The FIRE Belgium Show FIRE Belgium

Are you looking to invest in Real Estate in Belgium?



You’re exploring the potential for a first real estate investment, or you’re already made one or more investments.



But you’re wondering what it takes to be successful with real estate?



How to find good deals?



What are the strategies that improve investment returns?



What are the key elements to pay special attention to when you invest for the first time?





That is what we discuss in this episode with Joris Van Briel.



Joris is part of the FIRE community and a real estate investor in Belgium. He’s 32 and owns 4 units in Antwerp and is looking to invest in Brussels. 



He started at 26 and with a combination of luck, good financing, smart strategies (also known as house hacking), and a lot of hard work, he got a return on investment of 60% in the first year!!!



I didn’t know this when we started the conversation. But I gradually discovered his journey and achievements. And while there was some luck involved, we also uncovered many important strategies that you can replicate to improve your investment returns.



As I am not a real estate investor myself, I certainly learned a ton from this conversation, so a big thank you to Joris.



If you want to connect and learn more about Joris, check out his website (https://arphenion.com/) and his YouTube channel “The Money Network” (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMQr3k4PCAIrhybceVKDenQ)







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►► Free Workshop on Index Investing for Beginners in Belgium: create passive income from the stock market, without paying high fees to banks or advisors, taking unnecessary risks or spending all day analyzing the markets. Free Workshop → https://firebelgium.com/investingworkshop

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Download the FIRE Belgium Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide

Learn about Financial Independence in Belgium: https://firebelgium.com

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://firebelgium.com/#Subscribe

Join the community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium

Are you a business owner looking to optimize your investments?

Your business is making money and you’re paying yourself, but you still have money in the company. 



Should you open a pension plan? take it out and invest as an individual, or invest as a company?



How can you take money effectively out of your company?

How can you optimize your investments as a company owner?



What investment or saving plan or strategy provides the best returns?



How can you optimize the Belgian pension and investing products such as IPT/EIP, VAPZ/PLCI, POZ/CPTI, DBI/RDT funds, etc.

What are the tax implications of all these options?

And how do they impact your investment performance?



That is what we explore in this incredible episode with Tim Nijsmans. 



Tim is a fee-only financial advisor specializing in index investing. 



He is a former asset manager at private bank Dierickx Leys and former fund manager of the DBI fund of Dierickx Leys aimed at companies. 



You can find him at https://www.vermogensgids.be/



He is also a FIRE Belgium consultant and you can book a call with him on firebelgium.com/1on1



In this episode we discuss 9 different strategies to invest your money as a company owner.



Tim then presents a specific case study and shows us the huge differences in results depending on the chosen strategy.



And the differences are huge! The best strategy gives almost double the performance compared to some other ones.



This can make a huge difference in your personal finances. 



If you’re a business owner looking to grow your wealth, this episode is for you.





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►► Free Workshop on Index Investing for Beginners in Belgium: create passive income from the stock market, without paying high fees to banks or advisors, taking unnecessary risks or spending all day analyzing the markets. Free Workshop → https://firebelgium.com/investingworkshop

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Download the FIRE Belgium Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide

Learn about Financial Independence in Belgium: https://firebelgium.com

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://firebelgium.com/#Subscribe

Join the community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium

Over the last 20 years, the stock market went up by 500%!! *

1000 euros invested 20 years ago could have become 6000 today. That’s insane.

But you know what’s even crazier… and very sad…

The vast majority of investors only got a tiny piece of this growth.

In fact, the average investor investing in the stock market barely managed to get 100% return over the same period. The average investor that had invested 1000 euros 20 years ago, would have 2000 euros today.

That’s a difference… and a loss of 400%. 

4000 euros in this case, but much much larger sums for most people.

In this episode, we review the 5 biggest reports and studies that explore Active vs Passive Investing so that we can better understand

- The difference in performance between active and passive investing

- Why there such a enormous gap in performance

- What we (individual investors) can do about it 



If you’re curious about

- How evidence-based investing works

- How to maximize your chance of having high investment returns

- How active and passive investing compare

Then this episode is for you.



And if you know anyone who is investing with bank funds (including pillars 2 and 3 pension funds), then share this episode with them.



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*The S&P 500 went up 500% over the past 2 decades. The average investor in the meantime only got 100%. And this is before inflation. Source: JP Morgan Guide to the Markets.





