r/EuropeFIRE

Something about me:

Born and raised in Brazil, hold German and Italian passports through family. Came from an absolute broke family, first one to go to university, rough start - worked manual jobs to support myself during studies, and I'm still periodically relied on by family back home when things get (even more) difficult financially for them.

No financial education growing up whatsoever. I'm quite risk-averse, partly after seeing my father spent (and still spending) every spare penny on lottery tickets.

Moved to Germany in my early 20s, eventually started a master's degree, and only started earning enough to actually save something starting in 2021. Learned about FIRE during the pandemic. Moved to the US for a job in 2022, came back to Germany in 2024, and have been here since.

From all of that, I've managed to save around €120k total so far.

I am looking for a gut-check from people who've navigated multi-jurisdiction FIRE, because I think I've been paralyzed by complexity for longer than I should've been.

The setup:

• Currently tax resident in Germany (work for an international org).
• End goal: FIRE in Brazil.
• Not planning to keep ties to Europe long-term - once I leave, I want a clean break from German bureaucracy, not another anchor.

Current numbers:

• ~€110k sitting in a US normal savings account at 3%. I'm a non-resident alien there now, which is part of why it's stayed parked instead of invested (opening a proper brokerage account as an NRA felt like a maze - high minimums, estate tax questions, etc.)
• ~€3.5k in a Brazilian fixed-income deposit earning roughly 11.5% net annually in local currency, taxed on a sliding scale that drops the longer you hold it (liquidity/access there is limited too, since I'm not a tax resident in Brazil either)
• Started sending ~€3.5k/month to Brazil recently (roughly half my net salary), building toward the eventual move

Why the US cash sat there this long:

• Rates were meaningfully higher when I first parked it (closer to 5%), so at the time "just leave it in savings" wasn't as obviously wrong as it looks now at 3%.
• I've never been taxed on it - not in the US (non-resident aliens generally aren't taxed on US savings account interest), and not in Germany either, since my main employment income is tax-exempt and my personal allowance effectively absorbs capital income up to a certain threshold each year that I have not reached so far. So there was never an urgent tax reason to move it.
• Mostly, it felt like the safe/liquid option given how mobile my job can be - being able to access it instantly from anywhere felt more valuable than optimizing the return. That calculus has shifted now that rates dropped and I have a clearer target (FIRE in Brazil specifically), so I'm looking for something with better long-term return instead of just parking it.

Where I've landed after a lot of back-and-forth:

Since right now I'm taxed on worldwide capital income in Germany regardless of where the brokerage sits, the plan is to open an Interactive Brokers account now (as a German resident, so it lands under the Irish entity), invest the US cash into a broad accumulating UCITS ETF (thinking VWCE), and treat the account as "portable" - update the residency when I eventually move to Brazil instead of closing and reopening everything.

What I'm second-guessing:

1. Is IBKR actually the smoothest way to handle this, or is there something better suited for someone who's going to relocate outside the EU eventually?
2. Single global ETF (VWCE) vs. something more deliberate given I'll eventually be spending in BRL, not EUR?
3. Anyone actually gone through the "EU resident to moved to Brazil" transition with IBKR or similar and can speak to how painless (or not) the entity switch really was?
4. Am I overthinking the US estate tax angle given the US-Germany treaty, or is that still worth structuring around?

Not asking for a full financial plan, just want to know if this reasoning holds up or if I'm missing something obvious that people who've actually done this cross-border shuffle would catch immediately.

A bit more context, since I know these usually come up:

• My income is largely tax-exempt due to my employer's specific status, which is part of why the savings rate looks high in absolute terms - it's not translating 1:1 from a typical post-tax salary.
• I can only save about half of it because my partner lives abroad (regular overseas travel baked in), plus I support family back home, as mentioned above.

When you first set a FIRE target, it can be tempting to aim high just to feel safe. You add a bigger buffer, plan for every possible expense and keep pushing the number up as your income grows. But at some point, I wonder if the extra years needed to reach a much larger target are always worth it. Maybe the lifestyle you originally imagined changed, your actual spending turned out to be lower than expected, or you realised you didn't need as much financial security as you thought to feel comfortable. Has anyone here looked at their FIRE number later on and realised they were working towards more than they genuinely needed? What made you rethink it, and did you actually lower your target?

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!

The implementation of the Osobiste Konta Inwestycyjne (OKI) framework—signed into law in August 2026 and launching on January 1, 2027.

