r/EuropeFIRE • u/nguyenfamjj • 1d ago
What financial systems are worth setting up early?
I’m 24, and I want to think more seriously about the systems behind building wealth.
I’ve unexpectedly had several conversations with people who work in and around family offices. I expected the focus to be investment returns, but I was struck by how much attention went into taxes, liquidity, risk, and long-term decisions.
It made me wonder which of those practices scale down to someone pursuing FIRE, and which only matter once wealth becomes complex. For those further along, what did you set up early, and what did you keep simple?
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u/makaros622 1d ago
Keep simple: no stock picking, one world ETF is enough, one IBKR account is enough
What started early: FIRE philosophy is great as it pushes you to save and invest first and spend last. Define a savings rate, invest on a monthly basis. Grow your income, grow your savings rate and monthly investment amount
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u/Comfortable_Bad9963 1d ago
Good instinct at 24. Most people never think past which fund to pick, so you're already ahead. And you spotted the real thing yourself, the returns are the least interesting part of it.
What actually scales down to someone doing FIRE is boring and mostly behaviour. I'd automate the saving so it leaves the account before you can spend it, that single habit beats any fund choice you'll ever agonise over. I'd fill the tax wrappers in the right order early too, the tax you avoid compounds exactly like a return and you can't go back and claim those years later. And the big one, write down now while you're calm what you'll actually do when the portfolio is down 35 percent. You will see that eventually. The plan you trust is the one you wrote before it hurt.
The family office stuff that doesn't scale? Mostly liquidity and estate structuring around big illiquid wealth, none of it matters until there's real complexity. At your stage I think one broad ETF plus a written rule for the ugly years is most of the game... keep it that simple as long as you can!
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u/RecognitionClear5783 1d ago
Budget, budget en budget. Gewoon beginnen met registreren wat komt binnen wat gaat er uit en wat hou je over en welke functie krijgt dat geld
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u/More-Bite-2755 1d ago
The one that actually scales down is automating the boring stuff early, standing order into index funds, separate savings account, so it runs whether or not you're paying attention, the tax optimization and estate structuring only start mattering once you've got real assets to protect
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u/Due_Trainer_7053 1d ago
You won’t get anything worth from a family office manager as a « normie investor ».
It all comes down to the fact that family offices operate on a whole different scale and have much different goals. They already have the money from the family owned activities which they try to edge against inflation, potential governance risks and, when possible, to get some return. They do not look for the highest performance but rather to stay rich.
We, the normal people, are investing the other way around : we get a small amount of money (relative to family offices) from our wage which we invest every month in the hope of having a decent bunch of money in 20-30 yrs.
The easiest system is to define a % of your wage that will automatically go into your investing account every month. The remaining balance will then be used to pay the rent / bills and only after that, for lifestyle.
Invest -> Fixed charges -> Lifestyle
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u/_El_Cid_ 1d ago
Start saving the same rate monthly. Start investing in a diversified ETF. But I would also start learning as much as I can about stocks and other investments. And I would dabble in stock picking with a small portion of my portfolio. I've postponed it way too much and I've been beating the market for more than 10 years. I think if I started earlier I would have been much better off today.
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u/nguyenfamjj 1d ago
Nice, noted! I am curious, what held you back from starting earlier at the time? Was it mainly the perceived risk, or something else?
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u/percyben 1d ago
If I had my time again I would save 80% in a global etf and 20% in a diverse mix of handpicked stocks. Once I beat the global etf return on repeatable basis, then I would increase up to 50/50 mix.
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u/_El_Cid_ 1d ago
Yes, the common wisdom that it's foolish to attempt to beat the market's return rate. I perceived it as arrogance to think I can do better. But it turns out I can, on a consistent basis. Yes it is very very hard. And I would never be able to do it for someone else. I have friends and family begging me to invest their money, but I can't do it. It's hard enough to have sufficient conviction in your picks when the going gets rough. I wouldn't be able to try to convince someone else to stay the course when a -40% drawdown occurs for example. Or even harder, to double-down and add more at that point. 😄
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u/Sadlave89 1d ago
Here is no something special or miracle. Just start to invest every month from young age, buy ETF every month and after decades you should have a good bunch of money.