Who am I ?

I am a 41-year-old FIRE enthusiast, Belgian, happily married, and I have 2 children.

I come from the Kempen region in the province of Antwerp and work in the ICT sector.

Personal finance has always attracted my attention.

I have always subconsciously lived by the FIRE philosophy. Started working on vacations at a young age, never lived exuberantly, but started saving early.  Saving was a natural reflex, to provide money for setbacks and for “later”.  

For my entire career, I have had a monthly automatic savings order that I regularly increase (“pay yourself first”) rather than spend (no “lifestyle inflation”).

However, I never set these savings to work.  5 years ago, I found these savings savings doing nothing on my bank account and I looked for alternatives.  After I had read and informed myself well, I started with an investment in physical real estate.  

A bit later, I also rashly started investing in actively managed equity funds (ouch!).  

Then I discovered the FIRE community!  I read and learned a lot about investing (book “Rich dad, poor dad”), financial lifestyle (book “The Millionaire Next Door”) and active vs. passive investing (books “A random walk down Wall Street” and “The little book of common sense investing”).  

I concluded that my investments in active funds were not such a good plan, everyone makes mistakes :-).  Furthermore, I sold my active funds and currently invest in passive index funds (ETFs).

Why this website ?

I would like to share my financial knowledge with others, help them on their way to financial freedom.