undefined | Better HN

0 pointskoakuma-chan4mo ago0 comments

Your bank probably has an investment platform, you can just use it, it doesn't matter. My portfolio is 70% XEQT 30% CASH.TO—don't bother with anything else.

0 comments

onli4mo ago

Oh, that can be bad advice. It does matter a lot if the bank asks for high fees, which would be the case with all(?) German banks, and I'd be surprised if that's different in Switzerland.

skeeter20204mo ago

Banks don't typically charge any fees for a self-directed account that holds primarily ETFs, beyond maybe a small trade fee or account fee(?) - which we would never pay in North America. Active management of either your account or the products you hold is where they stick it to you. Each product will have a management fee which you should check, but you'll likely avoid the big bank and insurance company products because they do no better than the market funds and take more in fees so the returns suck.

koakuma-chanOP4mo ago

My bank also charges a trade fee which I think is bullshit, but at least it's a major bank. It's like $10 so doesn't matter all that much, not sure how much it would be for Switzerland, but you could just buy the stocks in larger batches if trades are expensive.

onli4mo ago

With the amount people usually trade $10 is a huge percentage. When you factor that in with the missed compound interest of that money you usually lose tens of thousands of dollars until retirement, likely more.

There is no need for a big bank here, in Europe. If one of those regulated companies goes bankrupt the etf is still yours and transferable to a different institution.

War in Europe is the remaining risk factor, but if that happens it won't matter anyway.

1 more reply

a964mo ago

$10 may not feel like much, but it's the proportional costs that you have to figure out.

If that's e.g. for a monthly $1000 investment, it means 1% of your savings is lost in fees each time. That'll be 1% that's not going into savings. If you end up with a million by some time, that small fee will have cost you 1% of that, which is $10k.

"It's just a cup of coffee" -> "that's a 10 000$ cup of coffee". But if you only save 200 a month, that 5% is 200k you've lost by the end.

One percent is often considered a reasonable cost ratio, but it's definitely worth considering what the real numbers are for a given option.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

onli4mo ago

Oh, that can be bad advice. It does matter a lot if the bank asks for high fees, which would be the case with all(?) German banks, and I'd be surprised if that's different in Switzerland.

skeeter20204mo ago

koakuma-chanOP4mo ago

onli4mo ago

There is no need for a big bank here, in Europe. If one of those regulated companies goes bankrupt the etf is still yours and transferable to a different institution.

War in Europe is the remaining risk factor, but if that happens it won't matter anyway.

1 more reply

a964mo ago

$10 may not feel like much, but it's the proportional costs that you have to figure out.

"It's just a cup of coffee" -> "that's a 10 000$ cup of coffee". But if you only save 200 a month, that 5% is 200k you've lost by the end.

One percent is often considered a reasonable cost ratio, but it's definitely worth considering what the real numbers are for a given option.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse