Beginning to Invest - All questions go here please

Taylor365

Usually check do they have a moat, p/e ratio isn't insane, debt is manageable.

Check how the charts look over the last X years. How last few earnings have been. Growth of rev/earnings.

Also, how much they have just dropped because of investor sentiment. :pac: Easiest money to be made.

HLagri

So I've setup my Degiro account and want to start investing. I've been looking more into passive long term investing and I believe that investing in accumulating ETFs are probably my best bet for now, I just have to decide on which ETFs to actually invest in. I was looking at the VWCE ETF, would this be safe to go with? What ETFs would be recommended by others in Ireland and is there a combination of 2 or 3 ETFs that would be wise to diversify between? Thanks.

Probes

Lilian Plain Ponytail wrote: »

I personally would not be keen on just copying some random guy on the internet.


Also, when they re-balance the portfolio, and stocks or fractions of stocks are bought and sold, it will get messy when it comes to tax.

Guys is there a solution to this? I’m trying to work out how to pay tax from etoro investments but this seems a major roadblock. Everything is in USD and copy portfolios or PIs can generate thousands of trades, particularly if you dollar cost average throughout the year. Is there a piece of software that can take into account the excel spreadsheet from etoro and calculate your profits in euros?

iAcesHigh

Probes wrote: »

Guys is there a solution to this? I’m trying to work out how to pay tax from etoro investments but this seems a major roadblock. Everything is in USD and copy portfolios or PIs can generate thousands of trades, particularly if you dollar cost average throughout the year. Is there a piece of software that can take into account the excel spreadsheet from etoro and calculate your profits in euros?

As far as I'm aware nope, which is why I personally didn't go for it as it seemed like hell of a paperwork afterwards although it would fit my investing type. It feels you'll need to take out Degiro output and build somehting like that in Excel or pay accountant to do the ground work for you...

Probes

iAcesHigh wrote: »

As far as I'm aware nope, which is why I personally didn't go for it as it seemed like hell of a paperwork afterwards although it would fit my investing type. It feels you'll need to take out Degiro output and build somehting like that in Excel or pay accountant to do the ground work for you...

Thanks, actually I put a spreadsheet together yesterday that takes all my etoro transactions and converts them to euros at the buy and sale points and then sums the profit/loss, it takes the daily exchange rate from the central banks excel spreadsheets. It doesn’t take into account the initial euro-usd conversion though, nor the final one if I withdraw. I’m not sure if that’s needed, or if it’s even possible to do properly.

Is this how others are doing it?

iAcesHigh

Probes wrote: »

Thanks, actually I put a spreadsheet together yesterday that takes all my etoro transactions and converts them to euros at the buy and sale points and then sums the profit/loss, it takes the daily exchange rate from the central banks excel spreadsheets. It doesn’t take into account the initial euro-usd conversion though, nor the final one if I withdraw. I’m not sure if that’s needed, or if it’s even possible to do properly.

Is this how others are doing it?

Not sure how that works in etoro, but in Degiro I actually get charged in € even if I'm buying on $-based exchanges so I don't have those issues...

Learpholl

HLagri wrote: »

So I've setup my Degiro account and want to start investing. I've been looking more into passive long term investing and I believe that investing in accumulating ETFs are probably my best bet for now, I just have to decide on which ETFs to actually invest in. I was looking at the VWCE ETF, would this be safe to go with? What ETFs would be recommended by others in Ireland and is there a combination of 2 or 3 ETFs that would be wise to diversify between? Thanks.

I'm completely new to all this too so wouldn't take this as advice but having recently gone through exactly what you're looking to do and primarily from reading this article - https://www.wolfofharcourtstreet.com/p/guest-edition-exchange-traded-funds

I went with with these 4 ETFs:

EUNL / IE00B4L5Y983
VWCG / IE00BK5BQX27
VFEA / IE00BK5BR733
VUAA / IE00BFMXXD54

All 4 are accumulating ETFs with the only difference from the link above being EUNL / IE00B4L5Y983 instead of VWCE / IE00BK5BQT80 because the iShares one is free on Degiro.

