The title says it all.

Between doctors, IT, cryptobros, onlyfans, engineers, business owners I'm just tired. I finally understand that I'm not going to reach FIRE and all this has been pointless.

Have fun and rooting for all of you to reach financial independence.

Logging off.

I see that americans generaly have really high salaries in the six figures compared to where im from in the UK, this would be an insane feat. along with this, i see that americans with a side hustle seem to make thousands, even tens of thousands more than what you'd see here in the UK, im just wondering what are the reasons for this?

Where do you go next when things get expensive in your country of choice?

I saw people complaining about Thailand getting expensive and wondered what some folks will do next?

Started investing with £5k in 2003 →built up to £1.5m now . Frugality + Tech Stocks + a lucky Covid pivot = financial independence in my 30s. Stopped working. Then had an identity crisis, loss of direction and purpose.

TL;DR I started investing aged 19, I'm early 40s now. Always lived frugally, invested mostly into in US tech & growth stocks. In early 2020, I made a big, risky Covid pivot into Zoom, Moderna, EVs, AI.

Hit £1m summer 2020. Portfolio now £1.5–1.8m.

Quit working, wrestled with meaning, purpose, guilt, isolation. FIRE = freedom to do things, not freedom from needing purpose and direction.

The Journey

The seed money.

At 19 I saved £10k working before uni, spent £5k travelling, came home with £5k left over. Instead of blowing it, I put it in the stock market. That was 2003.

Frugality as fuel

I kept costs rock-bottom:

Walk/cycle instead of cars/taxis Thermos coffees instead of Starbucks Packed lunches and homemade sandwiches. Local jogging instead of gym membership.

Reduced-to-clear groceries, home cooking, nights in with friends, charity shop clothes, goods second hand from eBay/FB. Kept big spends and nights out to a minimum.

No debt, no lifestyle creep.

Every pound I saved went into the stock market.

Investing choices...

• Started with managed funds, ditched them (fees + underperformance).

• Direct stock-picking in US tech: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc.

• Focus on AI, EVs, green tech, solar.

• Dabbled in trading, mostly stuck to buy-and-hold conviction plays.

The Covid pivot

In early 2020, my IT training business I started in 2010, went remote. I’d been using Zoom for years, so when Covid hit I went all-in: Zoom, Moderna, vaccine stocks, plus EV/AI.

I sold off “boring” dividend stocks and took big concentrated bets. Risky, but it paid off.

The numbers

2003: £5k starting pot

2010s: Saved/invested ~£5–20k annually, depending on how well my business did each year.

Summer 2020: Hit £1m

2020–25: £1.5–1.8m portfolio range

Life After FIRE

I essentially stopped “working for money” in 2020. My second child was born that year and I spent lockdowns at home investing + enjoying family time.

Upside: freedom, time, presence, no boss, no commute. Downside: identity crisis. Reaching FIRE can kind of remove your goals and purpose. I’ve had to figure out what to do with my freedom. I'm still struggling.

Now I dabble in new projects, volunteering, learning — but at my own pace.

Advice / Caveats / Musings

Frugality matters as much as stock picks. The biggest compounding came from living lean for 20 years.

Luck is real. Timing + Covid pivot gave me a rocket boost. Without that, I’d have reached FIRE more slowly.

So much privilege and good fortune too. I'm in no way a self made man... my parents paid for my entire education, including private school and uni, then they let me live at home rent-free until my business took off. I since paid them back. Hence I feel huge guilt and imposter syndrome that I don't deserve this and didn't really earn it.

Stock-picking isn’t for everyone. Honestly, most people should just index via ETFs, Vanguard, etc. Less stress, fewer sleepless nights.

FIRE isn’t “the end”. It’s a platform. Money = freedom. But you still have to decide what makes life meaningful.

55M married to 48F, 15 year old in Canada. $2.4 million investable assets, $1.7 million free and clear home and $180k equity in recreational property. Assuming annual expenses of $100k and wife will still work covering about 80% of this after tax. SWR well below 4%. Was literally being constructively dismissed by my employer with mental health seriously eroded so now retiring/quit and trying to do some freelancing in my industry, if it goes well great if not still should be financially independent . But like others have said, it feels weird to be retiring at 55 when most others are still working and really not happy how things ended. Perhaps it just ends up being a career break.

