This will undoubtedly be called out as a humblebrag, but after getting encouragement from a few people in this sub, I’ve decided my desire for insight (and maybe reassurance) is greater than my fear of reprisals. There’s also no one I can really talk to about this in my every day offline life.

Having said that, I will still preface this with the acknowledgment that I am in a very good position, and I fully understand that.

Me: Mid 40s, no kids, rent an apartment with my gf in a low to medium CoL European capital city.

Assets (as of EOY):

- €1.6M cash in a private lending fund generating 7-12% net per year. (Happy to explain this in a DM if someone cares, but let’s take it at face value for the sake of this post.)

- Businesses generating approx. €400-500k net per year. Most of it is passive income, but it comes with a caveat of only being viable for another 2-3 years, after that it may goto zero or cap out at say 100k per year. Her income is not significant.

- Other businesses at different stages of development. I am mostly a strategic investor or angel investor in these, future upside or downside uncertain at this point.

Zero debt, live in a rental. Drive an old car. We pay around €800 a month in total for rent/bills (our landlord is a friend and offers everyone in the building below market rents in exchange for everyone getting along, and being a good fit) and our yearly spend in general including food and vacations and everything is around €25-30k at the absolute most.

The high income is relatively new to me, and as such, the invested money was close to zero five years ago…it’s all happened pretty quickly, and it can be over pretty quickly. We cook a lot and save a lot and in general our expenses are low.

I feel weirdly trapped in a gilded cage though cause the housing market here is insane, but I also don’t want to rent forever. We’ve experienced meteoric rises - higher even than the average - and I’ve missed out on entering the market when it was reasonable. The type of property I would want to live in as an update to the rental is also extremely expensive (overvalued imo) and the available stock is just quite low to begin with. Also, because of the way I have things structured, most of the business income flows into the fund, so I have little on paper personal income, which makes a mortgage difficult or impossible. After another year I should have enough dividend history to allow for a mortgage, but I’m not sure. Sacrificing the fund money to buy a property (and forfeit the excellent interest) seems like a really bad idea. Property I’d be interested in starts around €1M and goes to about €2.5 before it gets truly ridiculous.

So I feel stuck and like I’m just getting older every day, and I want more. Is it just a matter of sucking it up a couple more years and then buying something on a mortgage when I have the required income track record?

Same idea as my post last week: directors of EU, UK, Swiss and Norwegian listed companies must publish trades in their own company's shares within three business days (Art. 19 MAR), spread over 17 national registers. This time I looked at one week only. The big numbers were mostly not what they seemed, so I've split the list into real trades and fakes.

Buys:

- H&M (SE): a company linked to the chairman bought 4.1 million shares between 30 September and 8 October at SEK 159–162, about SEK 658m.

- Bolloré group (FR): Compagnie de l'Odet bought 18.5 million Bolloré SE shares between 29 September and 6 October, about €69m. Family holding companies bought about €13m of Odet shares on top, and Havas bought about 12 million Canal+ shares (~£26m). Three listed layers of one group, all bought in the same week.

- Danieli (IT): a company linked to the CEO bought shares on every trading day from 30 September to 8 October, mostly 10,000 at a time, 65,000 shares at €32.50–33.70, about €2.15m. Two other managers bought too.

- Krona Public Real Estate (SE): a company linked to a board member bought 525,000 shares on 9–12 October, about SEK 23m.

- Vicat (FR): the chairman's holding company bought 30,000 shares on 6–8 October, about €1.75m.

- Recticel (BE): a senior executive bought 80,000 shares at €12.70, about €1m.

- IG Design (UK): the CFO bought 466,000 shares at 91.6p on 8 October, about £427k.

- JDC Group (DE): a management board member and two closely associated companies bought on the same two days, 7–8 October.

Sells:

- Danske Bank (DK): I listed this as a notable sale last month. Looking further back, the same holding company linked to a board member has sold almost every month since February 2024, over 40 million shares, including 166,000 last week. A slow sell-down, not news.

- AO World (UK): the founder and CEO sold 3.6 million shares at 83p on 5 October, about £3m.

- Volution (UK): a person closely associated with the CEO sold 180,000 shares at 674p, about £1.2m.

- Infomaniak (CH): an executive board member sold 18,000 shares in eight trades, about CHF 1.5m.

