[gingerlime]

Any tips for investors in Europe? (Germany or UK in my personal case).

I understand that these strategies are not country-specific, but not sure if Vanguard is accessible to non-US citizens, and there might be tax implications in different countries. That's why I'm asking.

[computerjunkie]

For folks in the United Kingdom, Vanguard index funds are now accessible through their new website[0]. Their website was released mid May 2017 and has caused a good shakeup[1] in the individual investor space as other stock brokers commission charges are incredibly high.

[0] https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/home

[1] http://www.scotsman.com/business/markets-economy/bill-jamies...

They have mentioned that Vanguard will be looking to give access to Europe in 2018.

[Edit] - Removed Financial Times link as they have a paywall.

[rb808]

One thing about Index trackers is that the research and all the hype is largely about S&P500 and the US stock market. Europe wide indices are more complex and I haven't seen as much research. EuroStoxx 50 is very bank heavy and only has 50 stocks, the 600 is wider but not so popular. There is more of a case to buy active funds in Europe.

For tax specific stuff you should look at your regional sites eg

https://global.vanguard.com/portal/site/home https://www.ishares.com/us/ishares-global

[objclxt]

> (Germany or UK in my personal case) [...] not sure if Vanguard is accessible to non-US citizens, and there might be tax implications in different countries

Vanguard operate mutual funds in the UK priced and traded in GBP, through their UK subsidiary. They're available through most major trading platforms. The one thing to note about Vanguard's UK funds is that the management fees are higher than their US equivalents (but still one of the cheapest in the UK market).

As others have said, you can also just buy ETF versions of most of their funds, which are regular shares traded on the stock market. In that case you're buying in USD.

As far as tax is concerned it's treated just like any other investment (and if you're tax resident in the UK and still have an ISA allowance you can just put it in there and negate the tax entirely).

[_wdh]

There's a good list of UK brokers here, most of which have Vanguard funds. http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/ Personally, I use Charles Stanley Direct and I don't have any complaints about them.

Make sure to stick it in an ISA account if possible to keep it tax free.

[YesProcrast]

The idea of indexing doesn't require a specific index. It is more general than that. The idea that average returns are pretty good, and average returns with low cost-of-management are even better.

In order to get average returns, the key is simply to own a tiny fraction of the entire market, whatever "market" means to you. The focus has long been on the S&P simply because it has historically done a pretty good job of representing the US equities market, it is market-cap weighted (unlike the Dow), and the earliest index funds tracked the S&P.

It's my expectation, stated without proof, that it should be easy to find a comparable index in Europe, if you want to match the average European return.

[VHRanger]

The key idea behind index investing is paying low fees.

Non index funds perform the same as index funds (and research indicates you can differentiate the ones that outperform a priori with any method). But those funds have higher fees.

[seardluin]

You can buy Vanguard funds through Charles Stanley.

https://www.charles-stanley-direct.co.uk/ViewFund?Sedol=B41X...

[vldx]

You might want to check the various ETFs - they're pretty much the same as index funds.

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/mutualfund/05/etfindexf...

I'm from Europe and I'm holding couple of Blackrock ETFs.

Here's handy site for screening EU based ETFs (no affiliation).

https://www.justetf.com/

[yls]

Hi, I highly recommend a book in case you read German. Despite its weird title, I found it very worthwhile.

Souverän investieren mit Indexfonds und ETFs: Wie Privatanleger das Spiel gegen die Finanzbranche gewinne

by Gerd Kommer

You can also google for Kommer Portfolio. It is, IMHO, very well balanced (asset classes, geography etc.).