HLagri

Learpholl wrote: »

I'm completely new to all this too so wouldn't take this as advice but having recently gone through exactly what you're looking to do and primarily from reading this article -

I went with with these 4 ETFs:

EUNL / IE00B4L5Y983
VWCG / IE00BK5BQX27
VFEA / IE00BK5BR733
VUAA / IE00BFMXXD54

All 4 are accumulating ETFs with the only difference from the link above being EUNL / IE00B4L5Y983 instead of VWCE / IE00BK5BQT80 because the iShares one is free on Degiro.

Thanks for the suggestions, there's a lot to learn with this and in particular regard to Irish taxes it's like opening a can of worms. I notice that article you linked is MrsMoneyHackers strategy. I had used her article "My Irish ETF Portfolio" as a guide (I can't share the link but would recommend reading) and very similarly to yourself I decided on investing in the following for now:

VWCG / IE00BK5BQX27
VUAA / IE00BFMXXD54
VWCE / IE00BK5BQT80

All accumulating to avoid some hardship with the taxes. I wasn't actually aware of the free EUNL!

into_the_wild

I've bought a few stocks via DEGIRO but haven't a clue on how to pay taxes on profits. Any help appreciated.

Bob Harris

into_the_wild wrote: »

I've bought a few stocks via DEGIRO but haven't a clue on how to pay taxes on profits. Any help appreciated.

Keep track of what you buy and when and when you sell it and when. DeGiro will help you do that in the transactions tab.

Lets say today you buy 4 companies:

A 100 shares @ 10€
B 50 shares @ 20€
C 100 shares @ 5€
D 50 shares @ 10€

In July you sell A for 20€ Total gain 1000€

In September you sell B for 40€ Total gain 1000€

In October you sell C for 3€ losing 200€

For the period Jan to November you provisionally have to pay the CGT due.
You have total gains of 2000€ and a loss of 200€ Net position +1800€
Your first 1270€ are exempt.
You will pay (1800-1270) 530x33% = 174.90
You'll have to pay this by the 15th December in the year the gain is realised.

In December you sell D for 20€ realising a gain of 500€
As you have already used your 1270€ exemption you'll pay 500€ x 33% = 165. For the gains made on disposals in December you pay by the 31st Jan the following year.

By the 31st of October 2022 you have to make the declaration for your gains/losses in 2020. It is advised to make a return whether you have gains or losses. The form is CG1. Get set up for CGT on myrevenue.ie to facilitate the payments and with a bit of luck you'll have to pay lots of the stuff to Paschal and the boys.

If you don't sell you don't pay CGT.
If you have more losses than gains, you can carry the leftover losses to the next year to offset gains. (you can do this for up to four years if I'm not mistaken)
Take into account the buying and selling costs.
If the shares cost you 1000 and the fees are 20€ €1020 your total cost.
If you sell for 2000€ with 20€ fees then €1980 is your total proceeds.

into_the_wild

Bob Harris wrote: »

Keep track of what you buy and when and when you sell it and when. DeGiro will help you do that in the transactions tab.

Lets say today you buy 4 companies:

A 100 shares @ 10€
B 50 shares @ 20€
C 100 shares @ 5€
D 50 shares @ 10€

In July you sell A for 20€ Total gain 1000€

In September you sell B for 40€ Total gain 1000€

In October you sell C for 3€ losing 200€

For the period Jan to November you provisionally have to pay the CGT due.
You have total gains of 2000€ and a loss of 200€ Net position +1800€
Your first 1270€ are exempt.
You will pay (1800-1270) 530x33% = 174.90
You'll have to pay this by the 15th December in the year the gain is realised.

In December you sell D for 20€ realising a gain of 500€
As you have already used your 1270€ exemption you'll pay 500€ x 33% = 165. For the gains made on disposals in December you pay by the 31st Jan the following year.

By the 31st of October 2022 you have to make the declaration for your gains/losses in 2020. It is advised to make a return whether you have gains or losses. The form is CG1. Get set up for CGT on myrevenue.ie to facilitate the payments and with a bit of luck you'll have to pay lots of the stuff to Paschal and the boys.

