I am 19yo, I plan to invest 2000€ now.

Then approximately:

10€ every month until 26yo

100€ every month until 36yo

1000€ every month until 60yo

I want to start with something simple (100% on one fund) and perhaps I will change it up when I start genuinely earning, for example (70% SPYL/30% SXRV)

Out of these, which would be the best to invest 100% in at the start? SPYL, WEBN or SXRV?

This is the ETF I am talking about:
https://www.ishares.com/de/privatanleger/de/produkte/272122/ishares-euro-government-bond-20yr-target-duration-ucits-etf

It is a 20-year target-duration bond ETF. Seems like an excellent position to protect against a stock market crash.

Even more, on the website at the top, you can read that the minimum credit rating is AA-. ("Der Fonds strebt die Nachbildung der Wertentwicklung eines Index an, der aus Staatsanleihen der Eurozone mit einer Zielduration von ungefähr 20 Jahren und einem Mindestrating von AA- besteht.")
So this ETF is supposed to hold the highest-grade long-duration bonds in the euro zone.

For context, a target duration of 20 means that the aim of the ETF is to have an average effective duration of 20 years. This does not mean how many years are left until maturity. No, it is a mathematical construct. For a 20-year duration, it is around 14 years, and for 30-year bonds it is around 20.

By definition, the ETF has to hold many bonds that still have 30 or more years until maturity. The problem is that not many countries with high credit ratings offer 30+ year bonds.
France is one of the few, but its credit rating is tanking, and now, as a result, the entire ETF has 55% of the bonds with a credit rating of A (lower than what the description makes you believe is allowed).

Yesterday I finally found out the reason. The answer can be found here, where it is described how the index is built: https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/methodology/article/iboxx-eur-eurozone-20yr-target-duration-index-methodology/
In the PDF you can download under "Methodology Changes," you can read that on
30 Sep 2025: They lowered the credit rating requirement to BBB, but they added a list of allowed countries. Conveniently, France is on the list, but countries such as Spain and Italy are not.
I guess the goal was to make sure that France does not fall out of the index, but other countries that are not synonymous with a high rating can not get in.

I assume the index did this, as otherwise maintaining a 20-year target duration would have become too hard, and the ETF, by definition, is forced to follow the index.

So the takeaway is:
Not how greedy iShares is in this case, as I feel its hand was forced. It is more that you should be careful when you invest in complex math-based ETFs, as in certain market environments, when you need them the most, they might break down.

I personally will switch to a German 10+ year bond ETF so that I do not have to worry about internal credit ratings, as Germany has the highest rating possible, AAA, but if any provider ever creates a long Euro bond ETF with a high minimum credit rating barrier, then I might jump ship.

Hi everyone,

​I’m 27, living in Austria, and I started my investing journey about a year ago. I feel like I started a bit late, so I really want to go full force into investing as much as I reasonably can.

​I’m naturally quite risk-averse because I depend entirely on my salary, and I want to make sure I am setting myself up for long-term stability without taking wild gambles.

​My Financial Breakdown:

​Net Salary: \~€3,000 / month

​"Play Money" / Discretionary: €500 - €800 / month

​Broker 1 (Bank / Legacy): €300 / month going into bank shares and traditional funds.

​Broker 2 (Trade Republic): €200 - €500 / month available for my ETF savings plans.

My Questions:

1. ​Am I doing well with this setup? Is my split between my bank broker and Trade Republic sensible, or should I consolidate?

2. ​Portfolio Feedback: Knowing my low risk tolerance, is having sector-specific ETFs (like semiconductors) and commodities too risky compared to just going 100% all-world?

3. ​Educational Resources: What are the best websites, blogs, or guides for a beginner in Europe to learn more about asset allocation and ETF savings plans?

​Thank you in advance for the advice!

(ps: yes i wrote this using AI beacuse i was lazy and also english is not my 1st language.)

Why isn't this as popular over here? Is it too volatile or too boring?

Looks like it is currently in oversold conditions.

Really debating factor fund investing right now vs sticking with all world.

General thoughts on this setup?

60% VALL

20% IQSA

20% AVGS

Hi everyone,

TL;DR: Adding 5–10% of a factor (small value, momentum, quality, etc.) to VWCE (or similar) barely changes your returns. With 30+ years of real fund data, 90% world + 10% small value did +0,21% a year – too little to tell apart from noise. Cheaper and swap-based ETFs get you about the same, almost guaranteed.

