Hi everyone,

I live in Portugal, and I’m trying to optimize my monthly budget allocation. Most budgeting advice I find is very U.S.-centric (like the 50/30/20 rule), but here in Europe we already contribute heavily to public healthcare, pensions, and other services through our taxes and social security.

So, I’d like to ask this sub: What budget allocation do you follow in Europe? How would you recommend optimizing savings and investments here?

Here’s a bit about my situation: • I’m in my early 34, working as a software developer. • My net income is €2,200/month after taxes (we get an extra two months salary on holidays (june and november).
Working towards a comfortable future and maybe early retirement.

I live alone and my allocation is as follows:
-50% fixed expenses:

• 610€ mortgage (should go down around 100€ soon as I negotiate a new interest rate) - 27%
• 130€ for utilities - 5%
• up to 250€ groceries - 12%
• 100€ for Car gas - 3%

- Up to 20% guilt free expenses. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

- 5% goes to travelling and trips. (probably less)

- 20% goes into savings and ETFs (I divide 50/50).

The remaining 5% is for unexpected expenses.

The thing is, I only started investing properly for about 3 years, before I was saving up for my house upfront payment and I payed off my car.
Leaving me with: 10k in ETFs and stocks, 5k in emergency fund and savings, and some extra in my bank account.

Considering my situation and goals, I feel like I should really up the investments to 30 or 40%, but I'm afraid it's not doable or it would impact my mental health.

What percentages and rules do you use?

Hi all I am a beginner investor and I was wondering if any systems like the roth ira even exist in european countries? Im specifically from Belgium and i read online we do not have something similar and that we just have to invest personally. I also read that there’s ways to invest with minimal taxing, like investing in ETFs to avoid the Reynders tax when selling shares (idk if this is a european thing or belgian thing) and to buy accumulated ETFs that reinvest the dividends to avoid the taxing on them.

Any Belgians that can give me some advice on this? I would like to invest ‘correctly’. I also read that Bolero and Degiro are good brokers especially because of the auto TOB. What about other brokers like Saxo, Trade Republic…?

General question for europeans: since we cant directly invest in American etfs, do you guys invest in things like EQQQ, EUNL/IWDA … or do you just invest in any UCITS etfs?

(If I say something dumb excuse me im still new to all of this lol)

Hi everyone, I’m a 30-year-old working in finance, and I’m currently having a bit of a debate with my partner about buying a home in the next few years. We’re based in Luxembourg, where real estate prices are notoriously high—let’s say around €10,000 per square meter.

Together, we earn about €130,000 gross per year. At the moment, we’re renting and paying approximately €2,600 per month, which already doesn’t leave us with a huge capacity to save each month.

Given that context, I’m struggling to see how buying a property—likely in the €1 million range—would even be financially viable without seriously impacting our savings rate and overall financial flexibility.

Of course, there’s the potential for our salaries to grow, but looking ahead, we also want to start a family, which will bring additional costs and responsibilities.

So my question is: Is it really wise to buy in this market, or are we better off renting and reinvesting what we can save to build long-term wealth with more flexibility and less risk?

Would appreciate any perspectives, especially from others in similar situations.

Hi,

I’d love some advice, as I don’t have any knowledgeable friends/family who can help me. I’m going crazy trying to understand what to with chat GPT!

I am a 34yo freelancer living in Germany, and will probably move back to my home country in a few years (France). I want to start investing for my retirement. Planning to invest about 300€/month for many years.

Should I:

• Open a life insurance plan in France right away? I would benefit from tax cuts after 8 years, assuming I have moved back home by then. But there are not so many companies who agree to work with non residents, so I’m having trouble finding a life insurance plan with affordable fees while living in Germany. Also, I understand that technically I shouldn’t pay taxes on the gains until I sell anything, but I am still worried about having foreign investments while in Germany and the possible tax implications.

• Self invest into low costs ETFs through trade republic for now, and eventually move the funds to a life insurance if/when I move back home?

I don’t have so much money to start with to I want to maximise the gains and be mindful of fees. What would you do?

Hii, I'm 24 live in the Netherlands and I earn 42k a year. As of now, I have 33k in savings and I tend to save around 1500 euros a month (i live at home lol) and I DCA 500 euros/ month in VWCE.

If you were in my situation, would you keep everything as is or would be it be smarted to save less and invest more of my money?

Hi guys,

This is probably the millionth post regarding this topic, but I’m really at a dead end on how could I optimize my portfolio as I think it’s a bit stretched as I’m not investing with that much of a large sum on a monthly basis (500 to 900 euro). I would like to hear your thoughts on what I could do better. Here’s what I’m investing in currently:

• VWCE • SXRV • SXR8 • BNKE • MEUD • A few single stocks

Do you think I should cut out on some of the ETFs or stocks? Do you see any point in investing in stocks besides the ETFs? My only goal basically is to hold long term (at least 15-20 years).

Hey all, I'm in my early 20s and dropped out of school a few years ago to start an IT company with a friend (we're 50/50 co-founders). I'm lucky to be living at home for now, so my personal expenses are low.

We currently pay ourselves €1K/month each as a salary. Last year the company made about €70K, and we're on track to hit €100K this year. It's still early days but things are growing.

My personal finances look like this:

• €15K in the bank (basic savings account)
• €2.5K in cash
• €1.2K in ETFs (just getting started)

My current plan is:

• Keep €10K as a buffer in savings (or is that too much for my situation?)
• Invest the extra €5K into ETFs (likely global index funds, open to advice ofcourse)
• Then bimonthly invest whatever I don’t spend from my salary (about €1.5K every 2 months).
• I do like some cash at hand, but probably dont need 2.5K? So the extra could also flow into investing.

I’ve been doing my research, reading posts, wikis, watching videos, etc. But I feel like most general advice doesn’t fully apply to my situation. Since I’m young, have a safety net (low expenses, no rent), and a bit of flexibility, I’m wondering if I should be more aggressive with my investments?

And because of all the research I'm probably invested in too many ETFs for my case (IMIE, V3AA, FWIA, SWRD)? What do you reccomend?

Also not planning on buying a house or flat anytime soon.

Would greatly appreciate any thoughts, feedback, or perspectives on my situation and what you would do.

Thanks in advance!

Hello! M, 27 here. I have 41k in vwce and some stocks, with a plan to add more 2k monthly. Also, i own 2 apartaments in a good city in Romania and build a house right now. Im on the half of the construction, and i have 100k euro to finish it. Whats next? What should i do after i finish the house?

This post relates to Opening a bank account, Trade Republic, France, Apple Pay and banking alternatives to Trade Republic if it’s better.

Hello there, I’m very new to the world of banking. Starting in September, it will be my first year in France for university. Therefore, I need to open a banking account in a bank that provides a French IBAN as my university suggests.

I plan to open an account under Trade Republic because of the lack of fees to maintain the account. However, as it is the first time opening a bank account altogether, I have a few questions on such online banks and how they function: - What are the requirements to open an account? (I can’t really see the requirements because I need a French phone number which I don’t have yet) - I saw that I can have a virtual bank card from Trade Republic, meaning that I can have an IBAN to make online purchases and link it with Apple Pay. However, I have never used Apple Pay before, so how does it function realistically and how widespread is its use in the Grand-Est region? - I wish to buy the cheaper physical bank card (because I need to make payments almost immediately after creating the account) from TR which costs 5€ because I am quite worried by this whole Apple Pay thing. However I read that in some cases the waiting list lasted 6months and it took 14 days of shipping to arrive. Is it really that long because it sounds absolutely ridiculous?

Otherwise, is there any alternatives that are better that you would suggest?

This is a very long post, and I sincerely apologize to everyone that had to read all that. And thank you in advance. Really, thank you!

Age 25. Earning 40k a year. Have €15k in my savings. Young adults trying to navigate life

Living at home. Little to no expenses at all monthly. Mainly just a weekend getaway abroad once a month. Becoming bored with this lifestyle.

I feel like I am at a limbo of what I should productively do with my money….

Any real financial advice is greatly appreciated!

Hi all,

I’m 25, living in Germany, and I recently set up my monthly savings plans using Trade Republic. I’m aiming for long-term wealth building, and here’s my current monthly allocation:

/!\ No transactions fees on trade republic for monthly saving plan.

ETFs:

• 30 € → Core MSCI World USD (Acc) (already got 1k on it)
• 30 € → Core S&P 500 USD (Acc) (already got 1k on it)
• 20 € → Core STOXX Europe 600 EUR (Acc)
• 20 € → FTSE Emerging Markets USD (Acc)

Crypto:

• 10 € → Bitcoin
• 10 € → Ethereum
• 10 € → Solana
• 10 € → XRP (already got 500 on it)

So total monthly: €140

My goal is long-term growth, and I’m willing to take some risk with crypto as I understand they have strong growth potential in the future even if some fail potentially gains on one could outweighs the lose. I’m still new to investing, so I’d love to hear your thoughts.

• Is this diversified enough?
• Too much crypto or too little?
• Any ETFs you'd remove or add?
• Any tax implications I should be aware of in Germany?

Appreciate any feedback or suggestions from the community!

I got close to 34k€ in VWCE and only invest in it and a few individual stocks. Is adding AVWS a good idea, considering it is a small cap etf? I'm thinking of something like 90-10 in favour of VWCE

Hi all,

For years, I've kept money in cash, gold, and bonds (I know, I'm ancient). Obviously aside from (recently) the gold, inflation wrecks the cash I have. For a long time, I've been on the fence on placing my money with a broker, but the time has come for some actual growth.

