Software Engineer Targets FIRE 2032 with Freenance — Thomas's Munich Plan

Example based on realistic German numbers and a fictional engineer. Salary bands, tax rates, and broker references reflect Germany 2026.

Quick Answer

Thomas, 34, senior backend engineer in Munich, €6,500/month net (~€105,000 gross). FIRE target: financial independence by 2032 at the latest. Twelve months ago he had €58,000 spread across two banks and a vague feeling of "I should be doing more." Today he has €112,000, a written investment policy, a clear FIRE number of €750,000, and an automated 45% savings rate that he no longer thinks about. Freenance is the dashboard that survived three brokers, two banks, and one IBKR USD sleeve. Here is the 12-month transformation.

Profile: A Typical Munich Senior Engineer

• Name: Thomas, 34
• Role: Senior backend engineer at a mid-size SaaS company
• Base: €105,000 gross / €6,500 net (Steuerklasse 1, no church tax, full health)
• Rent: €1,450 for a 1-bedroom in Sendling (rent-controlled, lucky)
• Lifestyle: Single, road bike, two weeks of skiing a year, occasional concerts
• Starting net worth (Q1 2025): €58,000 (€38k cash, €15k Trade Republic ETF, €5k crypto from 2017)

Thomas is the very common "high earner who hasn't optimized." Not in debt, not in trouble — just leaving real money on the table.

Numbers at a Glance

• Start (Q1 2026): Net worth €58,000, savings rate ~28% (unmeasured)
• End (Q4 2026): Net worth €112,000, measured savings rate 45.2%
• FIRE number set: €750,000 (annual spend ~€30,000 × 25)
• Target FIRE date: December 2032 at current trajectory
• Tools: Freenance dashboard, DKB current account, Trade Republic, DEGIRO, IBKR (USD sleeve)
• Time horizon: 12 months for the setup, 7 years to FIRE

A Quick Word Before the Story Starts

Many engineers reading this have a slightly worse version of Thomas's setup — two banks, one broker, vague crypto, no real number written down. If that is you, the cheapest thing you can do this weekend is connect your accounts to Freenance and let the first net-worth screen render. You do not have to decide anything yet. Start your story — sign up for Freenance. Decisions come after seeing.

Q1 2026 — Connecting Everything (and the First Honest Number)

In early January 2026, Thomas connected DKB, Trade Republic, DEGIRO, and IBKR to Freenance over one Sunday. The first all-account net-worth screen produced two reactions.

Thomas (journal, 12 Jan): "First — €58,300 is real, I knew that. Second — €1,847/month is what I actually saved in 2025, not the €2,300 I was telling myself. That is a 28% rate, not the 35% I claimed in coffee chats."

The €450/month gap was, in order of size:

• Lifestyle creep on restaurants (€180)
• Forgotten Patreon and learning subscriptions (€90)
• Two duplicate health-insurance add-ons (€70)
• Holiday "rounding errors" (€110)

He fixed three of the four in 90 minutes. The restaurant line he kept — it was a conscious choice — but he capped it at €200/month inside Freenance, with a notification at 80% of cap.

Q2 2026 — The FIRE Number, Written Down

Q2 was the quarter Thomas did the math, on paper, with a pen, twice.

Annual Spend, Realistic Version

Thomas chose the conservative number — €30,000/year as the "FIRE-floor" spending in a paid-off-or-stable-housing scenario — and applied a 25× rule for a rough target:

€30,000 × 25 = €750,000 FIRE number.

He explicitly noted in his policy document: this is a working number, not a guarantee. He plans to re-evaluate annually inside Freenance, and to keep working part-time if markets are unkind in the final years.

Q3 2026 — The Glide Path Plan (80/20 → 60/40)

By Q3, Thomas had read enough to commit to a glide path: more aggressive now, more conservative as FIRE approaches.

After researching publicly available material and reading the prospectuses of the products he considered, he settled on a framework (not a recommendation):

The equity sleeve: a broad world ETF on Trade Republic (zero-commission savings plan, €2,100/month), with an MSCI EM tilt on DEGIRO (€300/month). The bond sleeve: a EUR-government bond ETF on DEGIRO (€500/month). He set up all three as automatic standing orders on the 2nd of each month — the day after salary.

He wrote one sentence at the top of his Freenance notes:

"I will not change allocation more than once per year, and only in calendar Q1, with a written reason."

Q4 2026 — IBKR USD Sleeve and the €112k Mark

In October, Thomas opened an Interactive Brokers account for a small USD-denominated sleeve, after researching the currency-diversification argument and the tax-reporting implications in Germany (he confirmed with a tax adviser that his standard Anlage KAP workflow could handle it). Allocation: €400/month equivalent, converted via IBKR's FX at near-spot.

The reasoning was not "USD will outperform." It was: "I am an engineer in a euro economy with a euro pension and a euro salary. A small permanent USD sleeve is a hedge against me, not a bet on the dollar."

By December 2026, the Freenance net-worth screen showed:

• DKB cash + emergency: €18,500
• Trade Republic broad world ETF: €41,200
• DEGIRO EM + bonds: €19,400
• IBKR USD sleeve: €3,800
• Crypto (legacy, untouched): €9,100
• Net worth: ~€112,000
• 2026 savings rate (measured by Freenance): 45.2%

Year-over-year growth: €58,000 → €112,000, of which ~€42,000 was contributions and ~€12,000 was market and FX movement.

Thomas's One-Page Investment Policy (Reproduced)

He keeps the document in Freenance's notes and re-reads it on the first Sunday of every calendar quarter. The full text fits on one screen.

Purpose. Reach a portfolio of €750,000 by 2032, at which point I can choose to stop full-time work. This is a freedom number, not a stop-working-immediately number.

