I have used Estonian broker LHV for my stock purchases for over 10 years. During that time I have paid thousands of dollars (and euros for that matter) for commissions and fees. I had always rationalized that one day I will move my business to discount broker but it was never urgent enough. Until I found out about Interactive Brokers and their 1 dollar commissions. I also found out from investing forums that many other estonians had opened account in IB and it was not such a big hassle after all. So in August 2015 when I was vacationing in Hiiumaa, I bought a local beer, created hotspot with my phone and finally opened an account in Interactive Brokers. And yes, it was easy indeed 😉

My goal is to build up dividend growth portfolio worth 100,000 usd+ that would generate growing dividend income for me and my family. I own this account as individual and so I will be taxed 15% on dividend income (this is automatically done by dividend withholding tax) and 20% on capital gains (I plan to use investment account tax strategy that will enable you to start paying tax only once you take money out from investments to consumption).

I have set some general outlines on stock selection and allocation. I plan to have 30-40% of my assets in IB invested in Berkshire Hathaway, 10-20% in Apple and 10% in speculations. The rest will be divided by dividend growth stocks.