Rules:

Subj.

Thanks.

I'm a non-EU person residing in France for last 8 months. My French level is zero (but seriously taking French classes on saturdays). I have a PhD in materials science and working in EV battery industry (5 year academic reaserch and 2 years in industry). I'm a bit scared about European battery industry after the northvolt debacle.

I'm being paid decently, for my qualifications. My major worry is that I'm the sole earner in my family of 5 (dependent wife and baby, and parents back home). So I feel whatever I earn is insufficient and feel like im sitting on a financial time bomb.

All my life as a student I never gave importance to earning money, and I followed my interest in scientific research. Now starting from scratch and I'm feeling the need to earn more. Looking at automotive sector right now, I feel that I'm never going to earn enough to have a comfortable life.

I'm wondering what are the next steps should I take to earn more. Moving to management? Staying in R and D? Sitting to manufacturing?

( of course when my wife starts earning, I would be in a better situation, but I'm just focussing on what path I should opt).

I kind of feel lost and any sugestions are welcome!

Hi there! I am in semi-midle of my fire journey. Recently my expenses went up (in last 6 month, New housing situation), so my fire number jump. That's the semi part comes from. Yesterday I had an annoying offer from my bank. Did you tried to look into the no interest, payback in some month loans? I did. I can loan 100K EUR for 3 month. If I will put them in saving accounts (around 4 %, after taxes) I should gain after 2,5month something about 720 EUR. It's not much, but it's kinda free money. And who would leave a cash if you would find it laying in ground? Also If you are able to do it every three months, you can save-invest more, which could little bit help with the new fire number for me. What do you think? Am I dumb and I don't see the problem there? Should I do something more elaborate? Is it too much of a risk? Please! I cannot stop thinking about it.

Hi all,

I'm trying to choose the best ETF portfolio for my FIRED life. I'm currently looking at a slightly different version of the golden butterfly.

60% international large/mid caps 30% European bonds 10% gold

Or a more diversified

40% international large/mid caps 20% international small caps 15% European gov bonds 15% European comp bonds 10% gold

I'm aiming at a 17/20% max volatility (last 30 years) at the start and rebalancing only if something goes over 15% threshold, I might also avoid rebalancing at all.

Swr of 3% (monthly withdraw of 0.25%)

What do you think?

I find it very difficult to create a good portfolio since most articles are written from an USA point of view.

I have huge problem in selecting the best bond ETF since most of them don't have a good returns or they have limited data. I might actually buy bonds directly from the source.

I would like to avoid gold, but it works so nicely when times are difficult.

Thank you in advance.

I am 39 years now and based on my projections will reach € 680k at 41 years old. 90% of this will be invested in FTSE All World and 10% in cash / HYSE. I would say I can live comfortably with € 36k, assuming 10% tax (as profit portion is small) and a 20% spending flexibility. I plan to assume a part time consulting role to earn about € 16k pa until I am about 50. From about 67 years old I will have additional income from a paid off investment property as well as a government pension. I don’t own my primary residence and plan to retire in Barcelona. Single, no kids. What do you think?

Hello! I'm a 23 year old living in northern Italy, right now struggling with finance as I've had lots of expenses lately (which should have ended right now)

At the moment my funds are totally depleted, and I want to know basic strategy and budgeting to allow an emergency fund to grow and then start to go into putting money aside for FIRE.

My salary varies, but monthly we're talking about 1900€. My monthly expenses are:

450€ rent 80€ light bills 22€ phone/home internet 25€ streaming services 200€ groceries 25€ barber 40€ dining out/whatever 200€ drier and washer installments (will end in January)

for a total of 1042€ monthly (842€ when the installments are gone)

What would you do in my shoes? How would you budget the money going forward?

Looking for a getaway home to buy that's close to skiing destinations in Europe. Would prefer the Alps but would consider elsewhere.

I am an EU citizen as well if that helps. Would prefer if the property was easy to airbnb or something as well.

Good year so far, 300k to 425k with 25k contributions. How's everyone doing?

Hi all, I (29M) will receive an early inheritance of +-€300k next year. Given my educational background in finance and the big interest I have in the financial markets, I'm considering to not work a job anylonger and pursue actively managing the portfolio in stocks.

I could take home a net €2300/month working a job where I live. If I would not work anylonger and pursue actively managing the €300k in stocks, that's an opportunity cost of about €27k/year that I'm foregoing.

Given a 8% average annual return of the a diversified ETF (300k*8%= €24k) and a job that brings home €27k/year, I have calculated that I need to make €51k managing my portfolio actively on an annual basis in order to be worth it the oppportunity cost.