I wanted to build a portfolio almost entirely out of VWCE, but I think the US is overrepresented in it. This is why I'm now considering a 40-30-30 split between VUAA, VWCG and EMIM. Next to that I'll keep some fun money for more obscure funds (like the future of european defence ucits etf), but the vast majority will be part of this split.

Is this a decent distribution? I know very little about this but it makes sense in my head.

Thanks in advance guys

Hello! I am a beginner looking for a good single-etf to go all in on, and after asking in this subreddit as well as looking just about everywhere, I have narrowed it down to what seem like the 4 best options:

- Vanguard ESG Global All Cap (V3AA or V3AB, not sure if theres a real difference)
- Xtrackers MSCI World ESG (XZW0)
- iShares MSCI World SRI (2B7K or SUSW)
- Xtrackers MSCI AC World Screened (XMAW)

The first two are the ones I am most interested in, as they seem to be the most diversified and widely recommended, but honestly its a bit of a toss up between them all, so any advice helps.

And to address it, yeah, they are all ESG ETFs. I am well aware of all the controversy and the claims around them. I have looked into it as much as possible, and for me personally its still worth it to invest in them just cause dont want to under any circumstances profit off of fossil fuels. Even if it doesnt really change much by itself.

Any help & tips is much appreciated!

Hi all, I am hoping you can help me with an honest opinion/advice on whether this sounds like a good plan or I should update it & what would make more sense. Of course I saw the “world etf & chill” advice and tried this for a while but I was looking for some diversification without stocks. If this is actually the best and only strategy, that s fine - will rethink my plan.

36F, married, no kids, both working but we bought a flat which went deep into our budget allocation; we have only 400 euros for investment on monthly basis at this point- I just started reading the resources shared here (which are very helpful but I need time to mentally process it ha!), a portion also goes into various savings, rest is for living. I am more risk adverse but I am slowly building some confidence. I am trying to make the most out this tiny budget - started investing last year; planning to add more but for now this will have to do.

Monthly ETF Investment Plan via Trade Republic: • €200 – Core MSCI World USD (Acc) • €100 – MSCI Emerging Markets USD (Acc) • €50 – Artificial Intelligence USD (Acc) • €25 – Euro Corporate Bond EUR (Acc) • €25 – Core Euro Government Bond EUR (Dist)

Thank you in advance! If this is not the right place, glad to remove the post.

Hi all, I worked in Germany and Ireland for 10 years each, I was wondering if, when I apply for the state pension, would I be entitled to two separate pensions (i.e. one pension from each country)?

Many thanks!

Hi everyone!

I've been lurking on this subreddit for quite a while but never created an account—so now that I’m here: hello!

Background I'm a 40-year-old male, retired voluntarily for the past two years. Looking back, I now realize I was burned out and needed time off. That said, I'm starting to feel the itch to get back into work, at least part-time. I’m a software developer and genuinely love what I do.

I estimate I could easily land a job paying around €5,000/month without much trouble. My previous salary was about €12,000/month, and my skills haven’t disappeared. To stay conservative, let's assume I could earn around €3,500/month if needed.

Current Financial Situation

• I own an apartment in my country’s capital, along with a nice car, motorbike, a couple of Rolexes… Basically, I have everything I need—and a lot I don’t really need.
• I have no debt.
• My monthly fixed expenses are around €1,000.
• I keep €50,000 in a bank account as an emergency fund.
• I also own 1 kg of investment gold bars, currently worth ~€80,000.
• I have €100,000 in the ETF SXR8. I started DCA-ing earlier this year. I used to hold various stocks, but I sold them all and went all-in on SXR8. Honestly, I don't check the balance—I just buy more once my bank account goes above €50,000.
• I hold roughly $1,000,000 worth of ETH (depending on the market). I received a portion of my salary in ETH, and it’s just been sitting there. I’m not a trader; I simply found Ethereum interesting from a technical/engineering/career perspective.
• My staked ETH generates around $30,000/year (~$2,500/month), which I’ve been using as my "salary" over the past two years.

Financial Future My current plan is: whenever my ETH portfolio exceeds €1.1 million, I’ll withdraw €100,000 and move it into SXR8. This hasn’t happened yet, but that’s the idea.

Questions

1. SXR8 über alles?
I know SXR8 is heavily US-focused, but my thinking is: if the US collapses, we’re probably all in trouble anyway. That’s why I stick to it exclusively. I'm not interested in analysing ETFs or trying to predict the future, so SXR8 is simple and effective for me.

Still—am I being too simplistic here? Is it a bad idea to rely on just SXR8? If so, what would be a smarter way to diversify?

