Gyroscopic Investing

Hi all,

Long-time lurker here from the Netherlands. Earlier this year I've setup my basic eurozone PP:

Stocks: SPDR MSCI EMU ETF (ZPRE)
Bonds: Lyxor EuroMTS 15y+ (LYXF)
Gold: ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Fund (GZUR)
Cash: Savings accounts

My retirement portfolio is part of a collective plan, so I don't have any say in that. I run this PP in my taxable account.
So far I love the peace of mind it brings. I treat it as a general wealth building account so I love the relative stability and how the emergency fund, hard assets etc are all part of the same package. It helps me to focus on my career instead of my investments.

I don't own any physical gold yet, I'll wait with that until I manage to rent a safety deposit box.

When my portfolio gets bigger I might add a global stock ETF, maybe 20% of the stock allocation. Not sure yet, probably won't make much difference anyway. The strengthening of the euro this year (against most predictions of course) makes it clear that currency risk can make quite a big difference, so I'm not willing to add too much currency risk.

I'm looking forward to contribute to this board!

WhiteElephant wrote:Long-time lurker here from the Netherlands.

Another Dutchie here Belated welcome

Which broker do you use?

Thanks Europeanwizard,

I'm using DeGiro (custody account) for now.

WhiteElephant wrote: I'm using DeGiro (custody account) for now.

Great, I have an account there as well.

Any reason why you're using GZUR and not PHAU? The reason I use PHAU is that it's listed on the Euronext Amsterdam, so you don't pay the yearly fees for keeping a fund on a foreign exchange.

As for bonds, I use iShares Euro Government Bond 7-10yr (IBGM), currently I don't like the longer maturity date bonds after reading a lot of discussions here on the board. Stocks, I have the iShares MSCI Europe (IMAE) for the same reason I use PHAU.

I didn't know DeGiro charges for keeping etf's on foreign exchanges!
If I understand correctly t's 2,50 euro a year for each exchange?

I choose those ETF's because they were lower cost than most other comparable ETF's.

I read some of the discussions about eurozone bonds and for me the combined duration of a LT bond etf and a savings account still seems reasonable to me. An all-maturity eurozone bond etf has a duration of 7.5 years. The combined duration of bonds and cash in my PP is little over 8 years so there is little difference between the two.

I do feel a little bit worried about the 30% that LYXF has invested in Italian/Spanish bonds though, so I might buy some individual Dutch bonds.

Also Dutch.

De Giro: cheap but very simpel functionality
Binck: not so cheap but very friendly interface
Lynx: the best functionality (far too much) and cheap but lousy user-interface (for PP people, is meant for treaders.).

WhiteElephant wrote:If I understand correctly t's 2,50 euro a year for each exchange?

I choose those ETF's because they were lower cost than most other comparable ETF's.

I read some of the discussions about eurozone bonds and for me the combined duration of a LT bond etf and a savings account still seems reasonable to me. An all-maturity eurozone bond etf has a duration of 7.5 years. The combined duration of bonds and cash in my PP is little over 8 years so there is little difference between the two.

I do feel a little bit worried about the 30% that LYXF has invested in Italian/Spanish bonds though, so I might buy some individual Dutch bonds.

For some reason, I forgot to click "notify me" upon replies to this thread... so anyway; yeah, it's only 2,50 so you're right that a lower TER may make up these costs.

Careful with individual Dutch bonds. For some reason, the spread is very large. I have no idea why, but I've read some calling it "unsuitable for the average private investor".

Hi,

long term Bonds have small maturity. No?

Try DBXG

Regards