Allocation glide path. 80/20 equity/bond until end-2028. 70/30 in 2029–2030. 60/40 in 2031–2032. In FIRE: 55/45, reviewed annually.

Geography. Broad world equity ETF as the core. EM tilt up to 10% of equity sleeve. EUR-government bond ETF as the bond sleeve. Small (3–5%) USD sleeve for currency diversification.

Cadence. Standing orders on the 2nd of each month. Never manual. Never timing-driven.

Allocation changes. Only in calendar Q1. Only with a written reason. Maximum one change per year.

Tax. All trades go through Anlage KAP with Steuerberater review annually. No exotic structures.

Drawdown rule for FIRE. Begin at 3.5%, not 4%, of portfolio. Re-evaluate annually. Maintain 12-month cash buffer at all times.

The document is dull on purpose. Dullness is the feature.

The Raise Conversation (and Why It Mattered)

In July 2026, Thomas's manager asked him to lead a small platform team. He prepared a one-page raise request — not from a position of demand, but from a position of data. Two Freenance screens helped him:

• Cost of living in Munich, comparing his current allocation to the German average for his seniority band (he was within 3% on the lifestyle line).
• Savings rate stability, demonstrating that he was actually investing in the company's long-term future rather than burning his income.

He did not show his manager the screens. He used them to build confidence before the conversation. The raise came in at +9% base, and the entire delta — about €450/month net — went into the standing orders. Lifestyle did not move.

Thomas (journal, August 2026): "Every raise from here on is for the portfolio, not for the apartment. The apartment is fine."

Start Your Story — Sign Up for Freenance

If you are the "high earner who hasn't optimized," the gap between what you think you save and what you actually save is the cheapest thing you will ever fix. Start your story — sign up for Freenance.

What Would Thomas Do Differently?

1. "I would have started measuring in 2020." Six years of unmeasured spending at his income level is its own kind of expensive.
2. "I would have written the investment policy before buying anything." He bought his first ETFs in 2022 with no plan. Two of them he later sold. A one-page written policy in 2020 would have saved him those rotations.
3. "I would not have held the 2017 crypto in a separate mental box." Inside Freenance it is just a sleeve like any other. He now reviews it on the same cadence as everything else.
4. "I would have asked for a raise sooner." The single biggest move on his savings rate was a 9% raise in mid-2026 that he did not consume — it went 100% to the standing orders. Mathematically, raises are the most leveraged action a salaried FIRE-seeker has.
5. "I would have set a maximum allocation-change frequency from day one." Once-per-year, written-reason-only. He estimates avoiding two panic-rebalances saved him real money.

A Note on Approach (KNF / EU Compliance)

Thomas's plan is illustrative. Nothing here is personal financial or investment advice. Every product was chosen after he read the KID/PRIIPs documents, considered his time horizon and risk tolerance, and (for tax-sensitive choices) talked to a licensed Steuerberater. The 25× rule is a heuristic, not a guarantee — sequence-of-returns risk is real and is one of the reasons his glide path becomes more conservative as FIRE approaches.

A Year in One Table

Frequently Asked Questions

Why €750k and not €1M?

Because Thomas's realistic annual spend is around €30,000 in a stable housing scenario, and 25× that is €750k. He explicitly chose to target his number, not a round one. If his housing situation changes, the number changes.

Why didn't he max out Riester or Rürup?

He considered both, after talking to a Steuerberater. For his profile (single, mobile career, dislikes lock-in) the broker-based ETF route was a better fit. For a married engineer with kids, the answer might be different. There is no universal answer.

How does the 45% rate survive a real vacation?

Freenance has a "vacation" category that he pre-funds in the three months before each trip. The 45% is the annual average, not a monthly tyranny.

What happens if there is a 35% market drawdown?

Two things. First, the bond sleeve dampens the total drawdown. Second, the glide path means by the time he is within 2 years of FIRE, he has 40% bonds and a meaningful cash buffer. A 35% equity drop with that structure is roughly a 21% portfolio drop — painful, but not "delay FIRE by five years" painful.

Is 7 years to FIRE realistic on €6,500 net?

At a sustained 45% savings rate with reasonable market returns, the math works. The risks are not the math — they are job loss in years 5–6, lifestyle creep, and a major life change (kids, partner with debt, etc.). Freenance can model those; it cannot prevent them.

What about a partner, future kids, a property purchase?

Thomas's plan explicitly leaves room for "a real life event" without derailing FIRE — by allowing the date to slip 2–3 years if needed, rather than holding the date and abandoning the goal. He prefers a flexible date and a stable principle to the reverse.

How does Freenance fit alongside DKB, Trade Republic, DEGIRO, and IBKR?

As the only place where all four are visible together. Each broker has its own app, none of them sees the others, and none of them sees DKB. Freenance is the single net-worth screen. That is the entire role; it is enough.

What if Thomas changes jobs?

The plan is broker-agnostic and bank-agnostic by design. A new employer in Germany or even another EU country would not break the architecture — only the Operating bucket numbers would shift. The written policy survives the move.

Further Reading

• Software Developer — FIRE in 5 Years
• Senior Developer Coast-FIRE Strategy
• Sales Rep — A 50% Savings Rate Path to FIRE

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Start your story — sign up for Freenance. Connect your accounts, see your honest savings rate, write your FIRE number down once. Open a free account.

Disclaimer

Thomas is a fictional character created for illustrative purposes. Numbers, prices, salary, and broker references are realistic for a Munich senior engineer in 2026 but are not drawn from any single real individual. Nothing in this article constitutes investment, tax, or legal advice. Always read official product documentation (KID/PRIIPs, prospectus) and consult a licensed adviser before acting.