In 2018, I was standing in my kitchen at home, opening the mail after work. That's when I came across my pension statement. The deal was: work diligently for 45 years to receive a pension of around €2,000 gross . I didn't think that was a fair deal, so I set out to find a way to be able to go on vacation several times a year and eat out in my retirement. The emphasis is on "can." I want to have a choice and not have to count every penny.

Completely unaware, I stumbled upon real estate as a retirement savings option. The idea that the tenant would pay off the loan through rent payments appealed to me, but I was also annoyed that this approach hadn't been taught to me in school or university. After several continuing education courses and countless books, by my early 30s I owned a double-digit number of properties. I'm certainly no Ronaldo of landlords, but it's important to inform more people about this type of retirement savings and encourage them to actively plan for themselves and their families.