The three-fund portfolio for European investors
Europe's three-fund portfolio has its own shape. A single all-world UCITS fund owns the whole world, so most first-timers need two funds, not three.
Investing & Wealth Building
Stocks, ETFs, pensions, tax wrappers, and the long compounding game, all from an entirely normal salary.
Featured
Our best attempts.
Currency hedged vs unhedged ETFs: when the hedge is worth it
Your global tracker's hedged version carries a cost that never shows in the fee: about 1.4% a year for a euro investor now. Here's when it's worth paying.
What is your 'enough' number? How to define your financial finish line
Your enough number is the pot that replaces a wage. Europe's version beats America's 25x rule, and even hitting it will not feel like enough.
Diversification, and why owning one fund isn't where the job ends
You bought a fund and a bad week made you wonder if you were ever safe. You swapped one risk for another, and nobody finished the sentence. Here is the rest.
Investing Fundamentals
Rebalancing your portfolio: put the mix back where you left it
Drift quietly turns your 60/40 into something riskier. Here's how to put the mix back, cheapest move first, and skip the tax where your country lets you.
What is the stock market? A plain guide for first-time investors
The stock market explained for first-time European investors: what shares and exchanges actually are, and the rules that protect you.
More posts
Dividend investing in Europe: is it really passive income?
Pooled across 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, 70.6% of European once-a-year dividend payments arrived in April, May and June. What that does to a monthly budget, and what living off it really costs.
Why don't Europeans invest in stocks? Where the money went instead
Caution gets the blame. Add up all euro-area household assets and about €66 in every €100 is property. That is the area's total, not one household's.
Should I wait to invest? Five reasons people give
We ran 107,454 windows of European tracker-fund history since 2008. Waiting won three times in ten. Five reasons Europeans give for holding off, cross-examined: three lose, two hold up.
Does market timing work? Seventeen European forecasts, marked.
Every year Europe's strategists publish a number for where the market ends up. As far as we can find, nobody checks. So we marked seventeen of them, and the typical miss is bigger than a typical year.
What ESG investing means, and what it changes about what you own
Two funds, same ESG label. One index targets a quarter of each sector's tradable market value, the other half. That figure is not on your factsheet.
European bond ETFs: how they work, and how they're taxed where you live
Euro government bond ETFs fell about 18% in 2022, never mature like a single bond, and are taxed differently in every country. Here's how they actually work.
Warren Buffett's principles, translated for Europe
For 60 years Buffett beat the market, then told everyone else to index. His principles, translated for Europe: UCITS ETFs, the 90/10 rule and tax wrappers.
ETFs·
What is the MSCI World index, and is one ETF enough?
About 72% of the MSCI World is US shares, and it holds no emerging markets. It tracks 1,283 developed-market companies. Is one ETF enough as your core?
Does the 60/40 portfolio still work for European investors in 2026?
In 2022 the safe half of a European 60/40 fell harder than the risky half. It was not the end. Here's what actually changed, and how to set your split.
Staying the course: how to handle market panic and volatility
A falling market is a paper loss until you sell. How to sit through the panic, tell when selling is actually rational, and how long crashes really last.
Passive vs active investing: what you trade off
Passive vs active investing in euros: most active funds lose to a cheap tracker after fees, but a few corners still let active win.
Stocks vs ETFs vs mutual funds: the European guide
Every comparison assumes you can buy VOO. On a European broker you can't. The stocks, ETFs and mutual funds decision, built on the UCITS and PRIIPs reality.