USD rate used: 1 USD = 0.885514 EUR
Quarter two was just as much of a thrill ride as Q1, but in reverse. We went from a bear market to new highs in a matter of weeks instead of months or years. The question is though, is this move sustainable? For the moment the sharp recovery results in an excellent recovery of my portfolio across the board.
After a live-changing May, June was a lot less crazy. That is not to say that nothing happened in June. I actually invested quite a bit in the site. These investments made my SR drop but thanks to my holiday pay, I was able to keep the damage to a minimum.
In 2020 (and beyond) Belgium is still the country with the highest average income tax and tax wedge in the world (OECD, 2020a). I’m willing to bet Americans’ blood would boil seeing my payslip at the end of the month. 52.2% of what my employer pays for me ends up in the hands of the government. For comparison, the US tax wedge for a single with no kids is 29.8% (OECD, 2020b). So, where do these taxes come from? and are there any benefits to paying so many taxes, besides the typical usage such as firefighters, roads, public buildings, etc.?
