The Masterclass for €97 instead of €147 — first 50 members only
The founding code is applied automatically at checkout. Same 55 lessons, lifetime updates and 30-day money-back guarantee.
Get founding access for €97 →Own an ETF portfolio that runs itself. Taxes included.
The complete system for European investors: pick the right UCITS fund, open the right broker, get your country’s taxes right at set-up, and make your first purchase, in 11 hours of reading rather than months of forum threads.
- 55 lessons, 120,000+ words, searchable and printable. No 20-hour video to sit through.
- 330+ charts and tables built from issuer, index and tax-authority data, each with its source and date or clearly marked illustrative.
- The tax chapter nobody else writes: briefings for 26 European countries with worked examples in euros.
- Every lesson ends with one action step. Finish reading and your portfolio is live, not planned.
Our own course, sold by Aurum Digital Marketing Ltd. Everything else on this site, 600+ guides and 30+ tools, is and stays free.
Built for one kind of investor
The course is narrow on purpose. It is the fastest route for the people in the left column and a waste of money for the people in the right one.
This is for you if…
- You live in Europe (EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway) and buy, or want to buy, UCITS ETFs
- You are starting from zero, or you own a few funds and suspect the set-up is wrong
- You want one ordered system you can finish, not another list of “best ETFs”
- You would rather read and search than scrub through video
- You want your country’s tax rules handled before the first euro moves
Not for you if…
- You trade, pick stocks, or want signals, forecasts or “plays”
- You live outside Europe (the tax and broker chapters will not apply to you)
- You want personalised advice; this is education, and the decisions stay yours
- You are happy assembling the system yourself from the 600+ free guides. That path works too, it just takes longer
By the last lesson, you will have…
A running portfolio, not a plan for one
Fund chosen by ISIN, broker opened, first purchase executed, monthly auto-invest on rails.
Your country’s taxes handled at set-up
The single decision worth more than every fee optimisation combined, made correctly before the first euro moves.
A written crash rule you will follow
So the next −30% headline costs you a shrug, not a decade of compounding.
A 30-minute-a-year routine
One annual checklist. No watching, no forecasting, no fiddling. The system runs; you live your life.
The three walls this course was built to break
Choice paralysis
3,000+ UCITS ETFs, 50+ brokers and a YouTube feed that contradicts itself. You get one decision system, the 7-Filter Framework, that collapses the noise to a shortlist of four funds and walks you to a filled-in worksheet.
The tax maze
The internet teaches American rules that do not apply to you, and some actively harm you. Module 5 is the deepest chapter: the EU framework, withholding mechanics, and briefings for 26 countries that show the actual euros at stake.
The cost leak
Fees, FX conversion, the wrong fund domicile and panic-selling quietly consume a double-digit share of a lifetime portfolio. Every leak gets a lesson, a chart and a permanent fix.
Illustrative: 6% a year before costs, comparing a 0.2% all-in cost with 1.5% (a typical active fund or advised portfolio). Not a forecast.
No mystery box: the member area, a real lesson, a real chart
These are renders of the actual October 2026 pages, not mock-ups. Below them, every lesson title in the course is listed openly.
Every lesson rebuilt, three times the depth
The July edition was a tight 55-lesson system. The October edition keeps the system and triples the substance: worked examples with real numbers, common mistakes with their fixes, decision rules, and the primary sources checked for every figure.
Every lesson listed openly
Nine modules, 55 lessons, 11 hours. Work top to bottom; each lesson ends with an action step, and Module 8 is optional.
00Orientation
3 lessons · 39 min · 7,433 words · 23 charts and tables
How the course works, the 10-step roadmap on one chart, and the plain-language glossary you will use everywhere else.
- 0.1 How to Use This Course
- 0.2 The 10-Step Roadmap
- 0.3 The Investor's Glossary
01Foundations — Why Indexing Wins
6 lessons · 68 min · 12,575 words · 35 charts and tables
The evidence for indexing, risk and return, compounding, cost drag, 120 years of crashes, and why behaviour is the real enemy.
- 1.1 The Evidence: What Beats the Professionals
- 1.2 Risk and Return — What the Market Pays You For
- 1.3 Compounding, Properly Understood
- 1.4 The Cost Drag: How Fees Eat Decades of Growth
- 1.5 What to Expect: A Century of Crashes and Recoveries
- 1.6 Your Real Enemy Is Behaviour
02UCITS ETF Mechanics
7 lessons · 76 min · 13,957 words · 39 charts and tables
What UCITS protects, Irish vs Luxembourg domicile, accumulating vs distributing, TER vs tracking difference, replication, lending, currency.
