The FIRE Belgium Show FIRE Belgium

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

How to invest better than private banks?

Tim was a private banker and fully convinced active fund manager for more than 10 years. 



One day he decided to compare private bank funds to index funds. 



After seeing the difference in costs and performance, he could never turn back. 



In this episode, we discuss:


How to invest better than private banks


How private banks work and how they benchmark their own performance


How Tim discovered the power of index investing


By how much do private bank funds underperform index funds (it’s insane…)


The psychology of the investor in retirement





We compare the performance of Defensive / Balanced and Dynamic bank funds to their equivalent in index ETFs over the past 5 years… and the differences are enormous!



If you invest with a bank or if you’re curious about the difference between private banks and index investing, this episode is for you!



Tim is the founder of vermogensgids.be, one of the only flat-fee independent financial advisors in Belgium. He teaches private banking at Artevelde University in Ghent.

He is the co-author of De Hangmatbelegger: Zorgeloos beleggen voor mensen met weinig tijd. Tim is active on the board of the Vlaamse Federatie van Beleggers and he manages the Facebook group “Beleggen”.

Tim is also an independent consultant for FIRE Belgium. You book a call with Tim here.



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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

Jasper Vekeman is a financial journalist who is passionate about sustainable investing. He is the co-founder of Duurzaam Beleggen Academy (https://duurzaambeleggen.academy/), where he teaches sustainable investing, and he is the Editor in Chief for the magazine of the Vlaamse Federatie van Beleggers (VFB)

I recently attended the 2nd Belgian Impact Day organized by Belgium Impact Finance and had a great conversation with Jasper.

Today he joins me on the FIRE Belgium show to talk about sustainable and impact investing.

We talk about


the basic concepts behind sustainable, ESG and impact investing (the pros and cons)


the various ways we can do good as investors


how to approach ESG and impact investing as an index investor


and so much more.



We dive deep into the question of what real impact we can have as investors.

If you're interested in being ethical with your money, 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

---

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