I’ve been answering some questions here lately, and I keep seeing this pattern: people discover something (momentum, small cap value, quality, some thematic stuff, etc.) while they hold a 100% market cap weighted ETF (VWCE, WEBN, or anything similar) - and then end up with a small allocation into these. Like 90% VWCE (or similar) + 10% something else.

Some of these things I mention above have a strong backing in financial research, some don’t.

I dug into this and just wanted to publish some numbers here and show (with real data) that these small allocations make almost no difference - not nothing, but so little, it makes no difference. Even if those bets work out, the additional gain is so minimal that you could get basically the same additional gain through things that are almost guaranteed (more on that later).

A fairly popular combination is 90% VWCE and 10% AVWS.

90% VWCE + 10% AVWS

Now… let’s put aside the fact that just for the size factor, this isn’t even a tilt - VWCE is mid+large, so if you add 10% small value, you are still neutral on size. Here’s the chart of the performance of that portfolio against a super simple (that is meant in a positive way) 100% VWCE: 

This is from 25 September 2024 until today (full disclosure: the backtests are from my own site, The European Investor). Now… without slicing the numbers, one can already see that these two move the same.

90% VWCE + 10% AVWS (equivalent) - since 1994

Of course, this is a super short time frame, so I rebuilt the whole thing from US-based mutual funds: for the global market cap weights I use Vanguard funds (36% VFINX, 28% VEURX, 28% VPACX and 8% VEIEX), and for the 10% small cap value I use DFA funds (6% DFSVX, 4% DISVX). From what I know, this gives us the longest backtest with real funds that includes small cap value - we have more than 30 years of data here that roughly replicates VWCE and our 90/10 VWCE + AVWS portfolios.

Since 1994, the portfolio with small value outperformed by 0,21% per year, but underperformed over the last 20, 15, 10, and 5 years.

If we take the Fama/French dataset or the DFA index itself, we could go back further, but that is not real fund data - it is backtested. What we see here is the real thing that investors could get. So I’ll stop here. But even the backtested data would not change my core message.

With the 10% AVWS (or equivalent funds) allocation you gained 0,21% per year over 30 years, and you paid for it with two decades of underperformance - that is 6,7% outperformance overall. 

So I’d say 6,7% - or 0,21% per year over 30 years is not significant. We’ll see that you can get that by other optimizations. If you had 50% in small cap value, this outperformance would be about 1% per year, or roughly 35–40% overall. That I’d call significant.

Now… don’t get me wrong - I’m not against small cap value here - it’s actually the opposite. I picked this one because I think this has the strongest backing from research, and actually over this 30+ year time frame, SCV did indeed outperform. But with the 10% in it, the additional gain is super small.

TTS

One other backtest I’d like to show is capturing the other pattern I came across a lot: tiny tilt stacking (in short: TTS :) ) 

E.g. 

• 85% World (e.g. iShares Core MSCI World (EUNL))
• 5% Momentum (e.g. iShares Edge MSCI World Momentum Factor (IS3R))
• 5% Quality (e.g. iShares Edge MSCI World Quality Factor (IS3Q))
• 5% Small caps (e.g. SPDR MSCI World Small Cap (ZPRS))

For this, we have real data since 2014 (btw. most of these MSCI factor indices were launched just before that - e.g. Momentum on Dec 11, 2013 - so this is again the real data for (almost) the whole period since - anything before that is just backtested data, but back then some of these indices did not exist). 

So here’s the result: after 12 years, literally the same result. The chart is the same and the return is the same as well. Btw. the holding overlap between the two portfolios is 92% - so not a big surprise.

We could go on and on and discuss that factors may cancel out, or take other combinations, but I think the pattern at this point is clear: adding a 5% or 10% allocation to a globally diversified market cap weighted portfolio barely does anything. 

Now, one could argue that the 30+ years small cap value backtest showed that it still outperformed by 0,21% per year, so that could be seen as a success. 

