I am really happy that I have found your account recently and to see someone understanding the European market and doesn't talk about 401K's and Roth IRA's. I am a Danish expat in Belgium and I appreciate your diverse approach knowing that each EU/European country is different, yet there is so much potential in investing and growing wealth in Europe. When I turned 30, I decided to finally approach the topic of pension and found out that I could have very favorable tax benefits having a private pension fund in Denmark while living abroad. It only required signing a short tax formular and sending it online to the Danish tax authorities and proving once a year that I still live abroad. Best thing I have ever done financially! My dream is to have about the same amount of money for my retirement per month as my full time salary, knowing I would like to have in-home care and not rely on my future children to look after me. I have seen so many Europeans in the retirement age completely underestimating the amount of money they need for retirement. Yes, your morgage may be paid off but inflation, home repairs, a possible new car because the old family car has been warn down or doesn't fit your needs anymore, healthcare costs, elderly home payments – it all adds up. I am lucky to be in the €4k+ category and I max out my pension fund contributions every year. Now I am looking into ETFs to increase my wealth. Thanks for your helpful guiding videos and constructive approach!
My friend do you ever live with a 2000 wage per month? Try for an year and tell me how much did you save and invest after. P.S. : don't borrow money from your mom and eat as usual not just bread
I'm just going to share my experience really… through my twenties I was making around 1500-2000 Euro a month… I did uni got an education and I'm now in my 30's doing OK… Now here's a lesson for many young folks who want to be sharks etc. DON'T! Enjoy your life a little, invest in yourself and just chill out… When you're young 99% of you won't have a good job that will allow for both investing, developing and travels or whatever you do… So just sit back relax and enjoy life as it is… Once you hit 30 and land that decent job slow down with investing in yourself start putting money aside, build a black scenario cash first, for things that can and will go wrong, at this point invest little say you make 2000 put about 20% aside out of that 20% invest 5% put the rest aside for safe keeping… Why? Well at least in my case when I crossed 30 I increased my income from around 2200 a month to around 3400 a month in just 3 years… Money will come, so don't stress it and most importantly don't listen to types of Andrew Tate etc.
Here is a short summary of the situation in Bulgaria
Mandatory supplementary pension fund. • Mandatory for people born after 31 December 1959 • 5% of gross salary is contributed to an individual account • The money is invested and used to provide a second pension
👨 Retirement age (men) or at least for now 😀 • 65 years old with required contribution service
💰 Conditions for using the money • You can access the funds when you retire • In some cases: early access (e.g. disability) • You usually receive the money as monthly payments (pension)
👨👩👧 Inheritance • The funds are personal property • If the person dies, the money is inherited by heirs
So in conclusion it isn’t the best solution, but it is far enough, since it is mandatory, and if you are on a high salary there will be good income at the end.
What’s the best place to keep an emergency fund so it’s protected from inflation but still easily accessible when needed?
Good video. But it's highly unlikely that an average european would earn net salary of 2k. People start investing with 150-300€ per month and give up quickly because then get mentaly tired and start thinking they are just investing and not spending on things they like or hobbies.
I've been investing about 800€ per month for 1.5 years now. I don't regret it at all, though it's required some sacrifice on my low salaries (1300€ per month at first, now higher). All in stocks (FTSE All-World ETF)! I hope to retire early.
I'm 28 and I make 2000€ a month in Spain, 50% of my income goes to living expenses, I currently safe about 25% into a diversifierd portfolio with bonds and etfs, 5% goes to my emergency fund that is already 6 months of expenses but i grow it slowly because i asume my expenses will tend to go up. 2% is going into a retirement plan from my bank (this one is just to forget it exists and be happy from time to time as I see it grow very slow). And about 18% is for my expenses not related to living, like buying a videogame or going out.
i'm 23 years old, i have 30k in the bank and i make 1800€ per month, but i live whit mi family so never spend over 600 per month, it's good for me to invest something like 1k a month or should i invest less?
Started investing in a aggressive portfolio for medium-longterm investment with 350/month when i was 18. 50/month on a small pension insurance. Occasionally bought some silver/gold
Now with the crazy gold/silver prices, those coins are now quite the nice safety cushion. 2021 to now, best investment i ever did.
I use INVL III pillar tax advantaged pension fund. It has management fee of 0.59% which is pretty good.
What I dislike about your advise is that you are giving that advise in a vacuum. Sure, you can dedicate 10-20% of your paycheck to retirement. However, you ignore other traditional investments which people are doing. Having your own house, renovating it. These are great investments in reducing OPEX. Likewise, what if you have your own stock portfolio? You advise to put all investments into retirement fund rather than to have more diversified portfolio. What about adding some to retirement and then some to your stock/bond savings account?
And 20% is a bad advise. For someone earning 1500-2000 net, you are advising to put into retirement fund 300-400 euros. Like what? These financial advisors are operating in their own world.
I would like to share one benefit that I have in my job as a factory worker. When I send 25€ monthly to my pension savings, company adds another 75€ monthly to my pension savings. I was wondering if anyone else has similar benefit in their job as I find it very nice.
One word. Balance. Balance building wealth for the future versus enjoying the present. Balance your investments between stocks, funds, and bonds. Balance your investment strategy between risk and reward. And no matter what you do, always remember, the best things in life are free (usually). Make friends, love deeply, appreciate your family. Enjoy sports or other hobbies. And if you make it big, no shame in buying some country club membership if you think that will bring you happiness. But don't wait for that day to become happy. Every single day that you are healthy and have good food on the table and a roof above your head is a solid reason to be happy. Condition your happiness not on thngs you want but on things you need.
It’s very refreshing to have someone in Europe talking about this things because most of the content on finance on youtube is in the USA and they have financial products not available here in Europe. 👍🏻
Hi Tom, great video once again! Just have one question about the saving rates for retirement as a % of the salary. Does it mean 10, 10-15, 15-20+ % before or after taxes? Thanks!
Official Pension funds in Belgium feel like a waste of money to me. You get a 30% tax return up to about €350, hooray! You also get 56% return in a so called 'growth' fund over the last ten years whilst the SP500 did 267%. And you'll pay 3% deposit cost + 1% management fee. I'd rather buy bonds myself than pay for such terrible performance.
It may be amusing when an American mistakes Europe for a single country. However, when a European finance influencer offers general financial advice for the entire continent—ignoring the enormous economic and financial diversity across European countries—it becomes unprofessional and weird. Especially in financial and economic respects, Germany and France are more comparable to some non European country like Canada than to many Eastern European countries, which in turn are more comparable to some non-European countries such as Russia or Turkey than Western Europe. In fact, the minimum wage in some Western European countries is higher than the median wage in many Eastern European countries. A single person can barely cover basic living costs with €1,400 per month in a German town, whereas €1,400 exceeds the average salary in some Eastern European towns. Minimum gross monthly salary for a fulltime job in Germany is 2410 €, which is according to Eurostat higher than average salary in all Eastern European countries in the EU except for Slovenia. The title alone discourages watching the video. There is no logical basis for offering generalized financial advice for an entire continent.
Please talk about net income so people also understand who are not so savvy with money, at least I think you're talking about net income as in Europe there are so many different taxes in different countries 😊
I do like your videos and it's really lovely to see that somebody is talking about Europeans, thank you for that! Also small suggestion.. where was the 3000 Euro income part? 😂😂
I live in Australia and I invest into my retirement found and separately into ETF vanguard I'm 42 and all up I'm auto investing 29 % of my income , I'm using the system SET AND FORGET (auto invest) …
i am glad i found this channel because, it confirms that what i am currently doing with my money is correct, to an extent. admittedly i wish i had started when i first got hired in 2015 and not in 2021 but i am happy i started nonetheless. although i am a bit aggressive with my investments and saving because i don't need a whole lot.
