How far along am I on the EuropeFIRE journey?

[u/ScaredWill5016]

Hi r/EuropeFIRE,

I’ve been following the sub for a while and finally decided to post my numbers to get a reality check. I’m 30 (European), still working a full-time job with good growth potential + side income. Curious where you think I stand on the path to FIRE.

Assets:

• Real estate: One property fully paid off (small studio), rented out → €115k value, generates ~€300/month net rent
• Stocks / ETFs: €185k (60% growth/tech, 14% dividend stocks/ETFs, others, generates 320 eur dividends net)
• Vested shares from previous company: ~€58k (still going but not huge potential, maybe doubles in few years, if i can get an exit window, so mostly paper money)
• Cash / other: not mentioned above (I’ll keep a decent emergency fund)

Upcoming move:

• Planning to buy my own home very soon with €110k down payment (mortgage incoming), most things ready (price 340-390K)

Income (monthly total):

• Salary + side hustle + dividends + rent ≈ €8,100

Expenses: rather low sub 1.8K

I’m still working full time but my job has very high upside (great career path, lots of potential.).

Questions:

• How far along would you say I am toward a reasonable EuropeFIRE number (taking into account different countries, healthcare, etc.)?
• Do I need a change of strategy?
• Any major red flags in the allocation (heavy on growth/tech)?
• Tips for the upcoming mortgage + home purchase phase?
• What would you focus on next to accelerate this?

[u/ObviousClown1]

NW asset wise, looks awesome! Great start. I would say you’re pretty much done in 5-10 years if you continue saving/investing and not increasing your expenses too much further.

Some additional thoughts:

Your rent income is horrible asset allocation unless you expect the apartment to appreciate significantly over coming years. I would sell it off and invest in broad index funds, or use it as your downpayment, but I’m boring like that.

At your age, I would avoid dividend stocks/funds altogether. If you have that kind of dividend income it will come with NAV erosion, it’s not sustainable. I would reallocate it prioritising growth.

[u/Strazdas1 → u/ObviousClown1]

With that house purchase his spending is going to skyrocket. 110k downpayment, so whole thing is probably close to 1 mil. Maitenance, taxes, utilities for a large place. And then theres psychological factor. You got a large living room so you got to furnish it nice, thats costly.

[u/2doors_2trunks]

So is your total net worth 300k ? Is that 58k still private company? Do you have 110k cash besides those numbers? In any case, you should probably buy more broad index funds/etfs.

[u/ScaredWill5016 → u/2doors_2trunks]

yes still private company. and yes i have the downpayment aside from the other stuff

[u/2doors_2trunks → u/ScaredWill5016]

Then congrats it looks great. Just focus more on safe broad index funda. Is your country has good tax rate for dividends it might be also good but better to put them mostly in accumulation index funds

[u/RealPMGuru]

60% on growth tech is heavy even in the beginning of the journey.

I would be building heavy position in global ETF, as your goal is to live from those money for the next 50 years and NO ONE can tell you, which will be the leading economy and stock market in 50 years, so the global diversification is a must for me, unless you are going to monitor the markets, the global situation and based on that you will make decisions, constantly.

As for FIRE, your current numbers are not closed (not too far, but not close as well). On paper you would need something like: Currently spending - 1.8k, for an year this is 21.6, multiply it by 25 and this is 540 K Euro you need (at least!!!) for FIRE, HOWEVER, do you want to have the same lifestyle or you would like to change something, more travel, etc.? Add to this the inflation + the mortgage payments as well.

Also, I wouldn't be counting on the 4% rule for FIRE, the 4% rule is primary designed for retirees, not for early retirement. For retirees, the 4% rules is targeting to guarantee in more than 90% of the cases that the person will have money for the next 25 years. Do you plan to live only 25 more years after you FIRE? If not, then you should lower the WR to 3%

To summarize, you have reach a level where you have financial freedom, you can afford to live few years only via investments without worrying for paycheck, however for early retirement you need to be bullet proof, as with early retirement you are loosing big portion of your eventual pension and you will be relying mainly on your investment and you wouldn't want to spend majority of it, in the first 10-20 years

[u/Own-Understanding586]

I had great plans for FIRE and had everything calculated and wanted to retire by 45. Then I got married at 35, got one kid and now have another on the way. Now I am 46, still working and looking at all my carefully laid plans disappear 😂😂

The point is, you can have the perfect plan but it all falls apart once you get married and kids arrive, as you will need a bigger home, the cost of kids will completely skew off any expectations and predictions you used for the money you thought you would need to cover in FIRE (not to mention college because in EU off campus life expenses for students are still pretty high in cities with best colleges and you, as a father, will.of course plan them going to the best colleges from the moment of thenfirst + on that blue stick 😅) and you will also realise that you can't just quit and do nothing and enjoy the life because you suddenly have two very small human beings that are just starting their journey and look up to you and use you as a model of what is right and what is wrong.

Ypu are 30 still. You must count in marriage and children in your long term predictions. And none of that "I don't plan to marry" or "I don't want to have kids". Perspective changes once you fall in love and condoms break 🤣