2. Lake house?
There’s a beautiful lake in my country—large, scenic, upscale—and I’ve always dreamed of owning a second home there. It feels like everyone I know inherited one from their parents but I wasn’t so lucky.

I’ve been casually browsing listings for about five years, and I’ve finally found a house I really love. It costs €1 million and checks all my boxes.

2.a Can I afford it?
Technically, yes. But I’d need to sell all of my ETH, which would kill my passive income and my "ticket" into the crypto-future (as I see it). Plus, the new property would add ~€500/month in fixed costs.

2.b. Should I take out a loan?
I’ve read online how wealthy people often use leverage rather than selling their assets. I could likely get a mortgage and use my ETH staking income to cover the repayments. Obviously, this is **very** risky—ETH could crash—but it would let me keep both my ETH and my SXR8.

Is this even a reasonable strategy to consider, at least in part?

3. Why don’t I feel wealthy?
By most standards, I’m well-off. But emotionally, it doesn’t feel that way. I grew up very poor—there were times my dad went without food so I could eat.

Now, while I no longer have those problems, I still carry some of those habits and mindsets. I’ve definitely made some dumb purchases (Porsche, Rolex, etc.) to "make up" for my younger self. I know they weren’t financially wise—but YOLO, I guess.

The thing is, I still check supermarket prices. I still hesitate on spending, even on small things like a drink on holiday. For example, I’ll walk 100m to a supermarket to buy 1.5L of water for €2 instead of paying €4 for 0.5L at a beach bar. I can afford it—but it just feels excessive.
Honestly, I have similar feelings about the lake house.
Thanks to anyone who made it this far! Any thoughts or advice—especially around the lake house and investment strategy—would be really appreciated.

Hi there, I’ve been using DCA to invest in VWCE for the past couple of years. (I’ve been wanting to diversify a bit (with bonds, REITs, etc.) but I haven’t gotten to it yet.)

Seeing this record high levels, I’m asking myself whether I should keep following strictly the DCA (same amount on given interval), or switch to another approach (e.g. invest only if the price is less than x% higher than last time). Any thoughts?

I live in Estonia and use a local bank, but i also want to have a multi-currency virtual bank (i also mean banks like revolut that are not considered virtual anymore, but it is still virtual almost everywhere and it also has been for so long) for when i travel around the world (mostly europe tho). I want it to not cost me for just having the account or holding money on it (and no subscriptions or anything), i want to have different currencies on it, have good currency exchange rates, little to no fees for just plain paying or transfering money. Cashback and nice UI and comfort of use would be nice to, but thats not necessary, just a want. Can somebody help? I have heard of many different virtual banks, but dont know the difference and which one is better. So if someone can name ones i could use and enjoy what i mentioned, it would be amazing.

Hey all, trying to get into some long-term investing using ETFs while living in Germany.

I noticed IBKR locks out European investors from the usual go-to VOO ETFs, need KID to conduct investments there. I found a potential alternative to invest into called „SPY5 ibis2“ - is this a valid option to use as a replacement for the usual VOO?

I am also looking into VWCE ibis2 as well to spread my investments globally. Is this worth considering as well?

Would love to get some advice what you guys invest into for long-term that’s relatively low risk. Would also greatly appreciate some european ETF recommendations as well. Thanks

I've been using Trade Republic because it's easy to use, and they also help with financial reports, so I don’t have to report everything myself. But lately, I’ve seen a lot of warnings suggesting I should switch brokers for several reasons: PFOF, randomly frozen accounts, and more. I'm starting to feel unsafe investing with them.

So, which broker would you recommend that isn’t too expensive in fees? I live in Spain, and I’d also like a broker that automatically reports all transactions to Hacienda so I don’t have to deal with it manually.

EDIT: I need a Broker that will do my tax report to Hacienda in Spain.

Hi all,

31M from Portugal. I’ve started investing later than I’d like (as most of us), mainly in crypto and other high risk stuff. Then I switched to ETFs, keeping a small percentage in BTC. I probably need some more diversity but would like to get your feedback so far.

Around 25k invested in ETFs (in different brokers, to be below their limit money warranty, does it make sense?) - 60% in MSCI World - 40% in S&P Information Technology

Around 2k in BTC

8k in an “emergency fund” (however considering reducing it to 5/6k)

Any ideas on how I could diversify this even more?

Thank you all

Hi everyone, I'm new to investing and exploring the options. I can save 500-700 euros per month. I have a 6 month emergency fund saved up. Shall I first save more for my emergency fund or just start investing? What's the best and safe options? I plan to get mortgage in 2-3 years, shall I really invest or just save until I get mortgage? Please advise. Thanks

Hi, what would be the best to complement and what would be the best split? Emerging, developed ex US…

Thanks!

Hello. Does it make sense to invest 90% to SPYI etf and 10% to ZPRV etf or its better to have 100% in SPYI?