Gain vs Keep

People often ask me what a good investment return looks like over five years. Investment funds tend to market the same promise: roughly doubling your money, i.e. 2x in 5 years. Fair enough. But a return you don't keep isn't really a return. Most returns leak out through tax, fees, and things you never see, and most people only ever look at the gross number, not the net that actually reaches them.

The biggest euro gains we see with Senso users aren't necessarily their investment returns. Instead, they come from stopping major financial leaks people didn't know they had.

Here are 3 real Senso user stories, each set against the price of one annual subscription (€299).

1. A private banking client. €1,000,000, held four years in private-bank funds charging 2.3% a year, against a comparable broad-market fund at 0.4%. That gap alone is close to €19,000 a year, and over the next five years, at the same underlying growth, it compounds to around €110,000 in fees, before you even count that his funds had been lagging the market. Thanks to Senso, he switched to broad-market exposure at 0.4%. Senso couldn't undo the past years, but it ended the next five. €110,000, against €299.

2. A mortgage in Spain. Before he signed, Senso surfaced the levers that mattered, including structuring the application around the household's most stable elements. He and his bank landed on 2.3% fixed rather than 2.5%, over 30 years, more than €35,000 in interest he won't pay. The bank set the rate. Senso just made sure he walked in knowing which levers existed.

3. An inheritance in Spain. In her first month, Senso identified a possible €50,000 overpayment in inheritance tax. It had been missed until then, and her lawyer is now pursuing it. It was completely invisible until Senso surfaced it. A €50,000 potential saving, for the price of a €299 subscription. Not a bad multiple.

None of it came from a market going up. Just existing leaks and inefficiencies.

So maybe the better question isn't "what return did I get" but rather “How much am I losing right now that I simply can't see?”

Two things most people underestimate: Tax is an essential part of the personal wealth equation, not a distant galaxy separated from your investments. Same goes with liquidity. Because a high return locked in an illiquid asset is little help when your life actually needs cash.

Curious what financial leakage you will find in your personal setup?

Senso is free to try: sensofinance.com

(Senso is a wealth protection service, not an investment platform and does not provide financial, tax or legal advice. These are individual results, all obtained with user consent for before sharing, and not a guarantee of any kind)