Non-US Investing • [Germany] Starting German portfolio, and possibly moving some US investments

Hi there,

Country of residence: I am a German citizen and moved back to Germany some 3 years ago. I used to hold a US green card, which I gave up this year.

International lifestyle: I've moved around before, and would like to keep my options open. I'd assign a 30% chance to ending up in the US again at some point, and an 80% chance to retiring in the EU.

Age: mid-30s

Desired asset allocation: 70% stocks / 30% bonds--not sure
Home country bias: probably not a lot, seeing as I want geographic flexibility--not sure though

Currency: Current salary and expenditures: EUR; prior investments and reserves: USD

Current US assets

I have some investments and reserves on the order of 400k in the US from my time there, which *I think I need to move to some EU vehicle*. They're currently managed by a financial adviser and have not done terribly well over the past 5 years. I chose a strong focus on ESG funds at the time, which I still care about.

General investment account, taxable
70% in portfolio managed by LPL, about 50/50 allocation with ESG focus
7% in Roth IRA
9% cash in money market account

Retirement savings account, tax deferred (US 403B)
13% in VANG TARG RET 2055 (a blended retirement fund of some kind)


New EUR investments

In addition to the above, I recently acquired EUR assets on the order of 500k through an inheritance, which are currently in limbo in some German money market accounts. This is what I'm thinking I will do with those:

General investment account, taxable
70% Amundi Index MSCI World SRI PAB UCITS ETF DR (C) (A2JSDA) (ter: 0.18%)
30% Amundi Index Global Aggregate 500m UCITS ETF DR (C) (A2ANS1) (ter: 0.10%)

My thinking is that I will start very simple this time, and may add some emerging markets / small caps as I become more comfortable.

Questions:

1. How does the New Investments portfolio look to you?
   1. I am leaning toward EUR currency ETFs, to avoid dealing with currency fluctuation. They do tend to have higher cost ratios. Is it still reasonable to stick with EUR?
   2. The equity ETF has an ESG focus. Is it reasonable to go all in on something like that?
   3. What do you recommend regarding phasing in that amount of EUR that is currently in cash? Is 6 months a reasonable time horizon?
2. What should I do with the mess I have in the US? Do I need to get my investments out of the US now that I do not hold a green card? How does one go about that?
3. Are there any particular tax-protected retirement investment vehicles I should be aware of in Germany (I am not aware of any that would apply to me)?
4. Do you have opinions on brokerage account providers (Smartbrokers, Trade Republic)?
5. Am I missing anything important here?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Statistics: Posted by galilea — Fri Jan 05, 2024 2:35 pm — Replies 0 — Views 2

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