- 2.1 What UCITS Actually Protects You From
- 2.2 Ireland vs Luxembourg: The Withholding-Tax Leak
- 2.3 Accumulating vs Distributing
- 2.4 TER vs Tracking Difference: The Real Price Tag
- 2.5 Physical vs Synthetic Replication
- 2.6 Securities Lending: Hidden Income, Hidden Risk
- 2.7 Currency Risk and Hedging
03Choosing Your Funds
7 lessons · 71 min · 13,187 words · 36 charts and tables
The 7-Filter Fund-Selection System, all-world one-fund options, S&P 500 satellites, two- and three-fund templates, what to skip, your final worksheet.
- 3.1 The 7-Filter Fund-Selection System · read free →
- 3.2 All-World One-Fund Portfolios Compared
- 3.3 S&P 500 as a Satellite
- 3.4 Two- and Three-Fund Templates by Risk Level
- 3.5 Bonds and Money-Market ETFs
- 3.6 What to Skip (and Why)
- 3.7 Your Final Portfolio Worksheet
04Brokers — Safety, Fees, Setup
6 lessons · 78 min · 14,576 words · 35 charts and tables
The broker safety framework, account types across Europe, fee anatomy, order types, opening an account step by step, the comparison matrix.
- 4.1 The Broker Safety Framework
- 4.2 Account Types Across Europe
- 4.3 Fee Anatomy: Commissions, FX, Custody
- 4.4 Order Types and Execution Quality
- 4.5 Opening Your Account Step-by-Step
- 4.6 The Broker Comparison Matrix
05Taxes for European Investors ★ the deepest chapter
8 lessons · 103 min · 18,753 words · 55 charts and tables
The EU tax map, withholding tax (L1/L2, treaties), domicile optimisation with worked examples, country briefings for 26 countries, moving country.
- 5.1 The EU Tax Landscape on One Map · read free →
- 5.2 Withholding Tax Explained: L1, L2 and Treaties
- 5.3 Domicile Optimization in Practice
- 5.4 Country Briefing: Germany, Austria, Switzerland
- 5.5 Country Briefing: Benelux and France
- 5.6 Country Briefing: Southern Europe
- 5.7 Country Briefing: Nordics, CEE and Baltics
- 5.8 Moving Country With a Portfolio
06Execution — Your First Purchase
6 lessons · 73 min · 13,562 words · 35 charts and tables
Your first purchase click by click, lump sum vs DCA, auto-invest, rebalancing with the tracker, record-keeping, the annual 30-minute checklist.
- 6.1 Your First Purchase, Click by Click
- 6.2 Lump Sum vs DCA: The Data and the Psychology
- 6.3 Auto-Invest and Savings Plans
- 6.4 The Rebalancing System
- 6.5 Record-Keeping for Taxes
- 6.6 The Annual 30-Minute Maintenance Checklist
07Investor Behaviour & Life Events
6 lessons · 72 min · 13,673 words · 34 charts and tables
The crash playbook (2000, 2008, 2020, 2022), media noise, life events, when selling is right, decumulation and the European 4% rule, FIRE variants.
- 7.1 The Crash Playbook
- 7.2 Media Noise Immunity
- 7.3 Life Events: Marriage, Kids, House, Inheritance
- 7.4 When Selling Is Actually Right
- 7.5 Decumulation and the European 4% Rule
- 7.6 FIRE Variants for Europeans
08Advanced Strategies (Optional)
6 lessons · 71 min · 13,045 words · 39 charts and tables
Factor investing, ex-US and regional tilts, dividend strategies, gold and commodities, crypto ETNs, multi-broker safety and estate basics beyond €100k.
- 8.1 Factor Investing: Evidence and UCITS Options
- 8.2 Ex-US and Regional Tilts
- 8.3 Dividend Strategies: Honest Pros and Cons
- 8.4 Gold and Commodities
- 8.5 Crypto ETNs: Risk Framing
- 8.6 Beyond €100k: Multi-Broker Safety and Estate Basics
Read two full lessons free. No sign-up.
These are complete lessons from the course, exactly as members see them. If they help you, the other 53 will too.
The 7-Filter Fund-Selection System
The filters that shrink 3,000+ UCITS ETFs to a shortlist of four, in the order to apply them.
