if you're an american software engineer.
You would not be able to buy a house, support a family, have some hobbies, with a 66k/year salary in most of the major cities of the world nowadays.
(You could buy a house with a 30 year mortgage sure, but does not exactly scream rich.)
Uh I can think of quite a few where you would. Just on the top of my mind: Lisbon, Mexico City, Milano, Saigon,Bangalore, Madrid, I mean I can go on for quite a while. But sure, you’d struggle in Zurich, Monaco, London, Silicon Valley or Singapore, IE some of the most expensive places in the world.
> You would not be able to buy a house, support a family, have some hobbies, with a 66k/year salary in most of the major cities of the world nowadays.
Someone who can work fully remote globally with a 66k year salary will def. not be short of places where they can live extremely comfortably. Since we are talking about digital nomads, who can work from everywhere, I do think they constitute as very very rich in this context. When we think of those who would be able to apply for a digital nomad visa, in a global context, would be only those who are in the global top 1%.
You’d have to struggle to buy a house with a 66k USD equivalent income in these places unless you are okay with living far away from your workplace.
Doesn’t seem very rich.
Purchasing power is what matters. Much less purchasing power today than people did in the 1950s (when a working class man could support a wife and children on his salary alone) and even boomers.
$66k certainly isn't poverty, even in a place like NYC or SF, but it is not rich.
This is officially “low income” in my area, and I think it qualifies someone for low income housing.
For reference, I’m in California, but not in or near a big city.
Just ask any random non-white engineer working in UAE, China, and Japan. People are getting Western European passports and working in Dubai to receive first-class treatment.