Hi everyone!

I've been investing for almost a year now with a small amount of capital, mostly to get familiar with the world of markets and personal finance. I’m 26, conservative investor, and I’ve always kept my distance from trading, YouTube “gurus” and get-rich-quick schemes.

After some time learning and experimenting, I wanted to share my strategy and hear what more experienced investors think.

🧠 The idea: build a modular portfolio with global exposure. Instead of the usual split between developed and emerging markets, I prefer dividing by region — using two ETFs per region: one accumulating and one distributing.

Why both? Honestly, I’m still figuring it out — but I like the idea of having some exposure to dividends while reinvesting long-term. My goal is to reach €50,000 in savings as a milestone, partly because that’s the cap for earning interest on Trade Republic’s savings account (which I’m also using).

⚙️ I invest monthly (~€700) and aim to rebalance the weights annually. I selected ETFs with low TERs and (when possible) EUR-based to avoid currency conversion. It’s not always easy to find the perfect match, but here’s the setup:

• Europe (40%)

ETF (Acc) --> $SMEA (-0,31%) | ETF(Dist) --> $EQDS (-0,44%)

• USA (30%)

ETF (Acc) --> $SPPW (+0,15%) | ETF(Dist) --> $SPY5 (+0,24%)

• Emergin Markets (20%)

ETF (Acc) --> $EIMI (-0,53%) | ETF (Dist) --> $IEEM (-1,01%)

• Gold + BTC (10%)

ETF --> $SGLD (+0,41%)

The idea is to split each region’s weight equally between the two ETFs — that is, 50% of the region's allocation to each ETF. This results in a total TER of 0.289%.

Would love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or suggestions! Still very new to all this, so any insight from more experienced investors would be super helpful 🙌

Thanks for reading! 🚀

#etfs
#stockanalysis
#dividends
#crypto

I started my investment journey 5 years ago through small single stock purchases and started seriously my ETF journey in 2021. I am 31 years old and have lived in Germany for 3 years. I realized early on that stocks and crypto are not for me as I cannot justify large swings in value easily and it makes me nervous 😅.

So in 2021 I settled for $VWCE (+0,09%) as my main position, a decision I have not regretted. I also invested in a number of bonds from my home country, which I am now phasing out and converting to ETFs, as I think they are too low risk for my long-term 10+ year strategy. Investing in a second world mutual fund $KRTRP7 was maybe a newbie mistake as well due to a large maintenance fee, but I don't plan to sell this position but just keep it growing.

Since my move to Germany and getting settled with German brokers, I have started taking advantage of the 1000 euros tax free allocation and started investing in $VWRL (+0,1%)
$GGRP (-0,28%) and $HMWO (+0,13%) as a way of getting monthly dividends. I should use the entire allocation next year but still plan to grow these positions, as getting increasing dividends has motivated me to invest even more of my monthly income (currently at 50% as I live alone frugally). $EQDS (-0,44%) provides solid dividend return but since it's based on European markets, performance has been poor lately. But I still contribute a small percentage each month.

I have read arguments about the disadvantages of dividend-ETFs but I believe a balance of low yield, high performance ETFs is the best compromise.

I currently have one stock $NVDA (+1,62%) just for fun, and $XAIX (-0,18%) is also a small percentage of my monthly contributions just because I have faith in this field.

At the moment I reinvest bond coupons and expired bonds into $VWCE (+0,09%) and my monthly contributions to the dividend ends (weighted by dividend output) and $XAIX (-0,18%) (5%). I wish to reach financial independence where I can semi-retire in 10 years (in my forties).

What would you do differently in your case? Do you recommend other positions?

$EQDS (-0,44%) your opinion on this high dividend ETF or high dividend ETFs in general? Is it worth it?

When the only ETF I invest is green in a red sea of other ETFs that I follow... 😂

Interest rates are going up, big tech probably will be hurt. Looks like there can be a rotation to dividend plays, some sectoral rotatians are also expected.

Tapering till 2022 summer and then increasing interest rate by FED comes into play... Well that can happen earlier. While we know this will happen, taking positions in such dividend ETFs can be wise... (Not an investment advice). Looks like many investors do this already...

I increased my Europe Dividend ETF position a lot today...

What do you guys think?