While it mimics the structural freedom of Sweden’s highly successful Investeringssparkonto (ISK), its tax costs (after free-tax threshold) are significantly lower:
OKI: assets * free risk rate PLN * 0.19
ISK : assets * (free risk rate SEK + 0.01) * 0.30

Hey Dutch investors, welcome to Poland 😂

My wife and I are US/French and German, living in Germany, probably close to CoastFIRE. Starting a family soon too. I moved to Germany 7 years ago and it is now home, but the long tail of taxation stuff and hurdles was the „pleasant“ surprise I never anticipated in spite of an otherwise great experience career wise and culturally. It is all quite complicated and often overwhelming.

I have done a lot of research, reading into articles or trying to find experts, but always encounter that they only cover one side. So US tax people don’t know German implications, German advisors don’t know FATCA or PFIC stuff, and the few people who actually understand both charge a lot of money for basic questions or literally turn me away. Very frustrating.

Therefore, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I have been following this community for a while and found many interesting posts that brought some level of clarification for me. I don’t care much for stock tips/crypto investing etc but much more about lifestyle, tools and tactics that fit in the unusual DE/US context. Some of the things we are into are: HomeExchanges, sports/mobility across countries, night trains, and the LunchMoney app

I’m trying to find a handful of people dealing with the same stuff to just have a bit more community: Roth vs FTC/FEIE, pensions across countries, property and rental taxes, inheritance across borders, starting a business and that kind of thing to swap notes with in a small Telegram group. If you’re dealing with any of this and want in, comment or DM me.

Hi everyone,
As I already mentioned, I’m 18 years old from EUROPE and currently have around €10,000 in savings, which is all the money I have. I don’t have any savings account or anything similar set up by my parents.
I’d like to start investing mainly for the distant future (25+ years), rather than for a specific goal within the next 5 or 10 years.
My investment direction would be ETFs, mainly VWCE and/or WEBN (yes, another VWCE sheep, as some of you might say). I’m planning to invest through Interactive Brokers (IBKR).

Since I’m only getting started with investing, I’d like to hear how you would allocate the money in my situation and whether you think my general approach makes sense.

**My situation:**
-I’m 18 years old and expect to be studying until around 25.
-€10,000 is all the money I currently have.
-I currently have no investments.
-I live with my parents and will almost certainly continue living with them until I finish my education, so I currently have no rent, housing, utility bills, etc.
-I will receive around €150–200 per month in a scholarship while I’m studying.
-During my studies, I’ll also try to work, mainly during holidays, to earn some additional money.
-Luckily, I already have a cheap, older car, so I don’t currently need to set aside money to buy a car. However, I will obviously need money for fuel, servicing, registration, insurance, the road toll vignette, repairs, etc.
-I hope I won’t have to replace the car unless it becomes necessary. If I do eventually need another one, I would also look for a cheap used car, rather than buying something new or expensive.
-In general, I don’t spend a lot of money. I especially don’t have major expenses on things like McDonald’s, expensive clothes, clothing brands, concerts, clubs, etc., so I should be able to save a significant portion of my future income.
-As mentioned above, I want to invest primarily for the long-term future, not with the intention of needing the money within 5 or 10 years.

**My questions are:**
•VWCE and WEBN – am I even thinking in the right direction with these?
•How much of my €10,000 would make sense to invest immediately? And should I invest it as a lump sum or gradually?
•Does it make sense to invest, for example, €20–80 per month while I’m studying, even though the amount is relatively small?
•What should I do with the money I don’t invest in ETFs – keep it in a regular bank account, a savings account, a money market fund, or something else?
•If you were in my position, would you do anything differently? What would you do?

I’m not necessarily looking for specific financial advice in the sense of “buy this and that”. I’m mainly interested in hearing how you would allocate the €10,000 in my situation and why.
Thanks for any advice :)

Hi folks.

One year ago I posted

https://www.reddit.com/r/EuropeFIRE/s/vOqQrHlQLo

And I thought it would be interesting to post a yearly update, just to see how things evolve over time.

M35, renting, Italy. Wife doesn't work. No kids but planning to have one soon. Current NW ~ 350 k, of which 300 k in an 80/20 portfolio. The rest is in an emergency fund, another fund for taxes, a complementary pension fund and some cash. Yearly expenses still at 35 k of real spending + 20-25 k in taxes.

