Hi, My wife and I moved to Belgium about 9 months ago. We are in our late 20's/early 30's, employed with large multi-national companies, and now that we are getting settled in, we are turning to our investment strategy. We do not have a return date and are discussing having our children here so our minimum time horizon in the EU is 5-10 years. In addition to our investments, we are saving to buy a house as well as keeping some liquid assets for travel home and emergency fund.
We already move part of our income back to the US and, similar to this thread, will be making part of our investments in the US. We would like to diversify and avoid some of the currency conversion fees by investing in Euros. This is the beginning of our investigations and we have not looked into the tax implications of doing all our investments in the US vs part in the EU.
We plan to invest about 1000 EUR per month in the US (converted to dollars) and about 500 EUR per month in the EU in ETFs and similar vehicles. These amounts are based on a percentage of our gross income which will (hopefully) increase with time and we plan to keep the approximate 2:1 split. Both portfolios are meant to be passive and a 20yr+ investment timeframe for retirement. We are not looking to generate income now so dividends paid out are not important for us.
For brokers, I've looked into Degiro since it is mention on this sub quite a bit but it does not seem possible for me because of my US citizenship. This thread mentions some others.
My questions are: Are there others here in the sub who are in a similar situation and are willing to share some lessons learned? Are there any suggestions for a broker given our situation? Are there "blind spots" I'm not considering where I should look into more details?
Thanks for sharing and any help you may be able to offer.
We already move part of our income back to the US and, similar to this thread, will be making part of our investments in the US. We would like to diversify and avoid some of the currency conversion fees by investing in Euros. This is the beginning of our investigations and we have not looked into the tax implications of doing all our investments in the US vs part in the EU.
We plan to invest about 1000 EUR per month in the US (converted to dollars) and about 500 EUR per month in the EU in ETFs and similar vehicles. These amounts are based on a percentage of our gross income which will (hopefully) increase with time and we plan to keep the approximate 2:1 split. Both portfolios are meant to be passive and a 20yr+ investment timeframe for retirement. We are not looking to generate income now so dividends paid out are not important for us.
For brokers, I've looked into Degiro since it is mention on this sub quite a bit but it does not seem possible for me because of my US citizenship. This thread mentions some others.
My questions are: Are there others here in the sub who are in a similar situation and are willing to share some lessons learned? Are there any suggestions for a broker given our situation? Are there "blind spots" I'm not considering where I should look into more details?
Thanks for sharing and any help you may be able to offer.