currently i earn about 1.4k a month net, which is a comfortable sum in romania but it's more on the low to mid range of the average, but my savings total, between paying 2 investment accounts (one opened in 2021 and one in 2025), paying 1 vacations account (that generates no money but provides for easily 2 1-2 week vacations a year) and paying an extra rate for my house in advance every month, comes to a total of roughly 475-500 a month, which percentage wise is huge, and still at the end of the month i can end with anywhere between 50 to 200 euro depending on what extra stuff showed up, and i use that sum to ingest it in 1 of the investment accounts or the vacations account.
the reason i can do that is because i keep track of my spendings, i know it's an extremely old fashioned method but it's god damn powerful and i can still live a normal life with all of my needs accomplished and if it ever comes to it, i can easily get another influx of cash due to those records, without having to drag down my 2 main investment accounts.
now i am planning to invest in me in the next 6 months to hopefully get a big boost in income afterwards, so i can bring down the percentage of savings compared to my actual salary to have a safety net so i won't have to cut any of the current spending down and maybe, increase them by a small percentage
sure hope i will get to step 2 although i am already doing a lot of the step 2 at step 1
47 comments
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I am really happy that I have found your account recently and to see someone understanding the European market and doesn't talk about 401K's and Roth IRA's. I am a Danish expat in Belgium and I appreciate your diverse approach knowing that each EU/European country is different, yet there is so much potential in investing and growing wealth in Europe. When I turned 30, I decided to finally approach the topic of pension and found out that I could have very favorable tax benefits having a private pension fund in Denmark while living abroad. It only required signing a short tax formular and sending it online to the Danish tax authorities and proving once a year that I still live abroad. Best thing I have ever done financially!
My dream is to have about the same amount of money for my retirement per month as my full time salary, knowing I would like to have in-home care and not rely on my future children to look after me. I have seen so many Europeans in the retirement age completely underestimating the amount of money they need for retirement. Yes, your morgage may be paid off but inflation, home repairs, a possible new car because the old family car has been warn down or doesn't fit your needs anymore, healthcare costs, elderly home payments – it all adds up.
I am lucky to be in the €4k+ category and I max out my pension fund contributions every year. Now I am looking into ETFs to increase my wealth. Thanks for your helpful guiding videos and constructive approach!
My friend do you ever live with a 2000 wage per month? Try for an year and tell me how much did you save and invest after. P.S. : don't borrow money from your mom and eat as usual not just bread
Best finance content, thx
im investing at least two thirds of net income
Me watching this video from Bulgaria with 600 euros minimal wage….
I'm just going to share my experience really… through my twenties I was making around 1500-2000 Euro a month… I did uni got an education and I'm now in my 30's doing OK… Now here's a lesson for many young folks who want to be sharks etc. DON'T! Enjoy your life a little, invest in yourself and just chill out… When you're young 99% of you won't have a good job that will allow for both investing, developing and travels or whatever you do… So just sit back relax and enjoy life as it is… Once you hit 30 and land that decent job slow down with investing in yourself start putting money aside, build a black scenario cash first, for things that can and will go wrong, at this point invest little say you make 2000 put about 20% aside out of that 20% invest 5% put the rest aside for safe keeping… Why? Well at least in my case when I crossed 30 I increased my income from around 2200 a month to around 3400 a month in just 3 years… Money will come, so don't stress it and most importantly don't listen to types of Andrew Tate etc.
Why only invest 10-20 %? Why not invest as much as you can if youre young and planning to invest in world index ETF:s.
Būtu labi latviešu val.
I earn about 1100€ a month in Latvia and have stay at home wife and one kid but I try to invest even in my situation
What is rent like in the rest of Europe? If I invested £400 out of £2,000 (20%) I'd be homeless by next month, lol.
Me who invests 70% of his monthly income at 28 years old: 😮
Really like these videos. Things explained clearly with common sense. Thanks for the video once again!
Thanks brotha!
Very good advice. Too often we look to the stars before going through the painful initial stage og being simply comfortable
Here is a short summary of the situation in Bulgaria
Mandatory supplementary pension fund.
• Mandatory for people born after 31 December 1959
• 5% of gross salary is contributed to an individual account
• The money is invested and used to provide a second pension
👨 Retirement age (men) or at least for now 😀
• 65 years old with required contribution service
💰 Conditions for using the money
• You can access the funds when you retire
• In some cases: early access (e.g. disability)
• You usually receive the money as monthly payments (pension)
👨👩👧 Inheritance
• The funds are personal property
• If the person dies, the money is inherited by heirs
So in conclusion it isn’t the best solution, but it is far enough, since it is mandatory, and if you are on a high salary there will be good income at the end.
What’s the best place to keep an emergency fund so it’s protected from inflation but still easily accessible when needed?
Well, thank you for the videos!
High yield savings account in Europe??? They dont exist. Unless 2-3 percent is what you call high yield
10:00 I thought he was going to say "You are screwed"
In eastern Europe 1000 is not the low end… In Romania 550€ per month is the minimum 😂 any advice for a 700€ per month with a 300€ rent ?
With the house prices right now I have to spend quite a lot of my salary just to live normally hahaa
Good video. But it's highly unlikely that an average european would earn net salary of 2k. People start investing with 150-300€ per month and give up quickly because then get mentaly tired and start thinking they are just investing and not spending on things they like or hobbies.
Stop this bs, investing as before doesn't apply anymore. Start teaching people how to survive with few
I've been investing about 800€ per month for 1.5 years now. I don't regret it at all, though it's required some sacrifice on my low salaries (1300€ per month at first, now higher). All in stocks (FTSE All-World ETF)! I hope to retire early.
7:35 – Switzerland laughs nervously at sideline 😅
I'm 28 and I make 2000€ a month in Spain, 50% of my income goes to living expenses, I currently safe about 25% into a diversifierd portfolio with bonds and etfs, 5% goes to my emergency fund that is already 6 months of expenses but i grow it slowly because i asume my expenses will tend to go up. 2% is going into a retirement plan from my bank (this one is just to forget it exists and be happy from time to time as I see it grow very slow). And about 18% is for my expenses not related to living, like buying a videogame or going out.
i'm 23 years old, i have 30k in the bank and i make 1800€ per month, but i live whit mi family so never spend over 600 per month, it's good for me to invest something like 1k a month or should i invest less?
Instant follow, what a great video!
Started investing in a aggressive portfolio for medium-longterm investment with 350/month when i was 18. 50/month on a small pension insurance. Occasionally bought some silver/gold
Now with the crazy gold/silver prices, those coins are now quite the nice safety cushion. 2021 to now, best investment i ever did.
I use INVL III pillar tax advantaged pension fund. It has management fee of 0.59% which is pretty good.
What I dislike about your advise is that you are giving that advise in a vacuum. Sure, you can dedicate 10-20% of your paycheck to retirement. However, you ignore other traditional investments which people are doing. Having your own house, renovating it. These are great investments in reducing OPEX. Likewise, what if you have your own stock portfolio? You advise to put all investments into retirement fund rather than to have more diversified portfolio. What about adding some to retirement and then some to your stock/bond savings account?
And 20% is a bad advise. For someone earning 1500-2000 net, you are advising to put into retirement fund 300-400 euros. Like what? These financial advisors are operating in their own world.
I wonder where are you from if you mentioned western Europe? Greetings from Slovakia
Imagine dying before pension while saving and not enjoying life fully
Do you really live in Eastern Europe? Or North Europe?
I would like to share one benefit that I have in my job as a factory worker. When I send 25€ monthly to my pension savings, company adds another 75€ monthly to my pension savings. I was wondering if anyone else has similar benefit in their job as I find it very nice.
One word. Balance. Balance building wealth for the future versus enjoying the present. Balance your investments between stocks, funds, and bonds. Balance your investment strategy between risk and reward. And no matter what you do, always remember, the best things in life are free (usually). Make friends, love deeply, appreciate your family. Enjoy sports or other hobbies. And if you make it big, no shame in buying some country club membership if you think that will bring you happiness. But don't wait for that day to become happy. Every single day that you are healthy and have good food on the table and a roof above your head is a solid reason to be happy. Condition your happiness not on thngs you want but on things you need.
50% into savings to buy a house, 30% + vacation money/bonus into investments
It’s very refreshing to have someone in Europe talking about this things because most of the content on finance on youtube is in the USA and they have financial products not available here in Europe. 👍🏻
Hi Tom, great video once again! Just have one question about the saving rates for retirement as a % of the salary. Does it mean 10, 10-15, 15-20+ % before or after taxes? Thanks!
In Latvia 2000€ after taxes is quite a high pay. The average is 1300, median around 1100 after taxes. So i guess i'm screwed…
Official Pension funds in Belgium feel like a waste of money to me. You get a 30% tax return up to about €350, hooray!
You also get 56% return in a so called 'growth' fund over the last ten years whilst the SP500 did 267%. And you'll pay 3% deposit cost + 1% management fee.
I'd rather buy bonds myself than pay for such terrible performance.
I earn 3k and have a dependent so not sure if I'm level 2 of 3 😅
It may be amusing when an American mistakes Europe for a single country. However, when a European finance influencer offers general financial advice for the entire continent—ignoring the enormous economic and financial diversity across European countries—it becomes unprofessional and weird. Especially in financial and economic respects, Germany and France are more comparable to some non European country like Canada than to many Eastern European countries, which in turn are more comparable to some non-European countries such as Russia or Turkey than Western Europe.
In fact, the minimum wage in some Western European countries is higher than the median wage in many Eastern European countries. A single person can barely cover basic living costs with €1,400 per month in a German town, whereas €1,400 exceeds the average salary in some Eastern European towns. Minimum gross monthly salary for a fulltime job in Germany is 2410 €, which is according to Eurostat higher than average salary in all Eastern European countries in the EU except for Slovenia. The title alone discourages watching the video. There is no logical basis for offering generalized financial advice for an entire continent.
Please talk about net income so people also understand who are not so savvy with money, at least I think you're talking about net income as in Europe there are so many different taxes in different countries 😊
I do like your videos and it's really lovely to see that somebody is talking about Europeans, thank you for that!
Also small suggestion.. where was the 3000 Euro income part? 😂😂
I live in Australia and I invest into my retirement found and separately into ETF vanguard I'm 42 and all up I'm auto investing 29 % of my income , I'm using the system SET AND FORGET (auto invest) …
we all will die someday anyway and all our money or savings will be useless so, just live a life.
4500 per month is barely enough to survive in Switzerland
i am glad i found this channel because, it confirms that what i am currently doing with my money is correct, to an extent.
admittedly i wish i had started when i first got hired in 2015 and not in 2021 but i am happy i started nonetheless.
although i am a bit aggressive with my investments and saving because i don't need a whole lot.
currently i earn about 1.4k a month net, which is a comfortable sum in romania but it's more on the low to mid range of the average, but my savings total, between paying 2 investment accounts (one opened in 2021 and one in 2025), paying 1 vacations account (that generates no money but provides for easily 2 1-2 week vacations a year) and paying an extra rate for my house in advance every month, comes to a total of roughly 475-500 a month, which percentage wise is huge, and still at the end of the month i can end with anywhere between 50 to 200 euro depending on what extra stuff showed up, and i use that sum to ingest it in 1 of the investment accounts or the vacations account.
the reason i can do that is because i keep track of my spendings, i know it's an extremely old fashioned method but it's god damn powerful and i can still live a normal life with all of my needs accomplished
and if it ever comes to it, i can easily get another influx of cash due to those records, without having to drag down my 2 main investment accounts.
now i am planning to invest in me in the next 6 months to hopefully get a big boost in income afterwards, so i can bring down the percentage of savings compared to my actual salary to have a safety net so i won't have to cut any of the current spending down and maybe, increase them by a small percentage
sure hope i will get to step 2 although i am already doing a lot of the step 2 at step 1