The FIRE Belgium Show

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. --- ►► 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

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. — *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 --- ►► 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

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 --- ►► 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. --- ►► 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. --- ►► 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. --- ►► 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. --- ►► 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

JL Collins, author of the international best seller “The Simple Path to Wealth” also known as the godfather of financial independence is back on the FIRE Belgium Show to discuss his new book “PATHFINDERS: Extraordinary Stories of People Like You on the Quest for Financial Independence—And How to Join Them" In this episode, we discuss: How to invest simply and effectively How to reach financial independence Why not caring about all this investing stuff can be a superpower How FU Money can help you help you negotiate with your employer How JL Collins actually spent all his money on the most luxurious thing there is JL Collins' biggest investment mistakes (and how you can avoid them) Incredible stories of people from all around the world on the path to financial independence. Get the book and leave a review here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/180409000X  JL Collins’ blog: https://jlcollinsnh.com --- ►► 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

What are the best brokers for investors in Belgium? Which ones are the cheapest? Which ones are the safest? Which ones are the easiest to use? In this episode, we analyse the top 10 brokers in Belgium, with all the pros and cons! It's a long episode because it's a deep dive into all things investment brokers. We share all our knowledge on how they work and how to pick the best one for your situation and your preference. And at the end of the episode we tell which brokers we prefer and why! You can find the FIRE Belgium Broker Comparison Table on the FIRE Belgium website, https://firebelgium.com/brokers -- Brokers are an important part of index investing. But it's only one part of the system you need to setup. You also need to understand taxes, pick the right ETFs, determine your asset allocation, build your personal investment plan, and then figure out all the practical stuff. It can feel overwhelming. And to help you I invite you to watch the Free Workshop on Index Investing for Beginners: https://firebelgium.com/investingwork... In the workshop you will learn: - What makes index investing the best way to invest for the long term - How to get better results than banks and professional fund managers and protect yourself during market crashes - How to invest well with 100 euros (you don’t need much to get started!) in less than 5 minutes a month - How to get started with index investing Belgium in just a few weeks – my practical roadmap to learn everything you need to know and start investing with confidence. Watch the workshop on demand here: https://firebelgium.com/investingwork... And if you want quick responses to your questions, Toon (who is the special guest on this episode) and myself are also available for 1-on-1 consultation calls. You will find those details on https://firebelgium.com/1on1

I know an investor who had to pay 70,000 euros in penalty fees because he was investing with the wrong broker. And his portfolio was worth less than 50,000 euros. The broker you pick is a crucial part of your investment strategy. Getting the wrong broker could be very costly. In this episode, we explain: - why the cheapest broker is not always the best (it rarely is) - the 4 key criteria for broker selection - how you can select the perfect broker - how to avoid beginner’s mistakes You can also check the article on the same topic here: https://firebelgium.com/how-to-pick-your-broker/  ___ ►► Index investing for beginners: 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 Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑Join the Belgium Financial Independence Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium/

As you probably know I am a huge proponent of index investing, because of its simplicity and its effectiveness to bring regular people the market returns they deserve.   But how does this simple investing approach work?    How can index investing be implemented by people like you and me?    And how can it help us build financial security and reach financial independence?   That is what we're discussing in this incredible interview with JL Collins.    This is an interview from 2 years ago, but it's so good that I decided to release it on the podcast too.   JL Collins is the author of The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich Free Life (https://www.thesimplepathtowealth.com/) and the blogger behind of the famous Stock Series on https://jlcollinsnh.com. He is also known as the Godfather of Financial Independence!   In this interview, JL tells us about his experience as an index investor, the power of index investing and how to get started! He also shares his approach to FU Money and financial independence.  Don’t miss it!    --- ►► 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

Kristy and Bryce retired with a million dollars in their early 30's and they have been traveling the world since! Their story is incredible and because the way they achieved is so simple, they are an example that many of us can follow. In fact my own journey to FIRE is very similar to theirs! No real estate, simple saving and investing with index funds. Nothing complicated, nothing that you cannot do too. In this interview, you will learn about Why buying a house can be the worst financial decision if you're pursuing financial independence How to plan to financial independence How to use geoarbitrage and save money while traveling the world How powerful and effective index investing can be And how simple it is for anyone to implement This is one of the most amazing and funniest interviews I have had the chance to do. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Make sure you get a copy of Kristy and Bryce's book Quit Like a Millionaire: No Gimmicks, Luck, or Trust Fund Required and read their blog Millennial Revolution - Stop Working. Start Living. ►► Index investing for beginners: 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 Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑Join the Belgium Financial Independence Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium/

What if I told you that real estate investing can be easy? What if I told you that to be a successful real estate investor, you don’t need to become an expert entrepreneur with a vast network and be willing to get up at 5 AM to fix the plumbing for unhappy tenants? Today you will learn about a new way of investing in real estate, one where you can start with just a hundred euros, diversify across multiple properties, and benefit from short term rental higher profitability without having to do all the work. In this episode, we dive into all the details of how that is possible, the pros, the cons and the limitations in this fascinating interview with François Kiescoms, the Founder of Scargo. _______________________ Find Scargo online: https://www.clubscargo.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/club-scargo https://www.facebook.com/clubscargo https://www.instagram.com/clubscargo/ _______________________ ►► Index investing for beginners: 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 Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑Join the Belgium Financial Independence Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium/ _______________________

