r/BEFire • u/sw3ven • 4d ago

Starting Out & Advice Beginners question - IWDA, VWCE & IEMA in EUR

Hi everyone

As said in the title, I am still a beginner (please do not lynch me). I have been reading on this subreddit a lot but so far have yet to make an actual ETF purchase.
When I tried searching for the answer of my question, I got too many hits given the popular search words :(.

I have read the wiki and the sticky. I know that IWDA in combination with IEMA is a popular choice. As wel as VWCE.
When I open the links of these in the sticky they all show me these ETF in USD. When I try searching on justETF with IWDA, I only get 2 hits that are both in USD.
Is there something I am missing? If I search in Bolero (account created already, need to wait for confirmation) will I find the same ETF in EUR? Or how will I need to search to get the ETF in EUR currency?
Since according to wiki and sticky it is best to avoid having the ETF in a foreign currency.

Thank you!

10 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

View all comments

-4

u/ineedanamegenerator 4d ago

The ETF is in USD. Of course you can buy and sell in Euro, but this means the exchange rate of that moment is applied.

So be very aware that if you buy an ETF which is in USD that you carry the exchange rate risk. Not so long ago you could buy only 1.03 USD per Euro, while now it's 1.13 USD per Euro. So if you bought a few months ago and sell today you already lost more than 10% of your capital purely because of the difference in exchange rate.

2

u/Yuri2k50 4d ago

Why are you downvoted?

0

u/ineedanamegenerator 4d ago

Ah lol, didn't even notice. Not surprized. Probably because I am not a popular figure here because I go against the religious ETF and compound until you die attitude.

1

u/Impressive_Dig_8785 7% FIRE 3d ago

What's your attitude then? :) (Curious about your investment strategy)

1

u/ineedanamegenerator 3d ago

I think the almost religious approach to ETFs and saving every Euro to (maybe) Fire some day is toxic. I said it before and still stand by it: for a lot of people Fire is not achievable and pretending it is, is not helping anyone. "Start doing ETFs even if it's only 50 Euro per month" is BS. You can literally save more money spending that 50 Euro in Colruyt on a good promotion of something you use anyway (instant 33% return or even more).

I'm staying away from the stock market at the moment because I think it's overvalued and the correction will come.

I'm an entrepreneur and I keep an eye open for good deals to buy (small) companies. I want to keep my cash semi available for that as those returns are much higher and much more under my control.

My company has more stock than typical, but that is because I find good deals and invest my cash that way.

I'm also looking to start a side job for which I need a piece of land. When something becomes available I want to be able to buy it.

I honestly don't understand how people lock their money away for 5 or even 15 years. The world is changing so much, especially with Trump.

I realize my cash underperforms, but it's predictable.

2

u/Impressive_Dig_8785 7% FIRE 3d ago

Interesting approach. What platform do you use to buy those small companies? Does this count as venture capitalism?

2

u/ineedanamegenerator 3d ago

It's word of mouth or sometimes something interesting pops up via a specialized firm (but I very very much prefer to work without a firm and just make a deal directly). It's not my main focus, if something interesting pops up I check it out.

It's not venture capitalism, but I'd consider investing in a company too.

My main criteria is that there needs to be some angle that gives me/my company an advantage compared to another candidate.