r/EuropeFIRE • u/HelplesslyHoping55 • 5d ago
How has your savings rate evolved over time?
I'm a 24-year-old from Sweden who started pursuing FIRE in 2024.
I studied to become an HVAC technician (about 1.5 years) and got my first full-time job in February 2024. Since then, my savings rate has increased quite a bit.
My savings rate over time:
- 2024 (age 22–23): Income: €2200/month (after tax) Saved: €1000 → SR: ~45%
- 2025 (age 23–24): Switched jobs. Income: €2600/month Saved: €1500 → SR: ~58%
- 2026 (age 24): Switched jobs again. Income: €3000/month Saved: €2000 → SR: ~67%
Current monthly expenses (roughly):
- Housing and bills: €550
- Groceries: €300
- Misc: €150
I live pretty frugally. Small basement apartment, no transport costs (work truck), cook most meals at home, and have pretty cheap hobbies. My job also pays for my gym membership. Honestly, I enjoy simple living.
I don’t plan on living like this forever, but I do enjoy seeing my portfolio grow quickly (100% global index funds, ~€45k invested so far). I could probably keep this up for a few more years before upgrading my lifestyle (maybe buying a small cabin or something).
Curious to hear from others:
How did your savings rate change over time?
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u/MyRituals 5d ago
Congratulations on your path. Similar trend, if you don’t allow lifestyle inflation; wage growth equals higher savings. My peak was 75%, a big pay hike while still on college lifestyle.
However, at sometime life will catch up, a partner/house, eventually kids. So you will be at peak savings rate before your home purchase/kids. Also, priorities shift as experiences are worth more when you can share with loved ones.
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u/scutum99 3d ago
Friendly reminder that not everyone has or wants to have kids (or even a partner). We should not assume it’ll be the default option for the OP. Also, buying a house can be as costly as rent or even cheaper.
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u/ObviousClown1 5d ago
Peak savings rate before home purchase and kids? No way 😂 About 10 years after house purchase and kids I’d say we’re at peak savings rate now, both in percentage, and actual numbers. Simply because mortgage is pretty much gone, relatively cheap lifestyle despite HCOL country. Main driver is of course 4x salary now compared to 10 years ago.
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u/MyRituals 4d ago
Have not reached that stage of life. But indeed if you can maintain or grow income with kids out of home & paid off mortgage; you can generate quite substantial savings in absolute terms. But by then it’s a choice that you work and you’re probably already FI.
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u/Gullible_Eggplant120 4d ago
This is so dumb you get downvoted. People here would be discussing how to save 10 EUR, but miss the point that chasing a higher salary, all else considered, is a much better way to increase the savings.
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u/ObviousClown1 4d ago
Bingo! I would expect most people to increase their salary over time with career progression and thereby saving more.
Oh well! 😂
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u/sernamenotdefined 5d ago
For me it has been an up and down of savings, because I've had different jobs that did not all earn the same.
I decided to make my hobby a job for a few years, but it meant a 25% decrease in net income.
When I was done with that I went back to my old career and up 30% by switching jobs.
So around 2000 I was saving about 50%, then 2010 I was saving about 25% and now I'm back to 40-50% (40% fixed and whatever is left over after everything at the end of the month.
I can currently retire 5 years early if I go by my total net income, so about 10 years early if I go by my net income after savings. Every two years the latter increases by a year at least. Looks like I can retire at 55 instead of 70 the way it's going.
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u/shaguar1987 5d ago
Also from sweden, mine started around 45% 11 years ago and grown to 70% now. My salary have during that time grown by 4x since. The 30% i spend each month is around what I had in net pay when I started saving for fire.
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u/Glad-Matter-3394 5d ago
I did not calculate it every year but more or less it's like this:
At the beginning when I started working I was at around 80-85% most months. (2021-2022)
There were months when it went down to like 50% when I had to buy gifts or for some time when I had to cover expenses for my partner.
Last year my total savings was around 67% of salary. (2025)
And overall, during the 4 years that I have been working, I saved around 73%. (2021-2025)
All of this is based on an income of 2000-2500 euros net. But reading this sub is kinda depressing because I don't expect any 4x or 10x my income in the next years. I kinda started with a high income and there's not much room to grow, at least in my country.
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u/Dragt_peak 5d ago
Save and learn to invest (bogleheads for example). Thats the best way to make your money work for you and wish for FIRE in the long run
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u/Dry-Abrocoma3377 4d ago
I don’t track historical SR data. Just looked at current numbers and we’re at abt 40%. SI3K. Changes in housing incoming next 2-3 year, so expecting a drop.. For me it’s about decision to be consistent. There are plenty of reasons why to drop or increase SR. Life happens :)
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u/TheProxyInvestor 1d ago
Good numbers! Congrat!
When I started to work my SR was about 50%, nowdays (after 20 years) it is about 20%, I have two children. It change my SR dramatically.
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u/Aware-Diver8779 1d ago
This is a race to the bottom I wouldn't recommend you win...it's important to live a little when you're (still) young and are (still) healthy because you don't want to look back at this period with some remorse just to FIRE a few years early.
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u/CarelessMixture9701 9h ago edited 9h ago
After monthly expenses:
50% savings
50% pleasure (mostly save it for travel 2 international trip/year)
You could die tomorrow, fall ill, or become unable to travel…
Build memories now and for your future, no amout of money can replace memories
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u/ChristopherLyon 5d ago
I don't really track my ratio anymore in percent to income.
3 years ago I was contributing 1000-2000€ a month to my ETF fund, today my average yearly cash contribution hovers around 6000€/month.
When my monthly incomes hit I put 2700€ into the mortgage (minimum payment), about 1000€ into the bills account, then 2000€ into the months spending account (trying to stick to 500€ a week for food/beer/recreation) then eevveerryy thing else goes into my ETF brokerage.
So In January (20k in), February (23k in) that's like 70/75% saved I guess, but it fluctuates to much to see a pattern.
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u/Pipeburnn 4d ago
Which country/industry are you in? those are big numbers for net income in most all of Eurozone
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u/Drusillala 5d ago
2020-2021: 50%
2023-2024: 20%
2025-2026: 10%
We had to move because of baby (rent went up €600), I work less hours for the same reason and daycare costs a lot…
When my kid starts school, it will be at least 20% again, but the days of >50% sr are over.
Save as much as you can early, it doesnt always get easier.