Read the lesson → Lesson 5.1 · Module 5The EU Tax Landscape on One Map
How ETF taxation differs across Europe, the four tax models and what they mean for your fund choice.
Read the lesson →One payment. The course, four bonuses, every future update.
- Instant access link by email
- All 9 modules unlocked
- Workbook, tracker, cheat sheets, checklist
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Free articles? A video course? An adviser?
Honest note first: the free path genuinely works and many readers use it. The Masterclass sells speed, order and completeness, not secrets.
| Free articles including our own 600+ | The Masterclass | Typical video course | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complete, ordered system | You assemble it yourself | ✓ 10 steps, nothing missing | Usually, minus taxes |
| Your country’s taxes | Scattered guides | ✓ 26 countries, worked examples | ✗ “consult an adviser” |
| Time to a running portfolio | Weeks of research | 11 hours of reading | 20+ hours of video |
| Searchable and printable | ✓ | ✓ everything, forever | ✗ scrubbing timelines |
| Stays current | ✓ | ✓ lifetime updates | Goes stale silently |
| Price | €0 | €147 once | Several hundred euros, often a subscription |
One investor, his own money, every source named
“I built the course I could not find when I started: text you can search, charts you can trust, and the tax chapter nobody else writes.”
I am Kestutis Balciunas. I have invested my own money in UCITS ETFs and a dividend sleeve for more than 11 years, the boring way: monthly purchases, a world index, no panic selling. Since 2022 I have published more than 600 free guides and 30+ calculators on this site, read by thousands of European investors every month. The Masterclass is the complete system behind the free site: ordered, deepened, kept current.
I am not a regulated adviser and nothing here is personal advice. What you get instead is a published method, a public corrections log and an honest line between education and recommendation.
The 30-day “read all of it” guarantee
Buy it. Read the whole thing. If it is not the clearest investing education you have ever bought, one email to [email protected] within 30 days gets you a full refund. No questions, no forms. You keep the workbook either way.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no video?
By design. Text reads about three times faster than video plays, you can search every lesson, print it, and when a fund or a tax rule changes the words are updated within days. Video courses go stale silently. You get more substance per hour, not less.
How long does it take?
About 11 hours of reading in total, which most members spread over two weekends. It is self-paced with progress tracking in the member area, and Module 8 is optional.
Is my country covered?
Module 5 covers the EU framework plus country briefings for 26 European countries (DACH, Benelux and France, Southern Europe, the Nordics, CEE and the Baltics) with worked examples, and a lesson on moving country. The tax cheat-sheet pack adds a one-page summary for 30 countries. Switzerland and the UK are included.
I already read the free articles. What is new here?
The free site answers single questions. The course is the complete ordered system: 120,000+ words across 55 lessons, 330+ charts and tables, worked tax examples, the workbook, the tracker spreadsheet and lifetime updates. If you only ever read the free site you will still do fine; the course gets you there faster and with fewer gaps.
What changed in the October 2026 edition?
Every lesson was rebuilt: the course grew from about 31,892 to 120,761 words and from 65 to 331 charts and tables. Each lesson now has a worked example with real numbers, a common-mistakes section, a checklist or decision rule, and a list of the primary sources checked. Existing members got the update free.
Do I need a lot of money to start?
No. The course assumes you start from zero; the execution module works for a €50-a-month savings plan just as well as for a lump sum.
Is this financial advice?
No, it is education. I teach the system and the evidence; every investment decision stays yours. Nothing in the course is personalised advice and no returns are guaranteed.
How do I get access after paying?
Instantly. Your personal access link arrives by email within a minute of payment. Click it once and the member area stays unlocked on that device for life. Lost the email? A self-service recovery page re-sends it.
What does lifetime updates mean?
When funds change (fees, closures, launches) or tax rules move, the affected lessons are updated and you keep access to everything. There are no upgrade fees, ever.
What is the refund policy?
A 30-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked. Email [email protected] within 30 days of purchase and you get a full refund. You keep the workbook either way.
Can I get an invoice for my company?
Yes. Stripe issues a receipt automatically at purchase (seller: Aurum Digital Marketing Ltd) and business details can be added at checkout.
11 hours of reading. Decades of compounding.
Every month of waiting costs more than any fee or fund mistake; the compounding maths is merciless about this. Start this weekend and be running by Monday.
Seller: Aurum Digital Marketing Ltd, 26/28 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4LP, UK · Terms · Privacy · Recover access · [email protected]