Five filings that look like big insider buys and aren't:

- 1&1 (DE), €850m: United Internet received 35 million new shares in a capital increase against a contribution in kind. A parent restructuring, not a market purchase.

- Sofina (BE), €171m: a Boël family company bought 681,752 shares while two other family companies sold exactly 681,752 at the same price, the same day. Shares moving inside one family.

- Humana (SE): the CEO, CFO, chairman and several board members all sold on 1 October at exactly SEK 73.131. The same price to the öre across nine people means an offer or one block, not nine decisions.

- Arribatec (NO): the CEO, CFO and two EVPs each bought exactly 25,445 shares, 25% below the market close. That's a placement or a programme.

- Scatec (NO): the chairman sold 10,000 shares and his holding company bought 10,000 at the same price. He moved them to his own company.

So before getting excited about a "€171m insider buy", check three things: is there a matching sale at the same price, is the price far from the close, and do several insiders share the exact same price? Any yes usually means it isn't a bet. What I watch is one person buying repeatedly, or several insiders at one company within a few weeks.

Full disclosure: data from duceusapi.com. Happy to drop the link if the mods prefer. Every trade above is in a public filing you can check yourself. Not financial advice.

Seems like they advertise €300k but the trickier part is €50k yearly income too? And with spouse and kids, its €75k which is a full time job and not easy. Am I understanding this correctly? Is the income check enforced?

Hi all, this is more of a venting post than asking for advice... if the Mods feel it should be removed, please do so.

I grew up seeing my grandparents and parents retire early. My grandfather retired at 50, my father at 52. Both spent their time taking care of the family's small farm, and I always loved helping them.

I'm a software engineer (40M), and since I started working in the industry, I soon realized I like it, but I don't love it. I always had the goal of retiring around the same age as my father and grandfather, and doing the same as they did. I learned about finance and investment a bit later (~30), but I did the math, and with my salary progression and keeping life costs reasonable, it was doable.

I met my wife, and she knew about my goal (she's a nurse) and was fine with it. In the beginning, she said she wanted to remain working until a bit later, but after kids, that changed, and now she wanted to retire early as well. We have two kids, 4 and 2, and, well... the plan took a tumble. And with the rise of AI, I got scared and started investing a bit more aggressively. I'm one of those guys who believes my profession is doomed, and I think I have 3-5 years left.

The math said that if I reached 45 with the current savings plan, I would be within barista FIRE/coast; I could maybe work part-time somewhere until 50, if my wife kept working until 50. We even started looking at homesteads to buy (basically the idea was to sell our current house and move to an LCOL area).

That all changed yesterday... my wife discovered she is pregnant with our 3rd kid (yeah, she takes the pill), and... as of last night I started doing some math and yeah... I guess our plans are over. She is thrilled about having another kid. I am too... but at the same time, I'm scared. A new car (that can fit 3 kid chairs), a new tuition. I don't think it is doable. She even told me before going to sleep, "Well, I guess we won't buy that homestead."

I built this mostly for myself because I wanted a cleaner and nicer looking way to track my IBKR portfolio performance and FIRE in EUR for me and my wife's accounts, in a combined view.

It is fully automated using Flex queries (no CSVs, no manual imports), separates deposits/withdrawals from investment performance, combines multiple accounts, and tracks progress to FI.

Free while I am still testing it, hopefully it’s useful to someone here:

https://interactivefire.com

I live in the Netherlands. I have consistently invested in ETFs for the last 6 years. Now, I have a portfolio of 630K. I’m married and have 2 kids around 6 and 1 year old. With a mortgage around 150k. Monthly expenses are around 2300 euros.

I’m 39. Would it be better to retire now or in the next 5 years. Considering that I don’t want to anymore in the future.

Please share your thoughts and opinions on tax savings, better country to move in later stages to ensure preserving capital etc..,

Every board member and senior manager of an EU, UK, Swiss or Norwegian listed company has to publish their trades in their own company's shares within three business days (Art. 19 of the Market Abuse Regulation). The data is public, but it's spread over 17 national registers in a dozen languages. I've been reading through last month's filings. Most of it is noise: option exercises, share plans, awards, shares sold to cover tax. These open-market trades stood out.

