March 2022 has seen quite a rebound of the portfolio from the lows of January and February. The gain is absolute terms is more than 9,000 Euro and it all happened in the second half of the month.
With the performance of March, I am back to a (unrealized) capital gain of around 33,000 Euro or 16% in relative terms. Considering that 9,000 Euro came from March, you can understand how much the drop since the beginning of the year has impacted my portfolio.
I did not do any transaction in the month as I still need to deposit my investment quota (2,700 Euro) and reduce my margin trade deficit.
All the most important ETFs that I own have bounced back but the top three winner of the month are Vanguard FTSE North America, iShares Global Clean Energy and iShares Core MSCI Europe.
In terms of dividends, March 2022 turned out to be the highest month ever with 467 Euro paid out. To give some reference, March 2021 had been already pretty good at 242 Euro and the previous top month was September 2021 with 435 Euro.
You can see below how the yellow line (2022) is towering over the orange one (2021). Dividends might be tax inefficient but they are quite satisfying to watch!
Outside of this, also the crypto investment recovered and is now back to its original value (1,800 Euro).
So, overall March has been a much better month than January and February - high dividends were the cherry on top. Let's see how the situation progresses in April!
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Write a comment
Michal (Monday, 04 April 2022 18:59)
You stated " Dividends might be tax inefficient ", what is the tax on your dividends? Can you advise then why would you go for Distributed ETFs rather than Accumulated ones? What are the benefits for you personally? Thanks and looking forward to the new post.
just(an)ordinaryguy (Tuesday, 05 April 2022 08:24)
Hey Michal,
I live in the Netherlands, where we have a slightly different system vs rest of Europe as far as I know. I am trying to simplify but basically all your assets get bundled together and you are taxed on a hypothetical yield - not on your actual capital gains or dividends. Therefore, the choice of Accumulating vs Distributing in Netherlands should be neutral.
I think it is properly explained here - https://www.blueumbrella.nl/faq/income-tax/income-tax-rate-in-the-netherlands/box-3-tax-rates
PS this was ruled unconstitutional at the end of last year, so it will change somewhere in the future but not clear yet how!
Michal (Tuesday, 05 April 2022 10:48)
Thanks for sharing. An interesting read for sure!
Another question on your ETFs; noticed that most of your ETFs are in USD currency. Are you concerned with the way your dividends are converted to EUR? Or when you'd be withdrawing your Accumulated stocks the exchange rate won't be favorable or will lower the value of your gains?
Do you think this is a valid concern to have? On the flip side most of the biggest ETFs I see that are available to me (via Degiro) are in USD.
just(an)ordinaryguy (Wednesday, 06 April 2022 23:45)
Hey Michal,
I am just startint to learn about all the details on the currency topic, I have to say I dont know enough to give you a proper answer on it but it is something I will deep dive soon and come back to!
As far as I understand at very high level, the currency you see often in the name of the ETF is largely irrelevant for the performance and is important mostly for reporting purposes. What really matters is how the ETF is built up in terms of geographies because that will determine your potential currency risk / exposure.
But again, I am just scratching the surface!