Non-native English speaker here.
How much wealth do you need to achieve lean FIRE in your country?
To figure out your lean FIRE number, you need to calculate the yearly expenditure of a middle class family of 4 (two spouses and two kids) and divide it by the withdrawal limit of 4%. The wealth could be stored as real estate, stocks, bonds where it would generate passive investment.
FIRE means financial independence and early retirement. Where people have saved up so much money, that they no longer need to work and can live off of the passive returns generated by their investments.
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If I remember correctly, the FIRE movement proposes to kill yourself to work and save 50-70% of your income to retire at ~40 years old if you are lucky enough that your investments actually give you returns and don’t leave you broke before you are 30.
According to this [report](https://www.newtral.es/cuanto-se-destina-salario-sueldo-alquiler-vivienda-casa-espana-70-40-30/20210405/), in 2020 in Spain the price of housing would be equivalent to 92% of a young person’s salary. I won’t even try to do the calculation, in most European countries early retirement is simply impossible, we will probably work 3-4 years longer than our parents. I can’t think of any “normal” job that would allow you to earn enough money in 15-18 years to retire.
FIRE isn’t really a thing here, and certainly not possible for a middle class family. If you have a household income of 4 times the average, then you can start to think about such a thing and save serious money. The best a middle class family can hope for is to retire a few years before the official retirement age.
But.
Round these parts, you don’t have to wait until retirement to start doing the nice things in life. We have a great work-life balance, and lots of paid time off. It’s not all work, as seems to be common in the US and quite a few countries in Asia. The trick is to enjoy life during your working years, not after.
Well we (couple with no kids yet) were aiming for 1.5 million and thought that would be the very bare minimum to make it with kids. But thats probably very very tight. Especially considering that 4% is quite generous or rather outdated (as it only takes into account like 1% for inflation).
But we found out we dont actually want to not work at all. Just be able to work less stressful/competitive jobs, maybe part time, maybe not at all sometimes and maybe temporarily also live in cheaper countries. And for that 1.5 million is quite nice. Assuming we still earn a little bit (maybe one average salary between the two of us in lost years).
Edit: i think that would be called barista Fi.
“FIRE means financial independence and early retirement.”
That’s FIER.
Following recommended costs for food, utilites and all other consumption it should cost around 25000-30000 sek/month to live excluding housing costs for a family of four. Under the assumption that housing will cost 10000-20000 sek/ month. I’d say 50 000 sek/month would be necessary although you migth be able to push this down by living cheaply and if you for example already own a house without debt etc.
Assuming 50 000 sek/ month you would need 15 000 000 sek in capital.
So ~ 1,3 million €
That depends entirely on **where** you retire. If it’s in the middle of nowhere and you are okay with that you need about 20% of the money you would need in the suburbs of Munich for example.
And real estate in which you live yourself (and that is worth what you paid for it) is the only retirement investment. Everything else is a complete gamble.