's ...

I have a PP in the Netherlands, in the end I chose the following options: 25% Stock: EXSI - Contains the part of the Europe Stoxx 600 that is in the Euro zone 25% Bonds: IBGL - 15-30 yr Euro bonds, mostly Germany, Italy and France. 25% Gold: Physical coins - Might add an ETF or bullionvault once my ...

Very interesting website.  However these kinds of things always worry me a bit.  The various asset classes are in the portfolio to help protect against the various economic conditions (inflation, recession etc) that can occur.  If you optimize the asset allocation based on past performance, aren't y...

Hi Gerard, thanks for your input on the amount of bureaucracy involved, I had no idea :).  I did some more digging around about the whole withholding tax and local taxation, and it seems like I overlooked a Dutch tax on dividends of 15% (should have expected it, since there is a tax on everything......

The way I understand it is that if a foreigner like you or me (I'm assuming you're not German) holds German bonds or stocks, and receives a dividend or interest, the German goverment taxes this at a rate of about 30%.  If your country has a tax treaty with Germany (probably they will if it's within ...

Hi everyone, I've been trying to find the best way to make a European PP for quite some time now (and have found much useful info in this forum and in the PP books).  It seems like there are quite some pitfalls when designing a European PP, and a new one that I recently discovered is withholding tax...