Links mentioned in the episode:



DALBAR QAIB Studies: 

https://www.dalbar.com/QAIB

https://www.ifa.com/articles/dalbar_2016_qaib_investors_still_their_worst_enemy



JP Morgan Guide to the Markets:

https://am.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm-am-aem/global/en/insights/market-insights/guide-to-the-markets/mi-guide-to-the-markets-us.pdf



SPIVA Scorecard: 

https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/research-insights/spiva/spiva-library/



Morningstar Active vs Passive Barometer:

https://www.morningstar.com/en-uk/lp/european-active-passive-barometer



ESMA Costs and Performance of EU Retail Investment Products:

https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2023-12/ESMA50-524821-3052_Market_Report_on_Costs_and_Performance_of_EU_Retail_Investment_Products.pdf



The Academic Advantage: 

https://www.ifa.com/pdfs/the-academic-advantage.pdf





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►► Free Workshop on Index Investing for Beginners in Belgium: create passive income from the stock market, without paying high fees to banks or advisors, taking unnecessary risks or spending all day analyzing the markets. Free Workshop → https://firebelgium.com/investingworkshop

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Download the FIRE Belgium Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide

Learn about Financial Independence in Belgium: https://firebelgium.com

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://firebelgium.com/#Subscribe

Join the community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium

What are the best stock index ETFs for investors in Belgium?

What are the most diversified, cost-effective, tax-efficient, high performance ETFs that we can invest in from Belgium?



In this episode, we cover:


The FIRE Belgium ETF selection checklist - to help you pick the best ETFs


How to practically check each of those criteria for an ETF (using IWDA as an example)


Top 5 ETFs that fulfill those criteria for investors in Belgium


Comparison of the 5 ETFs





This episode is quite technical and better suited for people who are already familiar with index investing.

Note that selecting a stock index ETF is only a small part of what you need to do to be a successful index investor, including a suitable asset allocation, tax management, broker selection, etc.

To learn more about the rest I recommend you check the free workshop: https://firebelgium.com/investingworkshop



To get full support to build your Personal Investment Plan and implement it, join the Index Investing Online Course: https://academy.firebelgium.com/courses/index-investing-online-course-aao





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►► Free Workshop on Index Investing for Beginners in Belgium: create passive income from the stock market, without paying high fees to banks or advisors, taking unnecessary risks or spending all day analyzing the markets. Free Workshop → https://firebelgium.com/investingworkshop

---

Download the FIRE Belgium Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide

Learn about Financial Independence in Belgium: https://firebelgium.com

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://firebelgium.com/#Subscribe

Join the community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium

How to pick the right stock index ETF?

How to find the best index funds for investors based in Belgium?

What are the key criteria to select the perfect low-cost stock ETF, optimized for Belgian taxes ?



In Belgium, the investing world is mostly controlled by banks and powerful lobbies. But good investing is not as complicated as what the industry wants you to believe. 



In fact, research proves that a simple portfolio of index funds performs better than 90% of bank funds.



All you need is:

1. A low-cost broker account 

2. A balanced portfolio of 2 or 3 (well-selected) ETFs

3. A tailored Personal Investing Plan

4. The right long-term investing mindset



I've been teaching this simple approach since 2015.



In this episode, we dive into the 10 selection criteria to select the best index ETFs for Belgian investors.



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►► Free Workshop on Index Investing for Beginners in Belgium: create passive income from the stock market, without paying high fees to banks or advisors, taking unnecessary risks or spending all day analyzing the markets. Free Workshop → https://firebelgium.com/investingworkshop

---

Download the FIRE Belgium Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide

Learn about Financial Independence in Belgium: https://firebelgium.com

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://firebelgium.com/#Subscribe

Join the community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium

Research shows that investors underperform the market by 3 to 4% on average each year! 



That’s half of the returns of the market!



And this is due to investment biases and mistakes many investors make.



In this episode with Thomas Laureys, we talk about the 4 most common mistakes and biases that prevent investors from getting good investment returns. And how to prevent them.



We dive deep into behavioral finance and investor psychology and share our thoughts on how to avoid those biases and become better investors.



Thomas is a freelance writer who writes about investing and behavioral finances for organizations like the VFB and many big finance newspapers in Belgium. He’s read more books on investing than anyone I know. He ‘s one of my favorite writers on LinkedIn where he shares lots of great knowledge for investors.



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►► Free Workshop on Index Investing for Beginners in Belgium: create passive income from the stock market, without paying high fees to banks or advisors, taking unnecessary risks or spending all day analyzing the markets. Free Workshop → https://firebelgium.com/investingworkshop

---

Download the FIRE Belgium Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide

Learn about Financial Independence in Belgium: https://firebelgium.com

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://firebelgium.com/#Subscribe

Join the community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium