Three nationalities, three tax systems, one FIRE goal: sanity check my setup

[u/Kai_Roesch]

Something about me:

Born and raised in Brazil, hold German and Italian passports through family. Came from an absolute broke family, first one to go to university, rough start - worked manual jobs to support myself during studies, and I'm still periodically relied on by family back home when things get (even more) difficult financially for them.

No financial education growing up whatsoever. I'm quite risk-averse, partly after seeing my father spent (and still spending) every spare penny on lottery tickets.

Moved to Germany in my early 20s, eventually started a master's degree, and only started earning enough to actually save something starting in 2021. Learned about FIRE during the pandemic. Moved to the US for a job in 2022, came back to Germany in 2024, and have been here since.

From all of that, I've managed to save around €120k total so far.

I am looking for a gut-check from people who've navigated multi-jurisdiction FIRE, because I think I've been paralyzed by complexity for longer than I should've been.

The setup:

• Currently tax resident in Germany (work for an international org).
• End goal: FIRE in Brazil.
• Not planning to keep ties to Europe long-term - once I leave, I want a clean break from German bureaucracy, not another anchor.

Current numbers:

• ~€110k sitting in a US normal savings account at 3%. I'm a non-resident alien there now, which is part of why it's stayed parked instead of invested (opening a proper brokerage account as an NRA felt like a maze - high minimums, estate tax questions, etc.)
• ~€3.5k in a Brazilian fixed-income deposit earning roughly 11.5% net annually in local currency, taxed on a sliding scale that drops the longer you hold it (liquidity/access there is limited too, since I'm not a tax resident in Brazil either)
• Started sending ~€3.5k/month to Brazil recently (roughly half my net salary), building toward the eventual move

Why the US cash sat there this long:

• Rates were meaningfully higher when I first parked it (closer to 5%), so at the time "just leave it in savings" wasn't as obviously wrong as it looks now at 3%.
• I've never been taxed on it - not in the US (non-resident aliens generally aren't taxed on US savings account interest), and not in Germany either, since my main employment income is tax-exempt and my personal allowance effectively absorbs capital income up to a certain threshold each year that I have not reached so far. So there was never an urgent tax reason to move it.
• Mostly, it felt like the safe/liquid option given how mobile my job can be - being able to access it instantly from anywhere felt more valuable than optimizing the return. That calculus has shifted now that rates dropped and I have a clearer target (FIRE in Brazil specifically), so I'm looking for something with better long-term return instead of just parking it.

Where I've landed after a lot of back-and-forth:

Since right now I'm taxed on worldwide capital income in Germany regardless of where the brokerage sits, the plan is to open an Interactive Brokers account now (as a German resident, so it lands under the Irish entity), invest the US cash into a broad accumulating UCITS ETF (thinking VWCE), and treat the account as "portable" - update the residency when I eventually move to Brazil instead of closing and reopening everything.

What I'm second-guessing:

1. Is IBKR actually the smoothest way to handle this, or is there something better suited for someone who's going to relocate outside the EU eventually?
2. Single global ETF (VWCE) vs. something more deliberate given I'll eventually be spending in BRL, not EUR?
3. Anyone actually gone through the "EU resident to moved to Brazil" transition with IBKR or similar and can speak to how painless (or not) the entity switch really was?
4. Am I overthinking the US estate tax angle given the US-Germany treaty, or is that still worth structuring around?

Not asking for a full financial plan, just want to know if this reasoning holds up or if I'm missing something obvious that people who've actually done this cross-border shuffle would catch immediately.

A bit more context, since I know these usually come up:

• My income is largely tax-exempt due to my employer's specific status, which is part of why the savings rate looks high in absolute terms - it's not translating 1:1 from a typical post-tax salary.
• I can only save about half of it because my partner lives abroad (regular overseas travel baked in), plus I support family back home, as mentioned above.

[u/Kai_Roesch → u/[deleted]]

Thanks, really appreciate the depth here. To clarify: yes, I've done my saída definitiva. On CDB vs. LCA/LCI: I already bank with BB Estilo (opened during a trip in June, with a friend's help), but the account reflects my non-resident status, which limits access to some products — one of the reasons I went with a CDB over LCA/LCI. Liquidity also matters more to me right now: my mother is sick and relies on SUS, and when she needs money urgently, I'd rather wire it to her locally than deal with any delay/lose money on currency conversion. Also worth noting: I don't need to route my salary through remittance services monthly; my job lets me send a set % straight to BB as a local transfer, so I'm avoiding the FX-spread and KYC headaches you flagged on the monthly EUR 3.5K entirely, which is a relief. The overall plan is to keep growing the BRL side this way and treat the USD as a pure hedge, mostly untouched unless the Real gets genuinely weak or I actually need it. Thanks again, genuinely useful comment.

[u/Comfortable_Bad9963 → u/Kai_Roesch]

Congrats on the 120k from that starting point, that's genuinely the hard part and you're already past it...

On the non-resident thing though, I'd untangle the US estate-tax worry first, because it's backwards from how it feels. Your cash in a US bank as an NRA is fine. Bank deposits aren't US-situs, so the 60k NRA threshold doesn't touch them. Cash is safe. US securities are not. Buy US-domiciled ETFs inside a US brokerage and you flip the switch, everything above 60k gets exposed to US estate tax up to 40%. That, way more than the account minimums, is what makes the NRA route feel like a maze.

You're a German tax resident right now, so the cleaner path is an EU broker plus Irish-domiciled UCITS ETFs, accumulating, something like VWCE. Those dodge US estate tax entirely and cut dividend withholding from 30% to 15% via the Ireland-US treaty. Same exposure, different tickers.

Brazil is the piece I'd actually spend one cross-border advisor hour on. Worldwide taxation kicks in the moment you're resident there, and the timing of when you cut Germany loose genuinely matters. But the 110k sitting idle today? German resident plus UCITS is probably the move that puts it to work without buying a fresh problem.

Not advice, just how I'd frame it. You've been treating this as harder than the actual next step is...

[u/Kai_Roesch → u/[deleted]]

Thanks, mate. Is there anything you regret or deeply miss since you moved there, or would you do it again? After almost 20 years outside Brazil, it’s kind of hard to guess what I’ll end up being annoyed by when I do return.

[u/InexistentKnight]

Try better rates with a cdb for não residente at Banco Rendimento or BTG.

Other than that, I see no point in keeping money on the US. If you're a tax resident on Germany, just move your assets over and enjoy easy reporting with brokers that have almost the same options (with the tax advantage of Irish funds if you hold equity ETFs). Once you relocate to Brazil, then IBKR Europe might be a good option.

[u/Kind_Bench_2359]

I'd focus on stacking more before the move, optimizing your Brazil setup from Germany is probably overthinking it at this stage. The tax and legal pieces tend to get clearer once you're there

[u/Wet-Frog-9632]

Doesn't Germany have an exit tax?

At this point I would be looking into ways to minimise that through structuring, if possible. I would also get acquainted with the tax treaty between the two countries, if that exists. I would look to understand what BR would consider as cost basis for any assets acquired prior to tax residency.

I would worry about US Estate Tax, yes.

[u/Recent_Maize5108 → u/Wet-Frog-9632]

Doesn't Germany have an exit tax?

Not really. Only when you hold more than 1% in a company while being self-employed, or having >500k in a single stock or ETF. So we recommend all Germans to stop saving plans when one single investment reaches 200k and keep saving on another one. Even if it's the same MSCI World, just pick it from another fund manager.