Buys:

- Elekta (SE): the CEO bought 200,000 shares at about SEK 49.50 on 11 September, nearly SEK 10m.

- AstraZeneca (UK): the CEO bought 60,000 shares at about £121 on 14 September, roughly £7.3m.

- Ebro Foods (ES): entities linked to two directors bought about 95,000 shares between 15 September and 5 October, about €1.7m.

- MERLIN Properties (ES): an executive director bought three times as the price fell from €12.99 to €11.80.

- EFG International (CH): a board member bought 132,000 shares at CHF 15.94, about CHF 2.1m.

- Carlsberg (DK): an executive board member bought 2,000 shares at DKK 845, about DKK 1.7m.

Sells:

- Danske Bank (DK): a holding company linked to a board member sold over 200,000 shares in several tranches between 15 September and 6 October, over DKK 78m.

- Cellnex (ES): an entity linked to a director sold about 1 million shares, about €26m.

- Mitie (UK): the CEO, CFO and another executive sold at around 210p on 30 September and 1 October.

Two things I've learned from reading these. First, a "huge insider buy" is often not one: at Antin (FR) a founder's company bought €9m of shares the same day another founder's companies sold at the same price, 10% below the market close. That's a transfer between founders, not a bet. Second, sales tell you less than buys, because people sell for taxes and houses. Repeated buying by one person, or several insiders at one company within a few weeks, is what I watch.

Full disclosure: I built the site these come from. It collects these filings from 17 European countries into one schema, at duceusapi.com Happy to drop the link if the mods prefer. Every trade above is in a public filing you can check yourself. Not financial advice.

Like most people here, our goal is FIRE. As a family, we currently have around €500k invested and a fully paid-off apartment worth approximately €400k. Our FIRE number is around €1.2M in investments, which we could potentially reach in 5–7 years, assuming the markets are kind to us and inflation doesn’t push that target further away.
Our annual household income varies between €70k and €100k, depending on the year, and our expenses are around €40k–€50k. This allows us to live comfortably in our part of Europe. We also own two paid-off cars worth approximately €25k combined.
The main car covers around 12,000–13,000 km per year. The second one is barely used, doing around 3,000 km annually. From a purely financial perspective, it’s almost entirely unnecessary. However, my wife sees having her own car as part of her independence and identity, so getting rid of it isn’t as straightforward as the numbers might suggest.
I’m considering replacing our current cars, potentially downsizing to just one vehicle, because I see an opportunity to reduce our long-term running costs. Our country currently offers EV purchase subsidies of around €7k–€9k, which makes buying an electric car particularly attractive right now.

Here’s where I’m struggling.
I’ve wanted a Tesla for years, specifically the Model Y Premium. After the subsidy, it would cost us around €45k. I’d also be reasonably happy with the Model Y Standard at approximately €35k, although it wouldn’t quite scratch the same itch.
My wife would prefer to keep two cars and would be happy with a small EV, such as a BYD Surf, which would cost us around €12k after the subsidy.
There are also other manufacturers offering family-sized EVs for considerably less money. For example, we could potentially get something like a Renault Scenic E-Tech or Mazda 6e for around €26k after the subsidy. In my opinion, this could be a good compromise: one practical family car, less money spent overall, and lower running costs.
The problem is that our current cars are in excellent condition. We don’t actually need to replace them. I know that selling perfectly good cars and spending €35k–€45k on a new EV is not necessarily a financially rational move, even with the subsidies and potential savings on fuel and maintenance.
So I’m torn between two approaches:
Option 1: Be rational. Keep our current cars for longer, or replace them with a cheaper EV and potentially reduce the household to one car. Invest the money saved and bring FIRE closer. The downside is that I might end up with a car I don’t really want, while my wife could be unhappy about losing her own vehicle.
Option 2: Accept that we’re doing reasonably well financially and allow ourselves to buy what we actually want. Get the Tesla Model Y, potentially keep a second car, take advantage of the government subsidies, and enjoy the vehicles while continuing to invest towards FIRE.
The question isn’t whether we can technically afford the Tesla. We can. It’s whether spending that much money on something we don’t need makes sense when we’re only 5–7 years away from our target.
How would you approach this? Would you prioritise maximising your investments and getting to FIRE sooner, or is this exactly the stage where it makes sense to spend some money on things you genuinely want? How much weight would you give to your partner’s preference for keeping two cars?
TL;DR: We have €500k invested, a paid-off €400k apartment, and a €1.2M FIRE target that we could reach in 5–7 years. We earn €70k–€100k and spend €40k–€50k annually. Our two paid-off cars are worth €25k combined, but one is barely used. Should we buy the €45k Tesla Model Y I really want, choose a cheaper EV and potentially keep just one car, or keep our perfectly good current cars and invest the money? Government subsidies of €7k–€9k make buying an EV tempting, but I don’t want to unnecessarily delay FIRE or make my wife unhappy.

