Transfer from Germany/EUR to IBKR (and more)

Investing / Brokers
1

Hellol Forum

just registered newly after having read the blog and forum for quite some time. Awsome things and people here and I learn / confirm a lot. Thanks for everyone and MP in particular.

Now I´d like to run my plan by you guys hoping for some challenging/confirmation.

backgound

I moved to CH like 10 yrs back, working here for much longer. My “money” / portfolio is still - I guess for historic reasons - in Germany at a few low cost brokers. One the one hand this is due to laziness, but also as I am probably as a German a “geiz ist geil” child, so very much looking on costs (which should ring a bell in this forum :wink: ). I am not worried about having invested in EUR listed ETFs mainly, as by structure they are anyway “global”, so it shouldn´t matter. My centre of living is CH (and should remain here), have a family and house here, but basically most of my daily expenses happen in EUR. I usually transfer the cash needs for a month via Wise to a German bank account (and then pay stuff from there)

situation / why am I asking?

Now, I got a larger amount of cash (EUR) in Germany. That should trigger an activity to structure my portfolio (“physically”, so “where?”; and later on, not in this thread maybe, also content wise; some kind of core/satelite strategy).

I opened an IBKR account and aim to invest there. Maybe I´ll keep the exisisting accounts on the German side, but invest any fresh money in CH / at IBKR. (but also keeping e.g. savings for kids. I find really easy in D; I want to keep their accounts on my name for now)

First question on that journey would be: how do I transfer some 100k? First I thought “sure, via Wise” (EUR→CHF) and take the hit of the fees, then I checked with chatGPT which recommended to just transfer the EUR (SEPA, for free), keep it on an IBKR EUR account and only change to CHF once I decide for e.g. an ETF which is listed in CHF (or USD). (later on question: why should I when the ETF is also available in EUR, not sure about spreads, but in general it should not matter?)

later on…

I might invest the large cash (EUR money market funds) over time. maybe 5 or 10% every month, additionally I may react to dips based on some simple rules (such as: S&P minus 10% → invest additional 10% or so). Main portion should be a simple global ETF; I am on my way “back” from believing 5 to 10 ETFs to now again more like 1 or 2 ETFs… (ACWI or so; although I am not in the pro EM team…) plus some satellites, currently I only can believe in tech… maybe some BTC (5%; I am at bitvavo) or Au (although I am not really sure why). But as said… later on.

First I´d like to get the “infrastructure” setup right.

Thank for your thoughts on this.

2

How is that even possible? If you live here and pay taxes here and rent/mortgage here, presumably all that is in CHF? You’d have to have massive expenses to have higher expenses than tax and housing costs in EUR.

3

sorry Phil, I was not precise. You are right, housing costs, taxes, health insurance etc - that occurs in CHF. I meant only all type of shopping, from expensive stuff, car, furniture, food, down to bread… (which I bake myselt :slight_smile: )

4

Just move the money directly to IB, that’s the cheapest currency conversion you can get for larger sums (~2 CHF flat, interbank rate). Then it’s up to you what you do with it, if you keep it in EUR I’d move it to some overnight rate ETF or MMF or similar rather than cash.

If you convert directly to CHF, it’s fine to keep as is (0% is a good rate, you won’t get much higher).

1 Like
5

With a Swiss tax recidency you are able to claim back the full US withholding tax. For this, you need to chose a US based ETF, which of course will be in USD.