# Jean Galea

> AI, Investing, Health, and Building Businesses

## Posts

- [How to Pay International Remote Workers from Europe](https://jeangalea.com/pay-international-remote-workers-europe/): Hiring remote workers outside Europe is straightforward. Paying them reliably, cheaply, and legally is where things get complicated. I've been running distributed teams from Europe for years — contractors in
- [Retro Gaming](https://jeangalea.com/retro-gaming/): Hobbies Retro Gaming The games I grew up with, running on modern hardware, organized the way a real library should be. Why Retro Old Games, Done Properly New consoles are
- [RC Cars](https://jeangalea.com/rc-cars/): Hobbies RC Cars Half the fun is in the workshop, the other half is finding real terrain to run them over. Here's what I drive and where. Why RC Tinkering
- [When Headless WordPress Is Worth It (and Why Speed Isn’t the Reason)](https://jeangalea.com/headless-wordpress-worth-it/): I run WordPress headless in production, and speed, the reason people usually reach for it, is the weakest one on the list. The pitch is familiar: decouple WordPress from its
- [Speaking](https://jeangalea.com/about/speaking/): I give talks about what AI actually does once you stop demoing it and start shipping it into a real business. I've spent 20+ years building in the WordPress ecosystem
- [How the Pieces Wire Up: A Modern Stack Integration Tour](https://jeangalea.com/how-the-pieces-wire-up/): This is part of an ongoing series I am writing as I work my way through the modern web stack from a WordPress developer's perspective. It is for people who,
- [Headless WordPress: The Bridge](https://jeangalea.com/headless-wordpress-the-bridge/): This is part of an ongoing series I am writing as I work my way through the modern web stack from a WordPress developer's perspective. It is for people who,
- [The Lightweight Video Kit I Use for Drone and Talking-Head](https://jeangalea.com/lightweight-video-kit/): I shoot most of my video with a deliberately light kit. No cinema camera, no bag of lenses. A small drone, my iPhone, a gimbal, and a couple of microphones
- [How to Grow on X in 2026: The Durable Rules vs the Algorithm Myths](https://jeangalea.com/grow-on-x-2026/): I went looking for the current best way to grow on X, and what I found was a wall of 2026 "algorithm explained" posts that confidently contradict each other. One
- [When to Use WordPress, Astro, Next, or Laravel](https://jeangalea.com/wordpress-astro-next-laravel/): The question I get most often is some version of "should I build this in WordPress or Astro or Next." It sounds like a single choice between rivals, and it
- [How to Control and Automate an iPhone or iPad With WebDriverAgent](https://jeangalea.com/control-automate-iphone-webdriveragent/): If you bought a Mac in the EU and went looking for iPhone Mirroring, the feature Apple demoed for controlling your iPhone from your desktop, you already know it isn't
- [The Science Behind Sauna: Why I Use It After Every Workout](https://jeangalea.com/sauna-benefits/): I use the sauna at my fitness club almost every day, usually right after a workout. It started as something I did because it felt good — a warm wind-down
- [Observability When You Can’t Just SSH In](https://jeangalea.com/observability-when-you-cant-ssh-in/): This is part of an ongoing series I am writing as I work my way through the modern web stack from a WordPress developer's perspective. It is for people who,
- [From Client Call to CRM: An Automation Workflow for Real Estate Agents](https://jeangalea.com/real-estate-client-call-notes-crm/): Every real estate agent has lived this. You spend twenty minutes on the phone with a buyer. They tell you they want three bedrooms but could stretch to two if
- [CI/CD: Goodbye FTP, Hello GitHub Actions](https://jeangalea.com/cicd-goodbye-ftp-hello-github-actions/): This is part of an ongoing series I am writing as I work my way through the modern web stack from a WordPress developer's perspective. It is for people who,
- [Run Claude Code on a Hetzner Box and Drive It From Your Laptop and Phone](https://jeangalea.com/claude-code-hetzner-box/): A friend showed me his Claude Code setup and it was the cleanest version of an idea I'd been circling for a while. Claude Code runs on a cheap server
- [Where to Park USD for Yield: Wise vs Interactive Brokers vs Treasuries](https://jeangalea.com/earn-interest-on-usd-europe/): If you earn or hold US dollars in Europe, you've probably noticed they tend to sit idle. A client pays you in USD, it lands in Wise or your broker,