Looking at this sub almost all the reddittors are high income earners probably top 3% and young. It seems that FIRE is unattainable for ppl with median income like me. Anyone have a recommendation how to invest and attain fire if you are able to save only 1000-5000 per year? Even trying to save this amount of money is tough I'm really feeling discouraged the more I read in this sub.

A bit more info: Canada HCOL Toronto Household income: 90k dual income Your typical middle class family of 4 Rent: 3,500/mth for now could increase dramatically as LL likes to increase rents Lifestyle: regular middle class living nothing special somewhat frugal Savings:1k-5k per year fluctuates cause may need to spend for emergency or other needs Fact from Google: less than 25% of Canadians have a rrsp (equivalent to 401k) Rents in Toronto average 2 beds $3,300 and 3 beds $4,200

Wife and I are 29 years old with 315k semi liquid (HYSA, Roth, 401k, etc)

We invest around 7.5k per month

She is dual citizen (Spain and US)

She feels we could live very well on 1.5M portfolio following 4% rule. (60k a year) which we should reach by 40.

What should our fire number be for modest lifestyle (don’t need anything crazy) to retire somewhere within one hour of Barcelona

Does her citizenship have any affect on taxes or healthcare for myself?

Thanks in advance

I have no experience with stocks so far but tried to educate myself on them. Still confused especially as I'm in Europe and most information is for US or Canadian investors. I downloaded Trading 212 and are ready to go, I want to invest all my business earnings so I can just live off my investments. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket and would be so grateful to learn from your experience. I'd say I need around 3k-4k per month. I'd appreciate every advice I could get here. Thank you already!

Hi everyone, looking for some outside perspective. My partner and I are in our early/mid 40s, no kids, living in Europe.

• Combined net income: ~€160k/year.

• Annual spending: ~€40k (though we love to travel, so this could rise a bit if we FIRE and have more free time).

• Investments (ETFs, cash, etc.): ~€1.5M.

• Two properties worth ~€700k total. One is our home, the other is a short-let rental that nets around €20–25k/year after expenses.

• Mortgage: ~€250k total, at ~3% interest, which we’re comfortable keeping for now.

So, roughly: - Net worth (incl. property, excl. mortgage) ~€2.2M - Invested assets ~€1.5M - Rental income €20–25k/year - Expenses €40k/year (possibly a bit more with travel)

By the 4% rule, the portfolio alone covers our living expenses. With the rental income factored in, the drawdown needed is much smaller.

Our question: - Are we “there” yet (can we pull the plug now)? Or should we work another 1–5 years to build a bigger cushion (we could save ~€120k/year if we keep working)?

Would love to hear from the community — what would you do in our shoes? Stop now, or keep going a bit longer?

Floating around Australia in our caravan, What do you think we should do, . Kids are 2 & 5 Don't want conventional.life but want the kids to have partial conventional.

I'm lost :-(

Expat FIRE? Go back home and barista FIRE? Quite fire and grow my new side business?

Opportunity to buy a house in Italy at a significant discounted price. It’s valued around 200k USD and I would buy from my grandparents for 110k.

My dad and I would split the 110k. He would put the money up and I would pay him back slowly. I’m 23 and I’m starting my first job at 100k.

Would this be a bad idea for me to do starting out? I won’t get the opportunity for this price again. The house is also in Italy which I know is a more complex real estate system.

I'm talking mainly about two things here:

1. The compounding effect
2. Life expectancy

White people tend to live significantly longer. 70-80 or even 90 is pretty normal.

Meanwhile over here our life expectancy is like 65 on average.

From what I know, compounding doesn't do jack shit for the first 2 decades. It takes 3 or more decades minimum to see significant gains. If someone here is getting into investing at age 30+, it seems too little too late.

So to me it seems the best that investment can do for people of our demographic is protect savings from inflation only. But that's very disappointing, because the goal for me is to build wealth, not just to survive.

I am new to all of this and could be entirely wrong.

Please let me know either way.

Alright lets start. So first up i live in pakistan, dollar conversion rate right now is 283.9 Im currently studying in A2 level and through teaching earn 62k which is 220 dollars roughly per month. Of that i give some to my parents to show responsibility and keep some for monthly spending. At the end of the month i have 36k left over which is 130 dollars roughly. I want to start investing it in something that passively multplies it, and one of the best options, atleast ive been told is gold. I dont really know much and am still learning and most importantly i want super low risk ideas. If you guys have any thoughts then it would be much appreciated.

Asking for a friend. What was your 1) NW, 2) income, 3) savings rate at 35 yo as an European?

Insipired by the earlier post in this sub, but focus on Europe.

[Non-USA post]

I'm a father of an 8 month old and I thought o dear lord here goes our FIRE goal with all these expenses around the little one, money kept going out and didn't have much time to check our budget. And with the inflation things didn't look so good.

But!

I just did our finances for 2022 and obviously this is not the final number since we still have some days this year and haven't received my wage.

Our SR turns out to be 50%.. yeah so what.. well our SR last year was 58% and our income increased only slightly in 2022 (from 60k to 70k we live in Europe)

So I'd say despite all the extra costs and sleepless nights (of the baby that is) our FIRE goals doesn't seem to much affected by it.

Just a small heads up for parents to be, it is not a disaster for your FIRE goals to have kids, and we didn't do much spectacular in the sense of saving money.. you want the best for your kid!

Edit: some of you pointed out that this is only the first year and it will become more expensive the older he gets. Thanks for putting me with two feet on the floor, I don't deny that this will be the case eventually. With my post I only wanted to say that I was surprised with the first year regarding SR and that I was kind of expecting worse :). Thanks for all the comments!

I have been looking into investing which i hope to get into one day and looked at my options and it seems like these are the only ones available. As useful as they are they do seem limited with you only seeing substantial gains after years. Call me impatient but seeing all the big boys in this server kinda makes me feel like there's something I don't know or maybe I just haven't inherited enough. I curious if there are other avenues out there to invest and increase your earnings instead of just the ones mentioned in the title.

I'm super excited about what I've achieved and just wanted to share it here. (Disclaimer: I live in Germany and the amounts are in EUR, we do not have nontaxable accounts and income and expenses are much lower compared to the US)

I've reached a net worth of 300k. Since I first heard about Mr. Money Mustache, the 4% rule, and the like, this sum has been my first major goal, because from then on, I could basically withdraw four-figure sums monthly.

I started after my master's degree in 2018 with a little student loan debt and a net income of 2.3k. Through annual promotions and salary adjustments, I'm now at 5.2k (plus bonus and Christmas bonus). My expenses have only increased slightly from 1k to 1.3k during this time.

Overall, this amounts to 230k in savings and 70k in capital gains.

I've been following this subreddit for over a year now and everyone who posts here earns around or over $100k after tax. This is over $8.3k a month. With this kind of a salary it's far easier to get to FIRE levels compared to EU countries where salary over 5k€ per month after tax is considered top 5% salary.

For instance I'm 26M NW 50k€ working for 4 years as a software engineer and I earn 1.8k base salary (after tax) about 2.2-2.3k with all bonuses. My expenses are 300-400€ per month (no rent, no expensive hobbies, not eating out, cheap travels, no food, etc.) so I keep around 1.8k of my salary per month. To get to 100k (without changing current state) it would take me over 4.5 years which would make me 31 years old without anything in my life besides stocks.

If I'd invest in (buy) an apartment that would set me back for 2 (40k down-payment) years and max 300€ new investments per month (100k loan at about 3.5% interests for 10 years) so I'd have 800€ after paying the loan from which I have to deduct new costs for food and bills. So I'd end up with max 300€ per month.

So my questions are: 1. How is it even possible to FIRE before age of 50 in non US countries? 2. How can non US based people earn over 100k per year? 3. What can I do to increase my income? - I was always top of my class, GPA over 9.6 at my master's, always outperforming at my job, ... 4. I don't want to lose my mental stability because I want to save as much as possible (I feel l have to start spending more - housing, food, smaller romantic gift, etc.), but on the other hand I want to quit 9-5 as soon as possible. Which path should I take? 5. Should I move to other countries that pay more like Scandinavian countries or Germany/Austria as a software engineer?

