 Good day, fellow investors. One question that I really get a lot is how to invest from Europe and how to invest your euros. So today we'll discuss what's the environment in Europe, what's the investing, what are the investing opportunities in Europe, give you a good overview of what can happen. And then I'm going to give you 10 investing strategies that should give you a lot of food for thought, a lot of places to dig deeper and see how to position yourself in this environment in Europe. So let's start. These are the video topics, the European economy, the euro, what can happen in the future and then 10 investment strategies. Let's start immediately with the economy. There is a simple fundamental formula for what to expect when it comes to economic growth, strength, future potential, whatever. The source, how the economic machine works from Ray Dalio and Bridgewater. The key to economic growth is productivity, which can be enhanced with debt and then unfortunately also slowed down when you have to deleverage. So in their model, Dalio and Bridgewater found pretty good correlations between productivity and debt with future growth, 84% for subsequent 10-year growth. And they have also made an outlook for Europe and their estimate for real future GDP growth. And I have highlighted Europe in the below table. Where is Europe? Oh, I have to go to the end of the table. Sorry. So Europe, 0% to 0.8 max. You see Germany, France, Hungary, Spain, Italy and Greece, which are the countries they have taken into account. Compare Europe to the rest of the world and you can really see that Europe is the back holder of the world. And that there is nothing we can do to avoid this. So we know what's going on in Europe. Population is aging. There is a lot of populism going on. Unemployment is very low, especially in the southern countries, which means there is so much destruction of human capital. There is so much entitlement where people expect from what they had in the past. We still have royalties. We royalty families. We are really an old-fashioned world focused on banks. Risk taking is really low. And to summarize all European problems, I think this Ray Dalio table does that because Ray Dalio puts everything into perspective, culture, whatever education. And then he gets out with this. And this is what we have to expect from Europe. And I think that given how the world is changing fast, I think we should be happy with 0.5% real growth per year over the next 10, 20 years. I say, I repeat myself, we as Europeans should be happy with 0.5%. So we have the economy. Let's see about the currency with a shitty economy. What do you think will happen to the currency? Well, to pay off the debt, to pay whatever they have been doing, printing money, to pay the budget deficits, it's better to just debase the currency, lower the value of the currency. And that's the most likely outcome for the euro. Will we have inflation? Yes or not? We don't know. We haven't had it for the last 10 years. But the value of the euro has completely deteriorated. Let me show you. Wages in the Netherlands were around 2,000 euros in 1998. Now those are around 3,000, which is about 2% per year growth in line with inflation. So no real wage growth in the Netherlands. However, if you look at home prices and especially the above line, the blue line for Amsterdam, you can see that home prices increased from an index of 100 in 1995 to above 350. And this is 2015. So it should be now probably 400. So four times while wages increased just 50%. And this is exactly what shows how this is not half the value. This is just one quarter of the real value because fixed assets like real estate, especially in sought after areas like Amsterdam, where things are going on, show you what can really happen to the economy, what should be happening to the economy. And the other parts show what is unfortunately the decrease in value. So you have this differentiation that shows, okay, this is what should happen. And this is what, unfortunately, nobody wants to look. When you look at the average is okay, okay, it's not that much. But when you separate the averages, you see, okay, this is normal. And this is unfortunately the very, very bad. So I would say that the value of the euro is one quarter of what it was 20 years ago. So that's something to keep in mind already. And the situation will be only worse in the future. Why did the euro decline so much in value because of this? This is the European Central Bank balance sheet. And you can see that it expanded about seven times in the last 15 years, and is still expanding. We should be lucky we haven't had more inflation and more currency value loss. What did the banks do? People are worried now about banks in Italy. 14 billion euros was pumped into Dutch banks after the crisis, 18 billion in commerce bank in Germany, nationalizing ABNMRO and SNS Real in the Netherlands, 60 billion in Spanish banks, 63 billion pounds in UK RBS, I think it was. So that happened just nine years ago or eight years ago where banks, everybody governments were piling in to save the banks. What is different now than it was nine years ago? Nothing, there is just more money, more money printed out of thin air to save and to keep the situation as is. What will happen in the next shock? Well, of course, we're going to print even more money, the ECB is going to do this. As would Draghi say, we're going to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro, believe me, it will be enough. So yes, the euro might be preserved, but what will be the value of the euro in relation to fixed assets? Well, we have seen