- [European Investing: The Full Toolkit](https://jeangalea.com/european-investing/): Almost every popular investing resource online is written for an American audience: dollar amounts, 401(k)s and Roth IRAs, US brokers, and a 4% rule drawn from US market history. As
- [Barista FIRE Explained](https://jeangalea.com/barista-fire/): Barista FIRE is a middle path between full-time work and full financial independence. You leave the career grind, take a part-time job that covers some of your living costs, and
- [Coast FIRE Explained](https://jeangalea.com/coast-fire/): Coast FIRE is the point where your invested pot is large enough that compound growth alone will carry it to your retirement target, without another euro of contributions. Once you
- [Fat FIRE Explained](https://jeangalea.com/fat-fire/): Fat FIRE is financial independence without the spreadsheet asceticism. You build a portfolio large enough to fund a comfortable, even luxurious, lifestyle indefinitely, with no need to track every coffee
- [Lean FIRE Explained](https://jeangalea.com/lean-fire/): Lean FIRE is financial independence built on a deliberately modest budget. Instead of saving enough to fund a comfortable or generous lifestyle, you save enough to cover your minimal real
- [Sequence-of-Returns Risk Explained](https://jeangalea.com/sequence-of-returns-risk/): Two people retire with the same portfolio, the same withdrawal rate, and the same average annual return over their retirement. One dies with millions in the bank. The other goes
- [Safe Withdrawal Rate Explained](https://jeangalea.com/safe-withdrawal-rate/): A safe withdrawal rate is the percentage of your portfolio you can pull out each year, adjusted for inflation, without running out of money before you run out of life.
- [The 4% Rule Explained](https://jeangalea.com/4-percent-rule/): The 4% rule is the most cited number in early retirement planning, and also the most misunderstood. It says you can withdraw 4% of your portfolio in the first year,
- [How to Retire Early (in Europe)](https://jeangalea.com/how-to-retire-early/): Retiring early in Europe is a math problem wrapped in a tax problem wrapped in an identity problem. The math is the easy part: spend less than you earn, invest
- [Financial Independence and FIRE: A Guide for European Investors](https://jeangalea.com/financial-independence/): Financial independence means your investments cover your living costs, so paid work becomes a choice rather than a requirement. FIRE, short for Financial Independence, Retire Early, takes that idea and
- [Dividend Kings Explained](https://jeangalea.com/dividend-kings/): If you want companies that have paid investors a rising dividend through every recession since the 1970s, the Dividend Kings are about as concentrated a list as you'll find. These
- [Dividend Aristocrats Explained](https://jeangalea.com/dividend-aristocrats/): The term "dividend aristocrat" gets thrown around a lot in income-investing circles, usually with a tone of reverence. The actual definition is narrower than most people assume, and the gap
- [How to Build a Dividend Portfolio](https://jeangalea.com/how-to-build-a-dividend-portfolio/): A dividend portfolio gives you a stream of cash that grows over time, paid out of the profits of companies you own. Built well, it can fund part or all
- [How to Live Off Dividends](https://jeangalea.com/how-to-live-off-dividends/): The appeal of living off dividends is simple: you own a portfolio, it pays you cash, and you never have to sell a single share. No drawdown spreadsheet, no deciding
- [Best Dividend ETFs for European Investors](https://jeangalea.com/best-dividend-etfs/): Most people who want dividend income reach for individual stocks first: a few banks, a utility, maybe an oil major. It works until one of those companies cuts its payout
- [Dividend Investing: A Guide for European Investors](https://jeangalea.com/dividend-investing/): Dividend investing means building a portfolio that pays you a regular cash income from the companies or funds you own, rather than relying only on selling shares to fund your
- [Calculators for European Investors](https://jeangalea.com/calculators/): A set of free, interactive calculators built for European investors. Everything here is in euros, with an optional tax field so you can see realistic after-tax numbers, no hidden US-account