Still working in the public sector (~ 75 k gross per year, so a net of around 3,4 k per month) and running my private business (probably 100 k gross this year, a consistent upgrade since last year, that increased my DCA to 6-8 k per month).

I understand that considering a SWR of 3 - 3,5 k I would need ~ 1,2 - 1,4 m to safely fire. A very long way to go. That's why I still consider coast fire as a more realistic option.

Due to burnout and other reasons, I am considering a part time offer in my public job, something like 20 hours per week (half of what I work now) and keep my second job. Because of taxation in my country, it could be even better to slightly decrease the revenues of my private business in order to pay less taxes (yes, this is Italy).

In this scenario I would probably have to lower my DCA to almost half of what it is now or even lower, but I would gain more free time for family and in general a better WLB.

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Let's say I move to Denmark for 5 years and I keep trading so my portfolio grows from 200k to 280k in 5 years.

If I was in US i didn't get tax at all since because of capital tax system, but in Denmark I have to pay unrealized gain tax every year so I cannot invest heavily, so instead of 280k, I could end up with 300k.

Beside they got exit tax, so when I move back to US, I get tax again!

Therefore maybe I shouldn't declare them? and move my portfolio to some brokers that don't sell/give customer's info easily? and it is still legal move btw, that's how the rich stay rich

I’m 30, working for a FAANG company in Ireland and earning €100k+. My wife also works in tech and earns around €60k.
We both come from pretty humble families outside Ireland. Our parents gave us what they could, especially when it came to education, and I’m extremely grateful for that. But financially, there’s no family safety net behind us. No inheritance to expect, no help with a house deposit, and if something goes seriously wrong, realistically we have to solve it ourselves.

Financially, we’re currently in a pretty good position.
I have around €50k invested and we’re also building up cash for a future house deposit. The target would probably be somewhere around €60–100k. (We’re at 40k now).We’re not 100% sure whether we want to buy in Ireland or eventually move to Southern Europe.

I’m maxing my pension, investing regularly in ETFs and other investments, and saving roughly 40% of my income. My wife saves around 20%. I contribute more to our common goals because I earn roughly twice what she does.

So objectively, I know we’re fortunate.

But despite that, I don’t feel particularly financially secure.
The first reason is the lack of a family safety net. If we eventually want a house, car and children, everything has to come from what we earn and build ourselves. Housing and childcare in particular seem incredibly expensive, and I find myself thinking about how much capital we actually need to build a comfortable life.

The second concern is our careers. Tech salaries are great right now, but I don’t assume they’ll stay this way forever. FAANG jobs aren’t exactly guaranteed for life, layoffs are always a possibility, and I think it would be dangerous to build
a lifestyle assuming I’ll always earn €100–150k.

Career-wise, I also feel that I’m approaching a point of diminishing returns. With enough effort I could probably push my compensation towards €150k, but beyond that it becomes much harder and probably comes with additional stress/responsibility
.
At the same time, we don’t necessarily want to stay in Ireland forever. We like the idea of eventually moving to Southern Europe, but obviously local salaries there are significantly lower. So I’m trying to figure out how to build enough financial independence that our location isn’t completely dictated by our salaries.

One thing I’m experimenting with is building a startup on the side. Part of the motivation is obviously the upside if it succeeds, but it’s also about trying to create another source of income/ownership that isn’t completely dependent on my employer. In an ideal scenario, that could eventually give us the flexibility to move somewhere with a lower cost of living without taking the equivalent drop in income.

But obviously a startup isn’t a financial plan. It could easily go nowhere.
So I keep coming back to the same question: **what is the sensible next step from here?**

Do I basically just keep doing what I’m doing — max pension, invest, avoid lifestyle inflation, build a large emergency fund, save for a house and continue developing my career?
Or should I be thinking differently about how to turn our relatively high incomes today into actual long-term security?

I sometimes wonder if I’m simply worrying too much. On paper we’re doing well, but psychologically I think the fact that there’s no financial safety net behind us makes me feel that everything we’ve built could disappear relatively quickly if our careers went badly.

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who are/were in a similar situation: first generation of your family to earn relatively high salaries, no significant family wealth behind you, working in a high-paying but potentially unstable industry.
**How did you approach it? At what point did you actually start feeling financially secure? And if you were in our position at 30, what would you focus on over the next 5–10 years?**

My family situation. Me and wife (38 year old), 7 year old boy.