Managing the portfolio actively I would have to fetch be an annual return of 17% in order to breakeven with the total opportunity cost (having a job + passively investing at 8%).

Do you think it's worth it to quit the job and manage the portfolio actively or keep working in order for the savings amount to be bigger and the total opportunity cost to be lower in the future?

I have a question? How do you guys hedge against currency risk when buying ETFs not dominated in your local currency

I am currently in switzerland and have some money saved,kept aside domestic rainy funds too. I am thinking of deksiting a part of my work salary in vwce world from trading 212. Is this a good strategy for somebody who did etfs only few times ? Tbh with you i really have not much idea as much as i would like to learn before doing this, i looked up evrywhere but can’t find a reliable teaching free course or videos thars not some bullshit gurus or scam. Any help would be very welcome!

I'm in the process to reallocate some money from stocks to bonds (my portfolio up until recently was mostly made up of S&P500 and Nasdaq ETFs).

I just don't know whether to go for MMFs (currently paying 4.5-4.8%) or US inflation tracking bonds (TIPS). What is the benefit of one or the other? How would you approach this question?

(Tax-wise all my assets are in tax-advantageous accounts, so all I need to optimize is my Stock ETFs vs. everything else distribution).

Hello, invest via DGI but I want to invest in a ETF for my daughter that is born. I am considering VWCE, weekly investment through trading 212. Thoughts?

Hi all, I have a complicated situation and am looking for some help. My parents have announced they wish to gift me a (at least for me) large amount of stock. What complicates things is that we live in two different countries where the regulations seem to be quite different.

My parents are American citizens and live in the US. They have an account with Schwab. I am a dual-national (American and Dutch) and I live in the Netherlands. As far as I can tell, the only Schwab account I qualify for as a non-US resident is Schwab One, for which you need to invest $25K upfront. I don't have that kind of money.

I opened an account with Interactive Brokers, but it appears that they do not allow the transferring of stocks from an account that belongs to someone else.

Has anyone experienced something similar? I'm just looking for the best way to go about receiving these stocks without breaking the law. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I was looking to get some first hand experience about buying rental properties in Andalusia. I have Canadian citizenship but my partner has Spanish citizenship. I am superficially familiar with the requirements (taxes, licenses, vacancy rates, and potential airbnb banning) and introductory information.

I have spoken to a lawyer and realtor, and they obviously think it's a good idea... I was initially planning on buying 4 properties, but then learned you can only own 2 short term rentals as an individual, which greatly changes the structure of my idea. I see that prices have increased substantially over the last 4 years in places like Malaga and Seville, and there is now a glut of airbnbs on the market. Despite all this, and due mainly to some family reasons, I still need to go through with this.

Would anyone here have any advice for what cities or price points I should be targeting? Ultimately, my goal isn't to make a killing, just to run a small sustainable business.

Hello everyone, I am new to this whole ETF game. I have been buying VUAA every two weeks for the past couple of months and now I want to diversify my portfolio a little bit. I plan to hold for 10+ years and I would like to buy maybe something that provides a hedge against US turmoil (maybe buying something related to emergent markets?). I wouldn't mind buying clean energy either.

I would like to add some pizzazz to my booking portfolio of eur and usd sp500. Do you have any recommendation how to introduce crypto exposure? I am using Lightyear.

Hello guys,

I am currently in a bind about what to do next in the place that I work at. Currently, I work as a Quant Researcher for <hft/mm company> in <eu city> age <mid 20s>. At my job I can expect to make about 500k gross per year incl bonus. Takes tend to eat half that. Not bad for FIRE id say, however my employer now gives me the option to move to their US office due to good performance, located in <US city in blue state>. Over there I can expect to increase my income to 1+mm/y, but I would have to work there for at least 2 years in total. Employer arranges visa and all that.

Currently my issues are this:

• I would not be able to see my family as much at all obviously, and grandpa is getting quite old and may not be here for a lot longer
• my partner and I are not married (no kids), to get a partner visa, you need to be married
• US cost of living is a lot more expensive, and in my industry most of the comp is of course bonus

On one hand the adventure of living in the US does speak to me a lot, however it would force my hand on certain other things in life. For people here who have made the choice to go abroad for a while, how was it for you? Was the money worth it? Obviously 1mm with US taxes helps nicely towards FIRE

Thanks for the help :)

Not by starting a business and paying low taxes. I am talking about as a salaried employee, as in where are salaries the highest after tax

EDIT: Taking the comments in consideration, it looks like the top contenders would be Ireland and Netherlands due to "low taxes" for entry to mid level incomes (20-25% usually). The problem of Germany and the Nordics is that with such high taxes, the net salary ends up being lower, but once you get to senior+ levels it seems salaries end up being comparable between all these countries due to around 40-50% tax. Feel free to chime in!