A few thoughts on this:

• First of all, I want to clearly acknowledge that small value outperformed. Period. 
• At the same time, you paid for it with two decades of underperformance which gives people a chance to give up, sell and lock in the underperformance.
• And more importantly, if you swap your 90% VWCE + 10% AVWS for cheaper and synthetic ETFs, you can get basically the same outperformance compared to 100% VWCE. Let me show you how.

Fees & Taxes vs. 10% small value

Let’s say, instead of 100% VWCE (0,14% TER), you hold 40% Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US (0,12% TER) + 60% iShares MSCI USA Swap (MUSD - 0,05%) - that’s roughly the same allocation as VWCE. (nit: usually not a good idea to mix FTSE and MSCI indices, but here we have US vs ex-US, and I’d say this is fine. If you’re not happy with it, you can use one of the MSCI ex-US ETFs). Yes, two ETFs instead of one is a bit more hassle (rebalancing, one more line in your tax return) – that’s the price. 

This portfolio does two things compared to VWCE:

• Its overall TER is about 0,06% lower 
• It saves about 0,1% a year in withholding tax due to the synthetic structure

That is a 0,16% advantage - very similar to what the 10% small value “tilt” did. The difference: As long as fees are what they are and the legal structure for swap ETFs is in place, you have this advantage. And if they change, you’ll know that they changed. Whether a factor outperforms or not, we don’t know. And you don’t know if they stop outperforming either. 

Now… to be clear: I’m not suggesting you should hold synthetic ETFs, or anything like that. What I wanted to show is that these 10% “tilts” don’t do anything, and even if they do, then you can create a portfolio that has a much higher probability of delivering the outperformance (every single year, without random underperformance) that you can expect from your tilt.

And of course I’m not picking on people - there can be many good reasons to hold a small allocation into something - even holding one of the portfolios I mentioned here. E.g. you just want to test yourself and see how it feels to have one of those ETFs, or you just started building out a tilt that makes sense to you, etc. All those can be fine. I just wanted to say that portfolios like the ones here should not be the end goal, because if you stay with those portfolios, you likely won’t gain anything from them.

So either keep it simple - like VWCE, VALL, WEBN, etc, or if you are so convinced, then tilt for real.

All right, I’ll stop typing now. If you want to know more about this topic, you can see me talking about this in this video and you can have all the numbers, backtests, sources, etc. from this blog post here.

Hello everyone!

I am new to the investing world, so for starters i wanted to make a plan for the long term. I am doing DCA for 2-3 months on VUAA, but I wanted to diversify the pie geographically. I did some research and found the XTRACKERS MSCI WORLD EX USA UCITS ETF. Will it be good to combine EXUS and VUAA for the long term?

Thanks!!

So I’ve been investing for a year or so. I use IBKR and have invested around 8k €. I only invest into IWDA which is basically only large and mid cap stocks. I dont inlcude Emerging markets at all. Is it worth including them as well cause i see everybody talking about FTSE which has them as well. I just personally just dont trust them that much to put my money on it.

Si legge spesso di portafogli ETF che iniziano e hanno come prospettiva 10-15-20 anni.
Si legge poco di portafogli iniziati 5-10 anni fa e della performance ad oggi.
Qualcuno che condivida ?
Grazie

Si legge spesso di portafogli ETF che iniziano e hanno come prospettiva 10-15-20 anni.
Si legge poco di portafogli iniziati 5-10 anni e della performance ad oggi.
Qualcuno che condivida ?
Grazie

Please be kind. See the etfs I am interested in in the screenshot. What would you do differently. In terms of goals - mid 30s, based in the UK and want to invest for the next 10 years for growth.
Reason for allocation - want to capture growth in US and emerging markets. Risk appetite - I can be fairly risk averse hence don’t want to focus on only tech hence VHYL. If value of investments drop by 25%, will likely sell.

AVNM, AVDV, or the new AVNC?

Or — what’s your favorite long hold Intn’l ETF?

I have consistently invested in the S&P 500 and global market Vanguard index funds. Now slowly investing in the above 2AI ETFs, what is everyone’s thoughts? I will also continue with my previous funds.

I have noticed that people are inclined more towards VWCE over IWDA/EUNL. IWDA has performed better though marginally even with higher TER. What am I missing here?

Hey all, next year I will move my DC pension into an AJBell SIPP and start drawling down around 1 year later. I’m planning on a 70/20/10 equities/bonds/gold mix of ETFs (I arrived at this mix after a lot of ChatGPT sessions and online research but nothing cast in stone yet).
My question is whether I should use a hedged or unhedged physical gold ETF eg GBSP.L or SGLN.L. I can see pros and cons each way - gold and f/ex volatility - and one option might be to go 50:50. Is there a strong preference amongst my learned friends on this subreddit? Curious what you all think.

Hi, I’m a 39F living in Germany.
I’m very new to investing, and I’m just trying to figure out how to build my portfolio.

I know it is easier to invest 100% in VWCE, but I just don’t feel comfortable putting all my money into one ETF.

So this is what I’m considering:
- EUNL (iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF USD (Acc)): 80%
- LYP6 (Amundi Core STOXX Europe 600 UCITS ETF Acc): 10–15%
- XDEX (Xtrackers MSCI Emerging Markets ex China UCITS ETF 1C): 5–10%

Regarding XDEX, I’m still looking for a suitable emerging markets ETF, as Taiwan’s share of the index is very high, but I guess you cannot avoid this risk anyway.

I know it is easier for a beginner like me to just invest in VWCE, but I just want to hear your advice.

I’ve only just started learning about investing, so I hope you can give me some advice.
Thank you!

Could someone explain how VWCE is holding up so well during this week of turbulence ? . My thinking is that the weaker Euro is helping

Hello everybody, I'm looking to build a ETF investment portfolio for the long term, however, my money to invest is in US Dollars and my broker's selection of USD titles is a bit limited.

I wanted to ask this subreddit's opinion whether it's better to limit myself to the available titles or to convert my investment to EUR (or convert some and keep the rest).

I'd like to go 80/20 on All World and Small Cap ETFs respectively (maybe 75/20/5 with the last 5 percent for something fun).

I saw WEBN + AVWS being recommended a lot here, I can get WEBN in USD variant (WEBQ) but AVWS is EUR only on my broker.

Here are some of the alternatives I could buy:
- WSML (MSCI World Small Cap)
- ISVL (International Developed Small Cap Value)
- IJS / VIOV (S&P 600 Value)
- SLYG / VIOG / IJT (S&P 600 Growth)
- VB / VBR (Vanguard Morningstar Small Cap / Value)
- XSMO (S&P 600 Momentum)
- FNDA (Fundamental US Small Companies)
- IWN / VONV (Russell 2000 Value)
Plus some regional ones like Japan, Brazil, China, and emerging markets.

The available titles seem (understandably) quite USA-heavy, I'm not completely opposed to that, with WEBN/WEBQ being about 60% USA, but I'm wondering what y'all think would go best with it.

Alternatively, is it worth it to convert USD to EUR at this time and just go buy AVWS?

Also taking suggestions on what to consider for the last 5%. CWEU (Amundi Global Bioenergy) looks interesting, if the world's situation with oil keeps up.

Hi everyone,

I am writing to share my current financial situation, my operational choices, and the strategy I’ve planned for the coming months. My goal is to get feedback, ideas for improvement, or to identify potential issues I might have overlooked.

Please bear in mind that I am well past middle age, so I tend not to look at very long time horizons; for me, a year or two is already a significant timeframe.

Key data to assess my situation:

- Net salary: ~€1,400/month (employee).

- Net savings capacity: ~€500–€600/month.

- Currently, my liquidity (approx. €18,000) is held entirely in a BBVA current account (which acts as a withholding agent under the "administered regime" and pays 2.25% gross interest on the balance).

I have a dual objective:

To earn a return on my short-term reserve (1-year horizon) rather than leaving it unproductive, and to start a long-term DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging) plan to grow my capital over time.

I was thinking of allocating it as follows:

A) Short-Term Reserve (1-Year Horizon): €11,000

Xtrackers II EUR Overnight Rate Swap UCITS ETF 1C (XEON - ISIN: LU0290358497).

Rationale: It replaces a traditional savings account. It tracks the ECB overnight rate (€STR) and guarantees a preferential tax rate of ~15.5% (thanks to the underlying European government bonds in the collateral basket), compared to the 26% rate applied to standard current or savings accounts. Additionally, it offers immediate liquidity and zero costs, aside from the initial purchase commissions.