1.5M in investments - VWCE, bonds, rental property

Own our apartment without mortage - 500K

FIRE Goal - 2.5M euro (without primary home)

We can work from anywhere because we run an online business that makes about 15K net euro a month. We spend about 2-3 weeks in Greece every summer.

Would it make sense to buy a property in Greece for 250-300K and spend 2-3 months per year there? Or is it stupid financial move that will prostpone our FIRE?

I’ve been pretty conscious about lifestyle inflation since getting into FIRE, but I also don't want to spend the next 10-15 years saying no to everything just to reach a number a little sooner. At some point, I think it's reasonable to let your spending improve as your income and investments grow.

For those who’ve allowed themselves a bigger upgrade along the way - a nicer place, more travel, eating out more, better hobbies, whatever - what did you spend more on, and did you feel it was worth the extra time it added to your FIRE plan?

The situation

40M, married with two kids, 4 and 2.5, living in a VHCOL area in the US. Wife is Asian, I’m European, kids were born in the US. We’re dual US/EU citizens.

$2.5M NW, mostly in taxable brokerage accounts:

• $2M VTI
• $270k in tech companies I’ve worked for
• $150k VXUS
• $70k cash

I work in tech and make ~$400k/year. WLB is actually fine, but I hate the job. It’s high stakes, with constant layoffs and the ever present fear of PIP.

My wife works in finance, makes ~$150k/year, and has good WLB.

Financially, we’re obviously very fortunate. But day to day, life feels like a grind. Between work and two young kids, we’re always busy. Everyone around us is equally busy. We have a handful of friends but rarely see them, and we have no family nearby.

We make good money, but beyond the occasional vacation, there isn’t much we actually want to spend it on. At this point, more money mostly feels like numbers going up on a screen.

The plan

Get to ~$3.5M NW and move to Southern Europe, where I’m from, ideally before our oldest starts elementary school.

The idea would be to find two lower stress remote jobs and essentially CoastFIRE. Send the kids to international school, have more time for ourselves, relationships, family and hobbies, and generally build a life that feels less centered around work.

We’d leave the $3.5M invested for retirement and aim to cover our living expenses entirely from whatever we earn. No need to maximize income anymore.

Then see where life takes us. Maybe we keep working like that indefinitely. Maybe after a few years we realize we have enough and quit altogether. Maybe we start a small business or do something we actually enjoy.

Has anyone here made a similar US → Europe move with young kids after reaching FI-ish territory?

Anything you think we’re overlooking? And does $3.5M feel like a reasonable point to stop optimizing for income and make the jump?

When I first started taking FIRE seriously, I looked at my spending and started cutting anything that felt unnecessary. Some of those changes were easy to stick with, but others didn't last. After a while, I realised that saving money isn't always worth it if you're making everyday life noticeably worse just to improve your savings rate a little. Maybe you stopped eating out, cancelled a subscription you actually used a lot, gave up travelling, switched to cheaper products or cut back on a hobby. Then at some point, you decided to bring it back because you genuinely missed it or because the amount you were saving wasn't making as much difference as you expected. I'm curious whether anyone else has had something like this happen. What did you cut when you first got into FIRE, how long did you manage without it, and what made you decide it was worth adding back to your budget? Did bringing it back change how you think about frugality, or did it simply help you figure out which expenses are actually important to you?

M32, I live and work in Finland in a medium-sized city. From my net monthly salary of €3,100, I spend €600 on rent and bills and €600 on everything else. So total around 1200/month. I invest the remaining €1,900/month plus a few bonuses in global stocks. I currently have around €100,000 in my portfolio.
The question in the title arises from the fact that the figures I read in this group seem meaningless to me. Single people owning a home who don't consider themselves FIRE with €1 million or more.
Folks, we're in Europe (most of us in EU), not America. We have an excellent welfare system, (almost) free healthcare (almost) everywhere. Old-age pension.
I'm on €100,000 and to maintain my current expenses, I would need a maximum of €3-400,000 invested. If I were on €7-800,000 or more, as I read in many posts, I would have quit my job a long time ago. Let's stop basing our budget on US costs.

For instance for me it's 3000 EUR per month for a family of three. I'm in Bulgaria(Sofia) and don't pay rent. For a single person not renting 1500 EUR without rent is fine IMO.

