Where to: US.
replies(1):
Everything seems so stagnant and the costs of living are rising while the salaries do not increase whatsoever.
What's worse is that due to its economic decline politicians and leaders try to persuade the populace that a lot of things that we enjoy and contribute to our quality of life are now considered luxury or outright sinful. The same kind of rhetoric that is used to sin tax tobacco, alcohol, gambling is now used on things like:
- car ownership - Air Conditioning - Travel - meat and dairy
I am meticulous about tracking finance and so far (my daughter is 11) I have spent $374k which if I lived in Europe would now be in my pocket. This isn’t total expenses, this is only expenses that I have to pay for here that I would not otherwise. I also have another decade+ of raising and schooling etc to pay for
Roughly another $50k per year on average I spend currently on other things that I would not be if I lived in Europe…
But even for my kid, who lives a very middle class lifestyle, I don't see how I'm dump even half that into her and she's half your kid's age. I know for a fact that I have not spent that much. My healthcare spend has gone up 3K/year. everything involved in pregnancy up to birth was 8K. I pay for a private school which is than the daycare. I pay for extra activities. Even then I'm not at 100K and most of it is the privage school, I don't have to pay for, but wanted to to better accommodate my special needs kid when she was young. I'm not even doing that next year. I'm struggling to consider where I'd find another 150K+ to spend on her beyond mandated things like clothing. Are you talking college? I guess I'm lucky my state has a state scholarship and community college is free regardless. It's how I only paid 20K to get a bachelor's. I assume my kid will do the same whatever she picks.
at 7 years old she started playing volleyball at a local club, $5.5k/year first 3 years, $12k this year. we are up to $217k. HI is my wife and daughter combined, on average $1.5k/year so let's split that, $750/month, we'll round this to $100k so we are up to $317k. The rest are summer camps...
But of course - do what is best for you. If this is your situation and you like living in the Balkans, go for it. I love the place myself.
Overall though, I don't think this is the safe, easy, simple route. That's moving to the US and grinding some leetcode, not learning the basics of Balkan business culture and EU business regulations. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone who doesn't know very well what it takes - usually by going to a business school or having few years of business experience in EU - elsewhere doesn't count, it's much easier elsewhere.
(I have experience exactly with what you suggest, to be clear. I had to stop doing that and go back to a much simpler and less risky principal engineering / SW engineering management job, as the stress and unclear/anti-business regulations were killing me.)
several years ago my sister needed a visa to go to UK and they actually asked for this - part of the paperwork was asking for her pre-tax earnings. it took her about a week to figure out where she could get this from...
Your sister simply doesn't care and might be leaving a lot of money on the table. This is not representative of EU people.
You could argue that it would be possible to send your kid to public school safely in the EU, but it would also be possible to send your kid to public school safely in an affluent North American suburb.
It seems you have made lifestyle choices that are perfectly fine but that I would not expect to be subsidized in an egalitarian society, much less an individualistic one.
I know for a fact pre-tax pay is the main number employers discuss. Your sister is doing something wrong.
You would not make 3/5ths of 800k in the EU. If you are lucky - 30-50% of that, pre-tax.
You clearly haven't looked at living in the EU too seriously, evaluated the job market, run the numbers, etc. I have because I was evaluating this for my LDR. I make 1.2 here in the US (unusual circumstances; nominally 600); I'd make a maximum of 250-300 in the EU for a top offer for the same position.
I get taxed at 55% effective here in commie California but it wouldn't be much less in the EU, while my pay would crater. My fixed costs wouldn't be much different either. Food might be nicer though, and I'd be closer to my LDR. But the EU's long term economic prospects are terrible in the tech space. Insane regulatory overhead means that my company rarely even bothers with deploying new features there.