what has been going on in Amsterdam, London and just check the most sought areas around you in Europe and you will see huge differentiation in price spikes. So on the economy despite the printing, we see growth of just 2% in Europe and slowing down. So on average, we are what 1% when you account for the declines 2013-2009. So very, very bad situation and as I said, we can be happy with 0.5% in the future. What is the ECB buying? They are buying, they have a little bit of gold, foreign currency, they are lending to banks, of course, and they are buying securities. They are buying securities to keep interest rates low because if interest rates in Europe get higher, everybody is in trouble. Now what can happen in the future? Germany looks good, but with all what it is around and how Germany is dependent on the other economies, also everything is so correlated that the average will unfortunately weigh over the future of Europe, if Europe stays together. So what is my expectation? Expect this, the value of this to be zero over the next 10-20 years. So don't put your faith into this because you can see it completely deteriorating. Even when I started this video, it was 10 and now it's already 100 for the same piece of paper. You see how that devaluates. So when it comes to Europe, the first message is be personally diversified. What does that mean? Well, nobody knows what will happen, nobody knows what can happen. There are blacks ones everywhere, something will surprise us in the future. So you have to be diversified to be protected from whatever can happen. Secondly, you are already long Europe. If you live in Europe, if you work in Europe, if your parents work in Europe, if your kids go to school in Europe, if your business is in Europe, if you will get inheritance in Europe, your pension is in Europe, you're already very, very long Europe. So a message is, okay, diversify somewhere else. You are very, very exposed to Europe and long Europe and the outlook is sluggish. And something else that a lot of people seek, they see, okay, in the bank I can get 0, 0.5, 0.4 or nothing. And then they seek the 2% Sven, give me some good investment that will give me a 2-3% yield. If the value of this goes to 0, what's the point of the 2%-3% yield from what looks apparently a safe investment, especially if it is a bank that will be bailed out in 10 years? So forget about safe investments, there aren't such in Europe. Forget about it. Especially if you look at the composition of the Euro stocks 50 index, financials 18.15%, they were all bailed out and they will all have to be bailed out. And they are being bailed out at the moment as the ECB is printing 40 billion euros per month still. And we'll see when it stops and when it stops taking that money back, which will destroy Europe. So they will never do that. Industrials, cyclical, consumer discretionary, cyclical. So this is not a safe investment. So be very, very careful with that. Don't forget about the crazy financials. So you're already long Europe, wish it or not, your pension fund, your whatever, your job. So the only answer is, okay, let's be diversified so that I'm long, but I'm also protected in case something else happens, not like every other European that's just long. Let me give you 10 investment strategies. Number one, if you can find it, have great real estate. There is in Europe, the world is very, very big. So if you want to really dig deeper, invest in it or find even stocks, you can find great real estate because those are fixed. So real estate is fixed if there is some great real estate that can deliver a satisfying return, especially if you can get a fixed interest mortgage like there are a lot of opportunities in Europe, then you might think, okay, something fixed, something that will deliver value for the long term. So that's one way of thinking and exposing your portfolio. I'm saying diversified, not I'm going to put 40% of my money there and that that will be fine. So think about that. Subsequently, number two, be sure to the euro. I now have a mortgage 40 years fixed interest rate. If inflation comes, which is coming if the euro goes down, that will be very, very easy to repay. And that's another way to be short the euro. So you are long, okay, job, everything European living here, but you can be short by having a mortgage. If it is in a fixed interest rate, because even when inflation hits and interest rates go up, you want to have a fixed mortgage rate. Number three, India, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and let me put this simple for you. Asia population 4.46 billion, if we go back to Dalio's table, look at the top there, India, China, Singapore, Mexico, Thailand, Argentina, Korea and a lot of countries that he didn't include as they looked only at 12, 20 countries. So diversify here 4.4 billion people growing economies. Okay, there is some debt. There will always be issues, but how will this look like in 20 years? And how will Europe look like in 20 years? I already said number four, don't hold diversified European stocks, hold stocks in Europe if you must hold in Europe that have value, that have low debt, that have good forecast, that have good perspectives and that are not that much related to governments to demand from Europe that are not volatile, perhaps even better if they have global business so that they benefit from the weakness of the euro. So that's something you have to check each portfolio position individually. Number five, and this is better that my wife doesn't hear this, spend the money. So the money is practically will be worthless. So if you spend