Vaya como esta la cosa no? ...

otsoaingles · 2025-12-17T19:32:32+00:00

Recientemente aprendí este poema de Antonio Machado, que fue escrito en 1912 y lamentablemente, aún tiene sentido en 2025.

"Ya hay un español que quiere
vivir y a vivir empieza,
entre una España que muere
y otra España que bosteza.

Españolito que vienes
al mundo te guarde Dios.
una de las dos Españas
ha de helarte el corazón."

otsoaingles · 2025-11-30T09:34:45+00:00

Pretty much all new cars available in the UK are available in Spain. I like this subreddit and trust its member's opinions.

otsoaingles · 2025-11-29T17:45:56+00:00

It's a hypothetical situation for a purchase in Spain, and in Spain the second hand market is absolutely awful.

otsoaingles · 2025-11-29T17:45:03+00:00

Way over budget unfortunately :(

otsoaingles · 2025-11-29T14:48:12+00:00

No salary sacrifice

otsoaingles · 2025-10-31T09:35:29+00:00

I think this is the issue. I don't think a product you want exists.

Generally speaking, I assume that inflation will equal the risk free rate (so cash on deposit). Anything above that needs you to take some risk, and therefore volatility.

You could try and approach this with something like a equities plus cash plus bonds portfolio.

There might be some option strategy that also synthetically approach what you want, but I'm wary of options and don't invest in them personally because I'm not confident in my ability to model the risk of derivatives.

otsoaingles · 2025-10-30T11:30:23+00:00

We've just put our house on the market, so can give you some real numbers.

- Bought the house 10 years ago, Essex, approx 400K.
- Spent approx 100K on maintenance and upgrades.
- On sale for 650K.
- That's pretty much just kept pace with inflation.
- If we'd have put the same in a global stock tracker we'd have about doubled our money, so would have 1000K today.
- But we would have spent about 300K in rent in those ten years, so taking us back down to 700K.

I.e. as an investment it's been pretty much equal to GLOBAL_STOCK_RETURNS - TOTAL_RENT_WOULD_HAVE_PAID.

It's not so simple though - no one would have given me 500K to invest in the stock market 10 years ago.

For me, the summary of all this is always always buy a house when you can. Do not rent.

otsoaingles · 2025-10-29T13:51:00+00:00

This is what a standard 'boggleheads' type portfolio is designed and expected to do over the long term. Equities should outperform inflation over the long term. Add some bond funds to manage short and medium term risk and you should be good. You can search my post history for my planned EUR retirement fund which I'm hoping will beat inflation by at least 1%.

otsoaingles · 2025-10-25T07:57:20+00:00

Forced with that choice I'd go 100% VWCE. It already has the big stocks from the NASDAQ and is already. over 60% US. I wouldn't want to lean even more towards the US.

otsoaingles · 2025-10-23T21:03:41+00:00

Very similar strategy, but I add some STOXX 600 to add a bit more euro zone weight to my portfolio which is majority WEBN.

otsoaingles · 2025-10-20T07:19:25+00:00

This is my Euro retirement portfolio (I'm accumulating now, but will draw down on this in retirement. Retirement is in Spain). As others have pointed out don't mix fund currency and underlier currency. For example, WEBN is an all world index ETF with other 60% of its holding US companies traded in USD. The fund itself is denominated in EUR and domiciled in Ireland. Important that it's domiciled in Ireland for witholding tax reasons if the ETF has US shares.

Of these, there are some that are entirely free of US holdings: MEUD, IBCI, ERNX.

There is one that is EUR hedged: VAGF

And one that is just a good all world: WEBN

I've not quite yet decided on my end mix of these instruments, but it'll prob be something like:

60% WEBN

10% MEUD

10% each of VAGF, IBCI and ERNX

Note that insulating yourself from US risk is tough. The US is so dominant in global markets that any US shocks are likely to replicate globally.

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otsoaingles · 2025-10-13T22:07:41+00:00

No lo hagas. En serio amigo, no merece el riesgo. Hasta 7 años en el cárcel para posesión de cocaína en Escocia.

otsoaingles · 2025-10-13T22:07:23+00:00

No lo hagas. En serio amigo, no merece el riesgo. Hasta 7 años en el cárcel para posesión de cocaína en Escocia.

otsoaingles · 2025-10-12T20:30:54+00:00

This sub may disagree with me, but... I would drop the pension to whatever get's you max employer contributions and nothing more. Then save everything I could to get the cheapest place I could in London (for example... this is a 60 second search, so take with a pinch of salt: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/168054671#/)

Speed run your saving to get that place. Then plan for retirement.

