Today's investing ...

[Alberto]

Wow in the last 5 months the stock market has been doing phenomenal. Of course it won't continue like this. We will see ...

[alma.freya]

Stocks go up , stocks go down , you can't explain that!
Buy.
Stocks go back up again.
Buy.
ABB, AlwaysBeBuying.
BuyBuyBuy.
Set up a Sparplan.
A1JX52 (the holy grail).
No options. No leverage.
Don't check the market.
Don't sell.
Just buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuy.
All time high? Buy.
-40%? Stocks on sale, good deal, buy pleeeeassssse.

Now that is scientific fact. There's no real evidence for it, but it is scientific fact.*

* I am not a fully (or even partially) qualified financial advisor

[Sam-I-Am]

Popular in Germany too: https://www.etfstream.com/articles/the- ... ings-plans

Do they (e.g. Scalable Capital) take out the German withholding tax and sort all that out for investors? I know they have to provide an annual statement which I guess must be declared with your tax return. I'm just curious if they take witholding where does that go?

1. Accumulating ETF : would be better due to compounding
2. Distributing: I guess if you need the drip drip of income in your pocket

p.s. I'm thinking of investing in ETF with 'spare cash' rather than a private pension hence the thinking/question. Why pay bigger fees to pension companies, I know you can get tax back on what you invest from personal net income but fees are more than the tax would be if just investing in 'roboinvestor' or on your own via Trading212

[alma.freya]

I highly recommend a German broker as they will handle all the taxes automatically, including the Vorabpauschale, which will be taken from your clearing/current account i.e. they don't sell any of your investment to pay Vorabpauschale.

A distributing fund (Vanguard FTSE All-World Distributing - A1JX52) is recommended because the quarterly dividends allows you to use your 1000€ tax free allocation (Freibetrag). These dividends should be reinvested.

Once you have enough invested that the annual dividends exceed your tax-free allowance of 1000€, you can start investing in an accumulating ETF: Vanguard FTSE All-World Accumulating - A2PKXG.

This has a good overview of ETF investing in Germany.

A guide to investing in ETFs while living in Germany

And you are right, even with the tax benefits, buying low fee ETF with post-tax income will be better than any private pension.