To start off I live in Greece and I will provide some context for those unfamiliar. In Greece the minimum wage per month is 880€ , if you make above 1.5k you are considered to be doing very well. I have a good software engineering job for my age paying around 1.8k per month. My plan was to move abroad some time soon so it gets a significant pump. My family is kinda wealthy and from inherentance I got 4 buildings and 2 houses. The 3 buildings rent for 1.3k per month and the other one for 1.5k per month. The one house is generating around 800€ per month and the other one is where my parents were living.
I knew I would get something but I got way more than I expected because apparently my parents were fighting a lot with my brother.
All in all I will be making around 8k per month which is A LOT for Greece. I don’t know what to do with this much money, I was never a big spender and with my paycheck I could still save 1k per month. I thought about dropping 5-6k every month on S&P or stocks. Wanted to hear your opinion and what would you do in my position
My personal finance suddenly went from mid to very high through inheritance
byu/funlook277 inpersonalfinance
Posted by funlook277
2 Comments
Consider building a 6 months to 1 year worth of expenses as a emergency fund, then consider if buying a house of your own its something you wanna do now while your income is high and you can easily obtain a mortgage. Rental properties are great but require time to manage, repair and sometimes legal expenses if tenants stop paying rent, its not always going to be 100% sure deposit monthly. Get proffesional accounting help to avoid any fines and get your taxes in order.
Congrats on the windfall (and my condolences if they are in order… your call)!
The wiki here is a bit US-heavy (you might want to ask your question over on /r/eupersonalfinance as well to get more diversified feedback), but here are my two cents as a fellow EU national with monthly income in the same range:
1. Build some emergency funds for the properties in case they need urgent maintenance (roof, AC, water, sewage, heating [if you’re on the continental side towards the mountains] etc.). Research a bit how much such costs would set you back, and build them up in a regular savings account. You want those funds daily accessible and not invested.
1. If there are any tax incentivized pension accounts, max them out.
1. If you can improve your health insurance by going private or through top-up insurances, do that. You’re wealthy now, don’t go cheap on yourself.
1. Investment-wise, I would suggest a globally diversified fund rather than betting full on the American market. MSCI All Country World is my personal choice. I know historic returns on the S&P 500 were the highest, but with the current state of the US, I’m not so sure that’s by any means guaranteed.
1. Depending on your risk appetite, consider growing your real estate portfolio: Assuming your properties are unencumbered (meaning not still pledged as mortgages to any bank), you could borrow against them to buy 1-2 more investment properties to rent out. The return should cover the loan, and you can offset some related expenses from your taxes.
1. You could also consider selling all of the properties and spend the rest of your life in Bali or somewhere nice. Though Greece is actually rather pleasant itself.
1. Last but not least, find a reliable tax advisor / accountant (ideally both) and go with them over all your income to make sure there are no hidden caveats.
All the best!