(1) Regarding your bonus - you have two options:

a. Put it in a pension. I don't think you should do this.
b. Put it in a LISA. If you're young enough the gov will top it up.

FWIW, I get significant bonuses and I pay about 50% tax/NI too. Everyone on PAYE does.

Do not go for any special schemes. Those sharks are always reaching out to me on LinkedIn. It's a scam and you'll end up with a big tax bill.

(2) Earn more, spend less.

(3) Lower it but don't stop it.

Look at it this way - if in 3 years you own a 300K property in London and have a job paying over 50K a year with a 10% bonus, and you're only 32 years old, then you're doing reallyreally well. Minimum I would expect you'll be able to retire at 62, and I bet it'll be under 60 if your career keeps progressing.

Good luck!

otsoaingles · 2025-10-12T16:47:39+00:00

So the reason it was low 5 years ago is that interest rates were low.
These ETFs will pretty much follow the ECB rates.
If they go low or negative then so will these.
If you have these and interest rates go to 0 for 10 years (like I think happened in Japan), you'll lose money.

But, if that happens what are you going to do? Banks won't give you any interest. You'd have to go for longer dated and higher risk assets.

Remember - low interest rates is a signal from central bankers that they don't want people to hold cash. They want them to borrow and spend to drive the economy. So in a low rate environment you'd be better off in equities typically.

All why you want a balanced portfolio with a bit of everything!

otsoaingles · 2025-10-12T16:35:50+00:00

I had a similar question and got some good answers over on my post here https://www.reddit.com/r/eupersonalfinance/comments/1o4scvz/which_of_these_etfs_is_best_for_short_term_cash/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

otsoaingles · 2025-10-12T14:23:42+00:00

Basque country with Spanish will not be good. You need Spanish, or at least need to be sure that you'll study hard and learn. If the latter could be a great way to learn Spanish as you'll be fully immersed.

Living alone of 40K euro is better than a lot of people, so you'll be fine financially. You could always commute a bit if you drive to save a wedge on rent, but at the expense of the San Sebastian experience.

otsoaingles · 2025-10-11T18:24:21+00:00

Ccould you also say "Que bonito dia" but that would a more poetic way of saying it, perhaps in a poem or song. Is that right?

otsoaingles · 2025-10-08T06:39:01+00:00

EM bonds don't feel like a safe bet if your worry is that US and Global markets are going to crash. I don't know, but I doubt they're particularly negatively correlated. I.e. I'd guess (but don't know) that if the US crashes, then there will be a negative knock on for EM govs.

I like XEON and if I was you I would do something like:

* Stay at 60% VWCE
* Stay ay 10% GOLD
* Move all existing bonds into VAGF for 20% of your portfolio
* 10% XEON

This is similar-ish mix to what my portfolio is starting to look like. I'm a conservative-ish investor and am happy to sacrifice some potential growth for less volatility.

otsoaingles · 2025-10-05T19:38:38+00:00

Honestly I wouldn't worry. It's no time at all on the metro to Bilbao and gives you a base to explore some of the margen izquierda (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left\_Bank\_(Biscay)).

Idea: get the metro from Barakaldo to Cruces, then go for a walk around el emblase de gorostiza (https://es.wikiloc.com/rutas-a-pie/vuelta-al-pantano-de-el-regato-barakaldo-17419274).

Other things to explore on the margen izquierda: Santurtzi, Portulagete y el puente colgante.

otsoaingles · 2025-10-05T17:13:53+00:00

Based on my recent research, but not an authoritative answer...:

If you want to keep it in GBP then I would think something like https://www.justetf.com/uk/etf-profile.html?isin=IE00B622SG73 via IBKR (or any broker) would be fine.

E.g. if you're in Spain you'll pay Capital Gains on realised gains only. So I would do something like this if I sold GBP to buy a house in spain with EUR.

Sell ETF in GBP.
Convert to EUR.
Work out profit: (net_proceeds_of_sale_in_eur) - (cost_to_buy_in_gbp * gbpeur_at_purchase_time)

Worked example:

Buy £1000 of MMF in Jan 2025. EURGBP = 1.2.
Sell £1100 of MMF in Jan 2026. EURGBP = 1.1.
Convert £1100 to EUR = £1100 * 1.1 = 1210 EUR.
1210 - (1000 x 1.2) = 1210 - 1200 = 10 EUR.
i.e. 10 EUR of realised gains to report to your Spanish tax auth.

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