- [Dividend Calculator (Europe, EUR)](https://jeangalea.com/dividend-calculator/): Dividend investing turns a portfolio into a stream of income. This calculator projects that stream forward for a European investor: how much you'd collect each year, how it grows as
- [Coast FIRE Calculator (Europe, EUR)](https://jeangalea.com/coast-fire-calculator/): Coast FIRE is the point where you've invested enough that, even if you never add another euro, compounding alone will grow your portfolio to your retirement target. After that, your
- [FIRE Calculator (Europe, EUR)](https://jeangalea.com/fire-calculator/): FIRE, financial independence and early retirement, comes down to one number: the size of portfolio that can cover your living costs from investment returns alone. This calculator works out that
- [Compound Interest Calculator (Europe, EUR)](https://jeangalea.com/compound-interest-calculator/): Compound interest is the engine behind every long-term investment plan: your returns start earning returns of their own, and over a couple of decades that snowball does most of the
- [Which Local AI App Do You Actually Need? AnythingLLM, Hermes, LM Studio, and the Rest](https://jeangalea.com/local-ai-apps-compared/): This afternoon I pointed Hermes, an AI agent running on my Mac, at a language model running on the same machine. No API key, no per-token bill. The change took
- [The Best Bitcoin and Crypto Interest Accounts in 2026](https://jeangalea.com/best-crypto-interest-accounts/): Did you know you can earn interest on the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto you already hold? The old criticism that crypto is a dead asset that yields nothing hasn't
- [TokenTax Review 2026: Full-Service Crypto Tax Filing](https://jeangalea.com/tokentax-review/): TokenTax sits in a different part of the crypto tax market from most of the tools I cover. It is both a software platform and a full-service accounting firm: you
- [How to Back Up Your Computer to the Cloud](https://jeangalea.com/backup-computer-to-cloud/): Most people who think they have a backup actually have sync. They keep their files in Dropbox, or iCloud, or Google Drive, and they assume that if the laptop is
- [Docker for WordPress Developers](https://jeangalea.com/docker-for-wordpress-developers/): This is part of an ongoing series I am writing as I work my way through the modern web stack from a WordPress developer's perspective. It is for people who,
- [Modern Web Stack for WordPress Developers](https://jeangalea.com/modern-web-stack/): If you have built WordPress sites for years and the modern-stack conversations have started to feel like a language you only half-speak, this is for you. Sixteen short modules, each
- [How to Run Claude Code While You Sleep](https://jeangalea.com/claude-code-overnight/): Most subscription plans for AI coding tools meter you on a rolling window. On Claude Code, that window is five hours: you get an allowance, it refills, and whatever you
- [CoinTracking vs Koinly 2026 – Which Crypto Tax Tool Wins?](https://jeangalea.com/cointracking-vs-koinly/): TL;DR: CoinTracking and Koinly are the two heavyweights of crypto tax software. Choose CoinTracking if you want the deepest analytics, the widest range of transaction types, and the best long-term
- [Best Crypto Tax Software 2026 – Top 5 Compared](https://jeangalea.com/best-crypto-tax-software/): TL;DR: After years of using these tools for my own crypto taxes, five stand out in 2026. CoinTracking is my Best Overall pick: the deepest, longest-running platform, and the best
- [Divly Review 2026 – Crypto Tax Software Built for Europe](https://jeangalea.com/divly-review/): TL;DR: Divly is a European crypto tax tool built around one thing most competitors treat as an afterthought: your country's actual tax forms. It generates the real documents your tax
- [CoinLedger Review 2026 – Crypto Tax Reports Made Simple](https://jeangalea.com/coinledger-review/): TL;DR: CoinLedger (formerly CryptoTrader.Tax) is a crypto tax tool built around one of the cleanest user experiences in the category. It connects to 1,000+ exchanges, wallets, and DeFi protocols, calculates
- [How to Prepare Your Crypto Taxes in Spain (2026)](https://jeangalea.com/crypto-tax-spain/): TL;DR: If you're tax-resident in Spain, your crypto gains are taxed under the savings income base at 19% to 28%, with no discount for holding long term. Every sale, swap,

## Authors

- [Jean Galea](https://jeangalea.com/author/jean/): Entrepreneur based in Barcelona. Founder of the Good Life Collective. Dad of three. I write about investing, technology, health, and the decisions that shape how we live.