it now and buy something of value to you, you might travel, education, honeymoon, whatever, if you spend it, you get value for what it's worth. You can still get a lot far with the euro today, but if it's worthless in the future, you will wish you have spent it in the past. So enjoy your life. That's also an investment strategy. We are all dead in the long term. So we should also thinking sometimes, okay, let's spend it, let's enjoy it because just accumulating it to protect it from whatever drug it does, it's not such a smart idea. Protection number six, there is populism, there is high debt levels, high budget deficits as we are seeing in Italy. So if there will be more printing, more and more money printing, gold, miners, commodities might be again a way to diversify. This is more of a hedge. So don't expect it to be an investment. But if you have a part of it in your diversified portfolio from Europe, you'll do well no matter what. Number seven, and this is very, very hard because you should forget about thinking in euros and start thinking in value. And that's a different concept because everything is valued in euros. You have a salary in euros, you have this and you have your house is worth that much in euros. But if we can stop thinking in euros that lose value every month and every year and every decade, it's 50% less of the value that it was, then we have to stop thinking in euros and start thinking in value. Okay, what will appreciate in value over time? What is a good business? What is a good asset? What is a good piece of real estate? What is a good, I don't know. So really try to think differently, some food forethought, try to think in value, not in euros, wherever that value might be across the world. Number eight, cryptocurrencies. No, I'm not going to recommend investing in cryptocurrencies, but I'm going to say that if you have 10 investments like this, not buying at, when those are hot, like cryptocurrencies still are, but buying cryptocurrencies, I don't know, five years ago, like many of my friends did, or four years ago, and then putting one 2% of your portfolio in such a crazy investment that might become 50 bagger, 100 bagger, if you lose everything, you lose everything. So that's the message, not cryptocurrencies. Finding investments and investing without fear, one 2% of the worthless euros in such an investment that might explode, but might also go to zero. However, if you invest in 10, 20 of those, and let's say that of the 20, just one explodes and becomes 50 times bigger of the 20, 20%. So you invested 20 times 1% in your portfolio, and just one becomes 50 times bigger, your return is more than 100% on that part of the portfolio. And I'm sure more of the 20 such investments, if you give yourself time, it's a dynamic process, give 10, 20 years to do that. So each year you invest 1% in something crazy, that's another diversification strategy that might lead to good things, plus you will learn a lot, plus you will have a lot of fun. Also hedges buy out of the money options on some overvalued stocks, etc. Number nine, I already mentioned it, diversify, diversify, but real diversification. Again, the stock, European stock index, or if you buy the SAP 500 is not diversification, real diversification is really diversified across uncorrelated value. So if you own, I don't know, utility in South America with, I don't know, a rental apartment in Malaysia with something in Russia with the minor in, I don't know, Uzbekistan or something like that, then you are, okay, still correlated. So those are still stocks, but much less correlated than SAP 500 stocks, 500. Further, if you own food commodities, commodity producers, then you are getting less and less diversified hedges, gold hedges, etc, then we are talking already about something. So think about real diversification, not diversification what has been preached by academics over the last 50 years. And number 10, start a business, start a global business, start an online business, take more risks in your life. We Europeans take much less risk than Americans, than Asians. And that's why we don't have Apple here, we don't have Google, we don't have the Chinese growth stock, we don't have Alibaba. We still have the small businesses, no risk, get along from the bank and do things like that. So take advantage, there is a lot of knowledge in Europe, take advantage of what you know, start a global business, take advantage of the internet, start a YouTube channel and show what you can do, diversify in another way and then you will see over the long term that whatever happens in Europe, you will be fine. So let's summarize it, diversification, diversification, but real crazy diversification, really opposite diversification and you'll do well no matter what. I'm building a portfolio that's really diversified, most of the assets are outside Europe because, A, I am long Europe, but B, Europe is really the continent with the lowest perspectives in the world. So that's why invest across the world with better risk reward opportunities. A dividend of four or five percent in Europe with the downside that might happen is really not a great investment. Thank you for watching, looking forward to your comments, this is just process food for thought, so add your two cents in the comments below. That would mean a lot to me to increase the value for everybody who watches this and perhaps get more ideas to make another video to really see what can we Europeans do. Also share, share with some smart people that can further add value to this. So thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next video.