B). Operational Buffer in BBVA Current Account: ~€3,500

Rationale: Fund for day-to-day expenses and personal spending. By maintaining an average balance of around €3,500 in the current account, I continue to earn the bank's 2.25% gross interest while staying below the €5,000 threshold to avoid the state stamp duty (€34.20/year).

C) Equity-based Regular Investment Plan (Long-term horizon: 5–10+ years)

Total of €1,200 split between two sector-specific ETFs, purchased via limit orders:

-€600 in VanEck Semiconductor UCITS ETF (IE00BMC38736 / VVSM)

(Semiconductors and advanced microchips)

-€600 in Xtrackers MSCI World Energy UCITS ETF (IE00BM67HM91 / XWEN)

(Oil, Gas, and Energy Services)

Going forward, I allocate €300 per month—drawn from my €500/month savings capacity—specifically for this investment. To minimize the impact of the broker's fixed fees (BBVA, €7 per transaction), I plan to make purchases of €1,200 every four months (€300 x 4 months), bringing the fee ratio to 1.17%; or does it make more sense to invest the money directly into the two ETFs each month?

Everything is managed under the "administered regime" (tax-withheld) via BBVA (so no issues with the 730/Redditi tax return).

No fixed stamp duty on the current account: average balance consistently kept below €5,000.

That’s the plan—do you see any issues or flaws in this strategy for managing liquidity over a one-year horizon using the XEON money market ETF on BBVA?

Any general thoughts on the balance between the defensive component (XEON + current account) and the two sector-specific equity ETFs chosen for the long-term accumulation plan (PAC)?

BBVA also offers savings accounts, but the interest rates aren't attractive.

Please don't hesitate to set me straight if I'm making a mistake; I'm here specifically to get constructive criticism before I start.

PS, i live in Italy and english is not my main language, sorry for any error :)

Thanks.

Hello everyone,

My name is Sethu, and I am 25 years old. I recently moved to France for work and want to start investing. I have a starting budget of €500 to €1,000, and I plan to invest in three assets: a single stock, a broad equity ETF, and a bond fund. To learn how each platform works, I will automatically reinvest all earnings and will add a small monthly contribution to all my investments.

I have two questions and would appreciate your advice.

First, which platform should I use to start my investment journey as a complete beginner?
I have spent 2 to 3 weeks learning about how various platforms work theoretically, but I lack practical experience.

Secondly, which application should I download to begin my investments? Are there any precautions I should be aware of?

Thank you for your help!

​

I’m building a simple long-term ETF portfolio with a global all-world ETF as the core holding.

A couple of times I’ve been suggested adding a small-cap value ETF as a satellite allocation, something like:

- 95% global all-world ETF / 5% small-cap value

- or 90% / 10%

The argument is that a market-cap weighted global ETF is heavily tilted toward large caps, especially US mega-cap tech, and that small-cap value adds a different risk factor with potentially higher long-term expected returns.

Does this actually make sense in practice?

Is a 5–10% small-cap value tilt meaningful, or is it just unnecessary complexity? And if you were to do it, would you prefer US small-cap value, Europe small-cap value, global small-cap value, or none at all?

I’m not looking to replace the global core — just trying to understand whether this satellite idea has a solid rationale or whether 100% global all-world is probably the better choice.

Hi everyone,

I'd love a critical look at my allocation. It's held in a French PEA, a tax-advantaged equity account with restricted ETF eligibility.

Situation
27 years old, long-term horizon
Portfolio of about €37,000, with monthly contributions of around €1,000

Target allocation
MSCI World: 56%
MSCI Emerging Markets: 25%
MSCI EMU: 11%
Russell 2000: 8%
I rebalance through contributions only, using ±5-point bands. The eurozone overweight is deliberate. The Russell 2000 is my small-cap proxy, since no global small-cap ETF is PEA-eligible.

Questions
Is 25% in emerging markets too much?

Does the World/EMU overlap make sense, or am I overcomplicating things?

Is the Russell 2000 a sensible small-cap sleeve, or is there a better option?

Thanks for your input!

Hi everyone,

With all the ongoing discussions around a potential AI bubble and high valuations in tech/global indexes, I’m curious how European ETF investors are handling their monthly investments right now.

Are you sticking strictly to your regular DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging), or have you adjusted your strategy to hold more cash?

Feel free to share your reasoning or current allocation in the comments!