BorderFolio/Blog

Blog

Long-form writing on the two things this product exists for: measuring what a portfolio actually did, and what crossing a border does to the answer. No market calls, no fund picks — method, arithmetic and worked examples.

23 September 2026 · 12 min read

VWRA vs VT: why the choice isn’t just about TER Eight basis points of fee against a tax layer that swings from +$408 a year to −$102 on the same $100,000. Where the two wrappers actually cross — about a 10.7% treaty rate on these assumptions, not 15% — why the fee gap enters the formula divided by the dividend yield, and the four terms that outrank both: index, estate situs, accumulation treatment and whether your broker will fill the order. VWRAVTWithholding taxFund domicile

16 September 2026 · 11 min read

Someone ran our withholding model against two ETF pairs. One switch doesn’t pay. QuantRoutine took our withholding model, put fund fees next to it and published the result. IVV to CSPX is worth $119 a year at the statutory 30% rate; QQQ to CNDX loses $56.42. Below a 15% treaty rate both go negative — and on an existing position the embedded gain decides it, not the tax. Includes the two defects the study found in our engine. Withholding taxUCITSFund domicileIndependent study

8 September 2026 · 11 min read

How to track your progress to financial independence A FIRE number is one division; tracking progress to it takes five measurements. The target from your own spending at 3–6% withdrawal rates, years to arrival from a measured pace, what the target is made of, the coast point, and dividend coverage net of two tax layers — every formula shown, one worked example throughout. FIRECoast FIREWithdrawal rateCross-border

4 September 2026 · 10 min read

How to combine portfolios from multiple brokers without connecting your accounts Three balances is not a portfolio. A practical way to rebuild one investment history from separate broker statements — contributions, cost basis, internal transfers, dividends, fees and returns intact — and an honest comparison of aggregation, connected trackers, spreadsheets and statement import. Multi-brokerStatement importCost basisPrivacy

31 August 2026 · 16 min read

My broker told me I’d made $18,000. It took me months to work out what that number meant. Why this product exists. Years of contributing, a six-figure portfolio built by deposits rather than by any clever trade, and a dashboard that could price it to the cent but never explain it — plus what happens to all of it when you live in one country, run a business through another, and hold funds registered in a third. Founder storyContributionsCross-borderFIRE

30 August 2026 · 12 min read

How to track portfolio performance: XIRR, TWR and the metrics that matter Your balance is up $15,880 and you deposited $12,400 of it. This walks through every metric that tries to answer "how did I do" — the contribution split, total gain after costs, realized vs unrealized, and the two annualised returns that can disagree by 45 percentage points on the same year. XIRRTime-weighted returnPerformanceWithholding tax

Reference documentation

The methodology pages carry the formulas the product actually runs, with their inputs, assumptions and limits stated in full.

True return methodologySeparating deposited capital from market movement: the identity, what is measured independently, and what the method cannot see. Withholding methodologyThe two-step model — withheld at source, then taxed at residence — and how each per-instrument rate is resolved. Contribution trackerHow contributions, pace, streak and gaps are recorded from statements. Broker statement importSupported formats, what gets extracted, and how overlapping statements are de-duplicated.
Start tracking free Explore a sample portfolio One portfolio free forever · no broker credentials required.