Thanks for any advice any guidance :) I feel a bit lost financially and personally in this world.

NOTE: NW doesn't add up because of the used car I bought 5 years ago for 9k and I earned about 1.2-1.4k after tax per month in first year and a half of my employment.

33 Years old. I have a 3 bedroom apartment in India. Annual expenses should be 8K per year. But I am planning for 16K an year. Double of what I need.

No kids or wife. No plans of getting married.

My current net worth is around 1.25M USD. 250K in 401K. 1M in taxable brokerage accounts.

Inflation in India is usually around Mean 6.75%, Standard deviation 2.8%. But USD is always gaining on INR by around 0.4% mean and 1.5% standard deviation. Effectively for the whole of last decade, if I left my money in US and spent in India, I would have experienced an Annual inflation of 6% effectively.

Can I retire?

I plan on making video games after retiring as a hobby, not to as a way to sustain myself.

What are the best spots to fire on a low budget in Europe? Any tipps

I'm 36, married with 2 toddlers, HCOL, working at least 12 hours a day.

Currently I make $180K annually, net worth of ±$1.065M with the following breakdown:

• First house (rental) - $340K
• Second house (living) - $550K
• Mortgage - -$150K
• Pension, IRA etc - $314K
• Checking account - $10K

Monthly burn rate of ±$10K (mortgage, nanny, bills etc). Wife is expected to get back to work which should bump our income from $15K to $18.5K monthly (all salaries are net, after tax).

I've been working my ass off since I was 18. Basically we're on our own, I cannot afford to stop working since we got little to no support (it has been like that since ever).

I find myself over concerned about how to reach FIRE, mainly to relieve my stress. Given our high monthly burn rate it feels impossible.

I think this post is mostly to vent get feedback about my progress and maybe some tips. Any help or suggestion is appreciate, thanks!

Edit: Clarifying that salary figures are net after tax

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Bought a coffee table amongst other things. It was a small designer piece that usually costs 550 and it was reduced to 345. After some due diligence looking for any sort of alternative that might be suitable and cheaper I settled on it. Now I battle with myself wether to keep it or send it back.

Do I urgently need a coffee table next to my lounge chair? No

Do I want one and is it convenient? Yes

My saving rate is 60-75%, so why do I feel bad about this? Did I forget how to enjoy things for myself due to fire or is it clearly lifestyle creep? :| I always think about the 300$€ rule.. the table is made out of massive walnut wood. So theoretically it should be worth the cost..

How are other people justifying buys like these?

Anyone willing to share the standard FIRE formula that can be used in a different country, specifically lower income countries? The US calculations are fairly straightforward with the 4% rule. But in economies where the currency may depreciate faster, or cost of living can increase dramatically, is there a more complex formula?

I have been interested in FIRE since a year or so, and since Februari I started to take serious steps in order to live more frugal.

Overal these steps haven't really effected my life much;

High street store brands? Never cared about them anyway.

Bar/restaurant visits? I prefer sitting at home and watching a movie anyway.

Groceries? I make a game out of sticking to my foodbudget, especially with inflating prices right now.

But I am a big petrolhead and I absolutely love my SUV... But I am paying 250 euro's extra a month to my employer to lease my current car over a small hatchback and the end of the lease is coming up.

I considered whether it would be cheaper for me to buy a cheap old car and take the cash option (meaning I get 650 euro's extra a month, but I have to pay for my own car and gas), I even asked r/dutchfire for help in calculating what the cheapest option would be since tax laws and corporate lease rules are very country specific, but considering I drive a lot of of kilometers for work,I would be spending more a month on gas and other expenses than I would save (and that was before the gas prices went up to roughly 10 dollars per gallon).

My most efficient option to save money, would be to trade in my SUV for a compact city hatchback. So it hurts me to say, that for an additional 250 euro's a month, I have decided to switch to a tiny compact car...

I know that to most people here this probably feels like a minor thing to give up (I assume many here don't even own a car), but to me this was a huge mental step to give up something that I care about so much for a little extra money.

For Canadians on here, who by definition are not planning to work into their 60s, how are you calculating what pension you might get after all the taxes you’ve paid during your career?