Everything to read, one shelf each.
The manuals you use, the essays you read, the course that starts from zero, and the reference shelf for looking things up. Pick by what you're here to do. None of it is advice.
The manuals
written once, kept current, datedThe European FIRE guide
The one the canon never wrote: the same arithmetic of freedom, rebuilt around UCITS funds, wealth and exit taxes, and a state pension you may not touch for decades.
The inflation guide
What rising prices quietly do to a FIRE plan: real against nominal, your basket against the headline, and why every number on this site is already in today's euros.
The broker guide
The main brokers available to Europeans, compared on what actually decides it: the cost of your pattern, what happens if one dies, who does your tax paperwork. No affiliate links anywhere on it.
The withholding guide
What US dividend withholding actually costs inside Irish, Luxembourg and synthetic funds, shown in the funds' own tracking records, and priced on your pot.
Living off it
The operating manual for living off a portfolio: the machine of selling, the cash buffer, the yearly amount, taxes when you sell, and the playbook for the bad decade. Written from four years of doing it.
When the Week Is Yours
The other half of the exit: the last year of work, the first ordinary weeks without it, and what one rehearsed week can and can't tell you about the forty years that follow.
Start from zero
the course, ten short lessonsStart from zero.
From “what’s a share?” to your own plan. About 15 minutes, no jargon, nothing to sign up for.
The essays
freedom, money, the default scriptI retired into a falling market
19 July 2026 · 4 min readMy first year out was the year stocks fell and prices spiked. I did nothing about the market, worried more about the supermarket, and learnt what a plan is really for.
How long are you planning for?
16 July 2026 · 4 min readMost of us plan our money to last thirty years and then quietly hope to live a lot longer than that. I put the contradiction to a group of investors in Lisbon: two true stories, a thought experiment, and where I land.
The list
11 July 2026 · 3 min readI retired with a list of everything I'd finally do. Most entries died on contact with the freedom; the survivors surprised me. What the list is actually for, and when to start yours.
The reference shelf
look things upBring me a challenge.
The Exit Audit, then ninety minutes: a straight verdict, real alternatives with their pros and cons, and your first move. If you want someone to nod along, I’m the wrong person to pay.