I can’t say it enough: I am so blessed to have been able to reach financial independence at 33. Since then I’ve been able to enjoy life in an unimaginable way with my wife and my 2 sons. But what made it possible? What did I have that enabled me to get to financial independence? I didn’t build a unicorn tech business, I didn’t get super lucky with individual stocks or crypto and I didn’t get any big inheritance. In fact, I started from 0 at 26 and was even in debt, with no accommodation, no social security and no pension. And my investment strategy is replicable by anyone because it’s super simple. What I am saying is that it is not rocket science, but there are important factors that made a big difference. In this episode, we explore the 5 things that helped me reach financial independence! ___ ►► Index investing for beginners: 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 Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑Join the Belgium Financial Independence Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium/ ___

I get asked a lot how I managed to reach FI at 33 years old. Recently, someone I respect a lot asked me on LinkedIn: “How on earth did you retire at 33??” So that is what I explain in this episode! Here is what you will learn: My (lack off) money-knowledge background growing up in a regular middle-class family How going into debt and making stupid expensive mistakes put me on this path How I was forced to learn to invest wisely (and how you can too!) The key elements that made it possible for me to quit my job at 33 (I know, it’s a bit insane). How I left my job and what happened next! I cover my entire journey in this episode! My goal is for you to learn from this and pick up an idea or two that you can implement in your own life! Hopefully it gives you motivation to either get started or take the next step to make progress! ►► Index investing for beginners: 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 Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑Join the Belgium Financial Independence Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium/

How do you invest during bear markets? This is an extremely important question for any index investor, and any investor in general of course. And this is a very relevant question today because the stock market is down 20% in the US and about 10% globally today compared to the beginning of the year. Following COVID and now with the war in Ukraine, the world economy has slowed down. Inflation is breaking records in many countries and there are talks of an upcoming recession in most news media. While falling stock market prices is a great opportunity for long term investors like us, it’s still hard to handle the uncertainty. It’s hard to invest when the overall expectation seems to be that it is going to continue to go down. It is especially hard for beginner investors, like the students who took my course in the past few months and only started investing recently. To help them manage their emotions and overcome these uncertainties, I invited one of the very best people on earth to talk to us about how to invest in bear markets: Rick Ferri. Rick Ferri is the president of The John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy and host of the “Bogleheads on Investing” podcast. He has been a financial advisor for 35 years and a pioneer of low cost investing via index mutual funds and ETFs, and low-fee investment advice and portfolio management. He is the author of 7 investment books (including one of my favorites “All About Asset Allocation”) and hundreds of articles. Published in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and professional journals. He has helped thousands of index investors navigate uncertain times like the one we’re going through now. So I was extremely happy when he accepted to join our event, despite it being during his holidays. Rick, if you’re listening to this I would like to thank you once more on behalf of the entire community. The conversation was really insightful and it had an incredible impact on the audience. Most of the fears and uncertainty attendees had before the event were dissipated by the no-nonsense and very clear approach of Rick. All of us left the event with a reinforced mindset that will help us get through these uncertain times successfully. The conversation was so good that I decided to also release it on the podcast so that the entire community can benefit from it. ►► Index investing for beginners: 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 Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑Join the Belgium Financial Independence Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium/

Right, so now that we know what financial independence is (see previous episode), how do we get there? What do you need to do? If you’re just discovering the FIRE movement or simply want to take control of your finances to build more security in your life, this episode is for you. In this episode you will learn: How you already have some financial independence! How you can learn and make progress faster! How to start taking control of your finances! How you can make fast improvements to your finances today! How to invest for financial independence. ►► Index investing for beginners: 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 Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑Join the Belgium Financial Independence Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium/

Financial independence… is this a scam? That’s probably how I would have reacted to those words 12-13 years ago… but after learning what it is and having achieved financial independence, I have now become a big proponent of it. And that is because financial independence is in fact something most people aspire to… but rarely really think about seriously... So what is it really? In this episode, we go back to the basics and explore the various definitions of financial independence! And more than just the goal of reaching financial independence, we also discuss the journey to FI. We also explore all the incredible benefits of financial independence, from a greater sense of security to greater control over how we use our time and energy. If you’re new to the FIRE movement or financial independence in general, this episode is for you! ►► Index investing for beginners: 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 Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://bit.ly/FIREBGuide 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑Join the Belgium Financial Independence Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIREBelgium/

Welcome to the FIRE Belgium Show! I am so excited to finally release this podcast. It’s a project I have been wanting to do for a long time! In this first short episode you will learn: - What this show is about - Why I started this podcast - What you can expect going forward Thank you for listening! I am very happy you’ve decided to join me on this journey! Be sure to check the next few episodes as well! 🔥 Sébastien ___ Have an idea for an episode or a guest that you would love to hear from? Send it to us here! 👉 https://forms.gle/B15kBtgZoQFKj8DH8 ___ 📥Contact us: hello@firebelgium.com 📝 Download the Beginner's Guide to Index Investing: https://mailchi.mp/61d56a44ca20/beginner-guide  ___