If you don't sell you don't pay CGT.
If you have more losses than gains, you can carry the leftover losses to the next year to offset gains. (you can do this for up to four years if I'm not mistaken)
Take into account the buying and selling costs.
If the shares cost you 1000 and the fees are 20€ €1020 your total cost.
If you sell for 2000€ with 20€ fees then €1980 is your total proceeds.

Thanks a lot mate. This should be a sticky post IMO. Pretty sure lots of people are looking for this info

Bob Harris

into_the_wild wrote: »

Thanks a lot mate. This should be a sticky post IMO. Pretty sure lots of people are looking for this info

It's a common enough question alright.

I said above that the CGT declaration for 2020 should be made by 31st Oct 2022, that would be the CGT declaration for 2021.

For 2021...Gains from Jan - November pay by December 15th
Gains in December pay by Jan 31st 2022
Declaration returned by 31st Oct 2022 for the full year 2021.

Metroid diorteM

If government had a brain they'd user experience the ever living f1ck out of paying taxes. In the states it sounds like citizens have the same problem.

I do a regular 9-5 job simply because paying taxes is not automated somehow. Manual calculations is completely moronic in 2021.

Society's loss tbh cos I'm not going to bother.

pioneerpro

Metroid diorteM wrote: »

If government had a brain they'd user experience the ever living f1ck out of paying taxes. I

They don't want personal wealth generation outside of property and pensions. It's a deliberate barrier to entry.

maxwell smart

Hi There

I'm looking to buy a particular stock on the Nasdaq, what is the best online trading platform to use?

Thanks
Max

Shedite27

maxwell smart wrote: »

Hi There

I'm looking to buy a particular stock on the Nasdaq, what is the best online trading platform to use?

Thanks
Max

Degiro or Trading212 are the ones most on here use.

PerrinV2

Is Revolut ok to use as well?

Shedite27

PerrinV2 wrote: »

Is Revolut ok to use as well?

Absolutely, great place to start, very user friendly, but if you're getting into it more seriously (ie €1k+), I'd setup a brokerage account. Far more options, cheaper rates and better reporting for when you need to worry about tax.

PerrinV2

Shedite27 wrote: »

Absolutely, great place to start, very user friendly, but if you're getting into it more seriously (ie €1k+), I'd setup a brokerage account. Far more options, cheaper rates and better reporting for when you need to worry about tax.

Probably 10k around I think.

B.A._Baracus

Might give Revolut a go. New to all this.
You have to take a picture of your passport right?

Bob Harris

PerrinV2 wrote: »

Probably 10k around I think.

I'd be looking at DeGiro, solid all round online broker.

pioneerpro

PerrinV2 wrote: »

Is Revolut ok to use as well?

Extremely limited selection, no margin, no options, restricted trading on meme stocks, cash takes time to settle after selling IIRC. Also they can be absolute nightmare to deal with customer support if you get locked out.

They do fractional shares though.

Just set up a DeGiro account tbh.

Bob24

pioneerpro wrote: »

Extremely limited selection, no margin, no options, restricted trading on meme stocks, cash takes time to settle after selling IIRC. Also they can be absolute nightmare to deal with customer support if you get locked out.

They do fractional shares though.

Just set up a DeGiro account tbh.

One caveat with DEGIRO is that they have delisted most UK investment trusts (which are an interesting investment vehicle for Irish investors from a tax perspective).

So anyone considering this stock category should keep it in mind before chosing them as a broker.

Shedite27

Bob24 wrote: »

One caveat with DEGIRO is that they have delisted most UK investment trusts (which are an interesting investment vehicle for Irish investors from a tax perspective).

So anyone considering this stock category should keep it in mind before chosing them as a broker.

They're back in now, Monks and Scottish Mortgage for example

namloc1980

Does anyone here invest in Eurozone dividend stocks like French / German companies? How do you sort out the DWT issue to ensure you don't get double taxed? On Revenue MyAccount when doing annual tax return US dividends are straight forward as it has it's own entry under other income and the 15% DWT is accounted for, but how do you do the same for EU dividends to avoid being stung for DWT in France/Germany as well as then full income tax in Ireland?

Bob24

Shedite27 wrote: »

They're back in now, Monks and Scottish Mortgage for example

Thanks, I can indeed see those two are back.

In my personal favourites' list, the likes of Personal Assets Trust and Schroder Asian Total Returns are still missing though (whereas they were present in the past), so it seems to be hit and miss.

DEGIRO kind of lost my trust with this though. Some are still missing and who knows if the ones they have reinstated won't be removed again with no notice or explanation in the future?

Bob24

namloc1980 wrote: »

Does anyone here invest in Eurozone dividend stocks like French / German companies? How do you sort out the DWT issue to ensure you don't get double taxed? On Revenue MyAccount when doing annual tax return US dividends are straight forward as it has it's own entry under other income and the 15% DWT is accounted for, but how do you do the same for EU dividends to avoid being stung for DWT in France/Germany as well as then full income tax in Ireland?

I don't know about German DWT, but the French actually cause a specific use you might want to be aware of.

I can't remember what the exact figures are, but French default WHT is around 30% and reduced to around 15% for Irish tax residents (double-taxation agreement). So revenue will only let you credit 15% against you tax liabilities here.

There is something stock brokers can do (similar to the US form W-8BEN) in order to apply the reduced rate of circa 15% at source for their non French-resident clients. However it seems to be either impossible or too much work for non-French brokers, and the only brokers I have came across who are doing it are either French brokers or other brokers who have a legal entity in France - if you are a customer of that legal entity (for example Saxo Bank does it, but only if you are a customer of their French subsidiary - which is possible as an Irish resident).

This means that if you are holding you share with the likes of DEGIRO, IB, or T212 they are actually deducing around 30% withholding tax from your French dividends whereas you are actually only supposed to pay around 15%. And you can only getting 15% credit from Revenue :-/

I think technically it is possible to claim a refund of the overpaid amounts from French tax authorities, but less you are dealing with very large amounts it probably isn't worth your while.

TefalBrain

Can anyone recommend a good broker for someone based in Ireland to trade mostly US stocks? I've been with IG markets for about three years now concentrating mostly on Indices and ETF's but they have stopped short selling on a raft of US stocks and they are somewhat of a nightmare to deal with on the phone. Pity because i love their interface but needs must. Thanks

TalleyRand83

Hi Again all,

Wondering if any more seasoned investors could help once more, hoping to get some opinion on current portfolio which is active since Feb this year (appreciate I'm scabbing your brains here):

Amazon 7% IAG 2%
Disney 7% Salesforce 2%
Berkshire Hathaway 6% TradeDesk 2%
Apple 5% Coca Cola 2%
Microsoft 4% P&G 2%
Walmart 4% PayPal 2%
Shopify 4% VW 2%
J&J 4% Crowdstrike 2%
DocuSign 3% Colgate 2%
MasterCard 3% Airbnb 2%
Abbive 3% Delta 2%
Teladoc 2% Twillio 2%


Another 10 or so, mostly fairly familiar tech stocks, 1% each

And succumbed to lashing a heap into Bitcoin, currently 10% as buying last month a good bit.

I dont have the fancy pie chart I see others using here but from that list, how do you think that looks?

Other side question, from reading above, am I mad to be only using Revolut and a little bit of etoro for all this trading, have 20k+ between both gone in

TalleyRand83

Hi Again all,

Wondering if any more seasoned investors could help once more, hoping to get some opinion on current portfolio which is active since Feb this year (appreciate I'm scabbing your brains here):

Amazon 7% IAG 2%
Disney 7% Salesforce 2%
Berkshire Hathaway 6% TradeDesk 2%
Apple 5% Coca Cola 2%
Microsoft 4% P&G 2%
Walmart 4% PayPal 2%
Shopify 4% VW 2%
J&J 4% Crowdstrike 2%
DocuSign 3% Colgate 2%
MasterCard 3% Airbnb 2%
Abbive 3% Delta 2%
Teladoc 2% Twillio 2%


Another 10 or so, mostly fairly familiar tech stocks, 1% each

And succumbed to lashing a heap into Bitcoin, currently 10% as buying last month a good bit.

I dont have the fancy pie chart I see others using here but from that list, how do you think that looks?

Other side question, from reading above, am I mad to be only using Revolut and a little bit of etoro for all this trading, have 20k+ between both gone in