Hello everyone,

I am 39M from Portugal, no kids or other dependents, living in Northern Europe for 10 years now.

All these years worked in corporate jobs with some breaks to travel, chill for a while, job hop, etc. Currently making around €60k net p.a.

Fast forward to today, my ETF portfolio is around €285k worth, I keep another €10-15k cash in HYSA, and decided that I want to change my life, go back home, find a chill job in tourism or something, withdraw some 2-3% of the ETFs p.a. to round up my living income, chill and let it be.

Problem is, I don't own any property back home, and with today's prices and interest rates, getting a €300k mortgage with ca. €60k down payment + closing costs will set me back some years from my chill FIRE target.

Kinda same with a go-back-and-rent scenario: I won't have the down payment burden, but the rents have risen to €1000+/month excl. utilities for the apartments which are actually decent to live in. Side note, where I live now I have a very old contract and I pay €450 all incl., so the difference is considerable, and pushes up my potential cost of living back home.

5-6 years ago I couldn't think of buying an apartment or a down payment. My income got higher gradually after 2021, and today feels like I am at the top of my game, but honestly, I am exhausted. The life change has to happen now.

The window of bankability for a mortgage will close if I draw the line and leave my corporate job, so I have to decide.

What would you do in my position? Any ideas/suggestions?

I’m starting a DCA approach (5-10y timeline) and was interested in people’s experience to help me define best approach.

Is a Developed world (80%) + Emerging market (20%) approach best, or is it worth getting more detailed with splits between different sectors?

I was researching how in crashes the SP500 would drop, but consumer staples, healthcare and utilities still go up YoY. So is it worth not taking just broad funds which are generally tech-heavy, but also these defensive sectors specifically?

Any long term investors in consumer staples, healthcare and/ or utilities here?

I’m curious how others in the European FIRE community would approach this situation.

I’m 36M with around €2M net worth, mostly invested, and I currently have a very good job. The job itself is actually pretty comfortable: no crazy hours, relatively low stress, and some flexibility. The problem is that I’m very unhappy living in the country where the job is based (Switzerland, long story short it drains me, doesnt fit my lifestyle, i dont connect with the people there, I just feel empty in this place).

The main reason I’m still there is the job. If I left, I could move to another European country, but the alternatives I’ve looked at are not particularly appealing. They would likely mean longer hours, more pressure, and going through the whole corporate bullshit cycle again, something I’ve increasingly realised I really don’t enjoy.

And this is where I’m struggling with the FIRE decision.

With €2M at 36, I’m already at a point where I’m wondering whether working significantly more just to build a larger buffer is actually worth it.

I’m not talking about retiring in the traditional sense and sitting on the couch doing nothing. By FIRE, I mean living primarily from the portfolio and having the freedom to decide how I spend my time.

I’d probably spend a lot of time on things I actually enjoy: sports, travelling, meeting people, potentially doing something with the community, and maybe experimenting with small projects or businesses. If something eventually turned into income, great. But I wouldn’t need the income.

The alternative is to stay where I am, keep the comfortable job, and perhaps work until 40. That would give me another 3–4 years of contributions and, hopefully, a larger portfolio. It would also give me more time to see how markets, inflation, geopolitics, etc. develop before making an irreversible decision.

But there’s a part of me thinking:

If I already have enough to potentially FIRE at 36, why spend the next four years of my life in a place where I’m unhappy just to make the number more comfortable?

On the other hand, €2M isn't an infinite amount of money, especially with potentially 50+ years ahead of me.

So, assuming you were in exactly this position:

- 36 years old

- ~€2M invested

- No debt / relatively low expenses (as of now its 3.5k eur monthly)

- Very good, low-stress job (work only a cpuple hours a day)

- But unhappy with the country you're living in

- Moving elsewhere for work would probably mean significantly more stress and corporate life

- You don't hate working per se, but you don't particularly value climbing the corporate ladder anymore

- You could FIRE now, but with less margin for error than if you worked until 40

- FIRE would be in sputhern europe where I'm from

Would you FIRE now, or keep working for another 3–4 years (where im based now i also have no capital gain taxes so extra accumulation years of gains wont be taxed)?

Interested particularly in perspectives from people who have already FIRE'd or who made a similar decision in their 30s.

35M, I have no property to my name. it’s more complicated for me because I do not know where would I want to live long term and I never bought. I’m always worried time is running out to get on to the property ladder and what’s the right way?