I am 25 years old with a fixed cost of living of €50 000 per year.

Can I retire if I have €400 000 saved up?

Hello friends. I'm a 20y.o. male living in Slovakia. I had the luck of a lifetime and decided to end my college after the first year of my electrical engineering studies. I was offered a job in Germany with 3,300€ /month income as an electrician. I have 15,000€ saved up in my bank account. No Stocks, No properties, No debt, No payments(only 2.20€ spotify:) ) No kids (yet) and a loving girlfriend. I am currently living with my divorced dad. I love him very much.

In Slovakia our Average wage is apprx. 1200€/month. I was offered a job at my company where I'm currently employed that I could become the best electrician in the whole conpany and taking the position of a man who is retiring in 5 years. I was offered 1,500€ monthly. I would need to learn everything from 0 to hero. It's a hard job.

Should I take the job to become the electrician my company depends on and go bald in 7 years or stay at my current place and get paid 2-3x the money for 20x less work?

Thanks in advance! Have a nice day!

My brothers and I (we’re five guys between 19 and 26 years old) have been working hard and can now save up 40,000 NOK each month to invest. We’re all based in Norway and pretty new to investing, but we’re eager to make smart moves with our money early on.

We’re considering various options like investing in the stock market (both Norwegian and international), getting into real estate, or maybe a mix of different things. But honestly, we’re a bit overwhelmed and not sure where to start.

We’d really appreciate any advice on:

•	Investment Options: What would you recommend for a group like us? Should we focus on stocks, real estate, or something else?
•	Getting Started in Norway: Are there specific investment accounts, platforms, or tax considerations we should be aware of here?
•	Risk Management: How can we diversify and manage risks, especially since we’re all pretty young?
•	Realistic Goals: If we’re aiming to build a net worth of around 10 million NOK, is that achievable with our monthly investment? Any idea how long that might take?

We’d love to hear about your experiences, recommendations, or any resources that could help us out.

Edit: i mean each of os can save up to 40,000 NOK every month so 200,000 NOK every month

I am considering changing the ETF for the bond portion of my portfolio.

The objective is to mitigate the volatility the equity in my portfolio. (Mainly VWCE).

I am currently undecided between:

1.	splitting 70% in XGLE (Xtrackers II Eurozone Gov. Bond) and 30% in VDTA (US Treasury)
2.	XG7S Xtrackers Global Government Bond UCITS ETF 5C

The advantages of (1) are lower TERs: 0.07% and 0.09% vs. 0.20% for XG7S, and a size of 1 billion vs. 350 million for XG7S.

The advantage of (2) is simplicity (one ETF), lower transaction costs, and the inclusion of Japan and the UK.

Which solution would you recommend?

Hi,
I need your advice on how to invest 600K EUR with the goal of FIRE in the upcoming few years (ETA is still not clear, hopefully soon).

The main thing I'm trying to figure out is what to do with 600K EUR in saving account:

1. Keep it as cash till there is good opportunity to enter to the market, like a market crash
2. Not trying to time the market, and just put the money in the market, something like VWCE (though its record high)
3. Use the money to buy house, to I can live in, though it´s not clear when this will happen because I still not sure where I want to live, etc. can take 1 year, or more.

Background
- I´m 35 years old, Total Net Worth of around 2M EUR, currently working in Tech
- In recent years I have lived as a Digital Nomad in Europe, mainly in Spain, and now looking to live in a fixed place in Europe - potentially Spain or Portugal.

- My Goal is to retire and stop working as soon as I feel financially comfortable I have enough
- The below net-worth details are of myself, without my partner, who has very little savings today but is starting now career as a developer in tech, with a good salary.
- In the upcoming years 1-3 years - we looking to start a family, have a kid and buy a house that we can live in.

Net Worth breakdown:

Any advice is welcome!

Thank you!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to connect with a lender or financial institution in Europe that could provide a loan using my stock portfolio as collateral. My portfolio is held with DeGIRO and consists of the M7 Stocks (US). The goal is to leverage this portfolio to secure financing for real estate investments, specifically properties in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Ideally, I’d like to structure a straightforward loan agreement where the lender takes over the portfolio as collateral, giving me the necessary funds to expand in the property market. Any advice or recommendations for reputable lenders, or even others who have gone through a similar process, would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!