u/throwaway199319882

Hi everyone,
I’m 34M, living and working in Germany. I’ve recently started thinking much more seriously about building wealth and eventually reaching financial independence, and I’d appreciate some advice from people who have been doing this for longer.

A bit of context: I started my career relatively late due to a long period of university education/training, so I haven’t had the 10+ years of earning and investing that some people my age have. I’m therefore essentially starting to build my investment portfolio properly now.

My current situation:
-34 years old
-Net income: around €4,000/month
-After my regular monthly expenses, I currently have around €1,600-1,800 left
-Savings: around €15,000
-I don’t yet have a properly structured long-term ETF/investment strategy
-No children currently
-My income should increase over the coming years
-I enjoy travelling and living comfortably, so I don’t want FIRE to mean sacrificing everything enjoyable during my 30s

My goal isn’t necessarily to retire extremely young. What appeals to me more is reaching a point where working becomes optional, or where I could substantially reduce my working hours without having to worry about money.

Given that I’m effectively starting serious investing in my mid-30s, how would you approach this?
In particular, I’d be interested in:
-How much of the €1,990 left each month would you invest?
-Would you simply use one or two broad global ETFs and keep it boring?
-How large an emergency fund would you maintain?

-Is buying property in Germany worthwhile from a FIRE perspective, or would you favour renting and investing?
-As income increases, would you invest most of every salary increase to prevent lifestyle inflation?
-What FIRE number would you roughly target for a comfortable lifestyle in Germany/Europe?
-Are there any Germany-specific tax or investment considerations that are particularly important?

I know I’m starting later than many people in FIRE communities, but that’s largely the consequence of spending my 20s in education/training rather than earning a full-time salary. I should hopefully have a good income trajectory over the next couple of decades, and I want to make sure I use that properly from here onwards.
If you were 34 and starting from this position, what would you do?

Thanks!

Hallo zusammen,

bei meiner Midea PortaSplit läuft Kondenswasser vorne/unten aus dem Außengerät raus, obwohl der Ablaufschlauch an der vorgesehenen Stelle angeschlossen ist.

Die Halterung ist waagerecht auf 0 Grad ausgerichtet und das Außengerät sitzt gerade. Der Schlauch hat Gefälle und ist nicht geknickt. Trotzdem läuft das Wasser nicht vollständig über den Schlauch ab, sondern teilweise vorne am Außengerät.

Das ist bei mir etwas problematisch, weil das Gerät am Fenster hängt und die Nachbarn darunter sich bereits wegen des tropfenden Wassers gemeldet haben.

Hat jemand das gleiche Problem gehabt oder eine Lösung gefunden? Muss das Außengerät vielleicht minimal anders geneigt werden oder gibt es einen Trick mit dem Ablaufadapter?