Edit - since I don’t know what to do, I’ll do whatever comments are suggesting the most. If I make a mistake, I can always seek guilt somewhere else :D

I am in the situation of having 1M euro uninvested.

I am pre- retirement (62 yo) and need to invest, lest inflation destroy me.

Advice? My goal is to balance regular income (or dividends) and preservation of capital (for the children).

I just want to document/celebrate this milestone somewhere. I am 30, I live in Estonia, and I just hit €150k in savings and investments (pre-tax). I also own an apartment, where my equity is 15k and mortgage 75k.

Currently, out of the 150k, about 16k is uninvested, and the rest is invested in broad-market ETFs. I've been investing for about six years, starting with 9k in 2020. About 16k came from my parents, and the rest was saved from my salary. I invest about 1700 a month.

I hope to be able to retire in about 5 years, if everything goes in the optimal way.

Hi all. I am single 45M living in southeast Europe. My portfolio is 600000€ consisting of:
60% covered call etf’s ( winc, jeep, jeqp and syld )
25% pjs1 as stabilizator/cash reserve
15% vwce for some growth
I live im my apartment, fully paid off.
My monthly expenses would be 2000€. I am prepared to live with 1500€ if the market gets really bad.
What do you think, can I FIRE?

I am looking to invest in ETFs but would like to avoid the US (due to not wanting to help their economy and the SP500 being too heavy).

I was thinking of the VEA or STOXX Europe 600.

Any suggestions? Any way to diversify, like for ex. an australian etf?

Thank you

Junior Construction professional offered FIFO in the Nordics. Looking at a Net take home of €1000 a week, Flights, Company Car and Accommodation are all paid for, as is Airport Parking, BIK, Taxes etc. It's a 3 weeks on 1 week off rotation, realistically working 5.5 days a week, long hours.

I'm 29, started into this late so salary is low for the role but it's a start. Seems like a great way to save. Anyone else here in the FIFO Construction world?

Hello. I am a 23-year-old holding both Turkish and Bulgarian citizenship. I am not currently actively investing; I divide my time between working in the Netherlands during certain periods of the year and returning to Türkiye. My question is: As someone who hasn't yet started saving for retirement, what strategy should I follow for long-term retirement planning? I currently have €8,000 in savings that I can allocate to investments right away. Thank you in advance to anyone who can help.

I’m 22 years old and have an investment horizon of roughly 25–30 years. At the moment, I invest around €1,100 per month, mainly into a global ETF called WEBN. I live in Belgium if that matters.

Since 2022, I’ve built up around €22k across global equity ETFs (WEBN and VWCE - left VWCE and moved to WEBN due belgian optimalisations like TOB %). I’m now considering whether to keep things completely simple or reserve a small part of my monthly contributions for higher-risk investments.

The two approaches I’m considering are:

• 100% into a global ETF
• Around 90% into the global ETF and 10% set aside for more speculative investments

The idea would be to keep the vast majority of the portfolio broadly diversified, while using a small allocation for individual growth companies or sectors I strongly believe in.

For example, I’m interested in areas like space (SPCX), AI (Anthropic, ...), and other high-growth technology businesses that may become publicly investable in the future.

For those of you with a long-term FIRE strategy: how do you view a 90/10 setup like this?

Would you keep everything in a broad global ETF, or do you think a small speculative allocation makes sense when the core portfolio remains diversified?

I’d also be interested to hear how others structure the higher-risk part of their portfolio, if they have one.

My plan was to invest in some of the most popular ETFs Ike the S&P 500 but due to the 30% withholding tax Im looking for alternatives.

I know about the Irish domiciled copies but they also charge 15%.

Anything else I’m missing?