The cost of doing nothing with your money, and what to fix first
Four money lines go stale at once: savings, tariffs, an uninvested surplus, and a pension rate you never set. Here's the ten-year bill, and what to fix first.
Money stuff, for Europeans
Money is just numbers that people get upset about.
We research why, so you can get upset more accurately. No paywall, no upsell, no "course launching soon" and no "Make $12k per day!". — An owl that, technically, nobody hired.
Featured
Our best attempts.
Updated whenever we come up with something better.
The three-fund portfolio for European investors
Europe's three-fund portfolio has its own shape. A single all-world UCITS fund owns the whole world, so most first-timers need two funds, not three.
What is financial independence? Not a permanent holiday
Financial independence is a coverage test, not a wealth level: non-work income covers your costs, so work turns optional. Europe changes the maths.
Why you can't save money (it was never willpower)
You keep failing the willpower test because it was never a willpower test. Change the set-up, automate one transfer, and saving happens without you.
Lately
Browse the archive → Last few things we wrote.
06 Sept Financial Psychology
How shops trick you into spending more, and which of it is illegal.
14 min 05 Sept Financial ProtectionWhat insurance do you actually need: subtract before you buy
12 min 02 Sept Financial PsychologyYour stock picks were fine. The trading is what cost you
16 min 27 Aug Investing & Wealth BuildingDividend investing in Europe: is it really passive income?
13 min 25 Aug Financial ProtectionHow to spot an investment scam: check the firm, not the pitch
11 min 20 Aug Budgeting & SavingThe payday running order: what to do when you get paid
15 min 18 Aug Budgeting & SavingHow much should you have saved by 30, 40 and 50? The European answer
12 min 15 Aug Investing & Wealth BuildingWhy don't Europeans invest in stocks? Where the money went instead
11 min 14 Aug Budgeting & SavingHow to get back on track after overspending, without starting over
12 min 13 Aug Investing & Wealth BuildingShould I wait to invest? Five reasons people give
12 min 06 Aug Investing & Wealth BuildingDoes market timing work? Seventeen European forecasts, marked.
7 min 05 Aug Financial PsychologyThe cost of doing nothing with your money, and what to fix first
9 min The whole library, somewhat organised
No idea where to start? Normal. Start here.
Researched thoroughly. Updated when reality changes.
01 · Money Management 12 posts
Money Management
Everyday money skills: budgeting, saving, credit, tax, and the fintech tools that, on a good day, make all of it less of a chore.
Walk in → 02 · Investing & Wealth 33 posts
Investing & Wealth
Putting money to work: investing fundamentals, turning a salary into assets, and protecting what you have already managed to accumulate.
Walk in → 03 · Money Mindset 17 posts
Money Mindset
The behaviour and meaning layer: psychology, purpose, and the big transitions that quietly reshape what money means to you.
Walk in → Tools, free, no email gate
Numbers in, answers out.
No sign-up, no optimistic defaults, and nothing you type leaves the page. The maths just runs, here, in front of you.
Money Management
The payday running order: what to do when you get paid
The euro payment system shuts four days straight every Easter. Move the payments nobody else is waiting for to at least five days after payday, on a date at or below the 28th that your own bills have already cleared.
How much should you have saved by 30, 40 and 50? The European answer
One year's salary by 30, three times by 40. That rule is American, and it assumes you fund half your own retirement yourself. Most of Europe already funds more, and most countries have a free government site where you can look yours up.
How to get back on track after overspending, without starting over
The bad month cost you one month. The nine you didn't go back cost nine times more. Restart at a figure that survives December, and keep the balance.
How to audit your spending and find where it went
A bank statement is a diary you didn't mean to keep. Here's how to read it back and find where the money actually went.
The 50/30/20 budget rule: a simple plan for European savers, and where it breaks
The 50/30/20 budget rule for European savers, explained plainly: how to split take-home pay, what a need is, and what to do when rent breaks the 50% ceiling.
Loud budgeting: how to turn down plans you can't afford without shame
Someone's booked a hen weekend that costs a week's groceries. Loud budgeting is how you say no to it without sounding cheap, broke, or mean.
Investing & Wealth
What insurance do you actually need: subtract before you buy
Most insurance is priced above your expected loss, by design. Subtract your state, employer and savings, and only the real gap is worth a policy.
Dividend investing in Europe: is it really passive income?
Pooled across 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, 70.6% of European once-a-year dividend payments arrived in April, May and June. What that does to a monthly budget, and what living off it really costs.
How to spot an investment scam: check the firm, not the pitch
Two registers and a warning list. That is the check that works on an investment firm, because the pitch, the dashboard and the profit on it are all theirs.
Why don't Europeans invest in stocks? Where the money went instead
Caution gets the blame. Add up all euro-area household assets and about €66 in every €100 is property. That is the area's total, not one household's.
Should I wait to invest? Five reasons people give
We ran 107,454 windows of European tracker-fund history since 2008. Waiting won three times in ten. Five reasons Europeans give for holding off, cross-examined: three lose, two hold up.
Does market timing work? Seventeen European forecasts, marked.
Every year Europe's strategists publish a number for where the market ends up. As far as we can find, nobody checks. So we marked seventeen of them, and the typical miss is bigger than a typical year.
Money Mindset
How shops trick you into spending more, and which of it is illegal.
Consumer authorities checked 314 online traders across Black Friday 2025, and only 40% fully complied with the EU's discount rules. Other tricks here are illegal too.
Your stock picks were fine. The trading is what cost you
You picked your broker on about €4 of commission and handling. Currency conversion on a €5,000 US-share round trip is €25 (DEGIRO, September 2026).
The cost of doing nothing with your money, and what to fix first
Four money lines go stale at once: savings, tariffs, an uninvested surplus, and a pension rate you never set. Here's the ten-year bill, and what to fix first.
The hedonic treadmill: why you get used to being richer
You got the raise. The new flat. The gym upgrade. And six months later, none of it feels like anything. That is the hedonic treadmill.
Money dysmorphia and doom spending: the money anxieties the internet named
The internet named two money anxieties, money dysmorphia and doom spending. What each means, whether either is a real diagnosis, and what helps.
The psychology of financial goal setting, minus the willpower myth
You don't need more willpower or a nicer vision board. You need an if-then plan and one automatic transfer that fires without asking you.