Just curious about what other careers nowadays have the potential of a six figures salary, in Europe (as I think in USA is easier to cross that threshold). Geographical location is usually very relevant so if you have anecdata, please share where as well.
COL will be about 20% of Bay Area so you can buy one or two houses every year from net income and be FIRE very quickly.
Cyprus has 35% incomtax over 60k €, poland 32%, estonia 20% flat...
And is this six figures USD converted to local currency, or 100k+ in the local?
Why would you restrict yourself to that though?
If you want to take a chance on getting rich, move to America. That's America's purpose in the universe.
Give us some information on the reason you rule out the obvious solution to your problem and maybe we can help.
This is probably a good thing. It means there's also lots and lots of companies.
One actual downside of working in the US is that you get US holiday culture.
Not so obvious for some. The quality of life, as I measure it, is far too poor for me to consider it. I'm more than happy to be in Europe.
This is for all sorts of roles, not just development - Compliance, Ops, Risk etc. People who actually deal with client money will make multiples of that.
Unlike the US where most people are middle class, a sizable number are rich (millionaire plus), and most of the wealthy come from either already well off families or self made.
Everyone craps on US (I mean we are the best at everything lol good and bad) but that’s what happens when you’re the best and at the top of the hierarchy. People say shit about you. It’s not like I care much about that because my life as an immigrant to the USA is phenomenal to say the least.
But I always wonder why Europeans just seem so… stagnant? Like they’ve basically plateaued. Idk.
I’m from a former “colony” so it’s not any concern to me. But I always see these kinds of posts and wonder.
(Post the pension era, $1M safely provides only about $40K/yr in retirement income for a 30 year retirement.)
In the US and Asia, people seem to be trying to claw their way to the top. Not everyone succeeds obviously, but some do, and I'd say many others at the very least improve their lot in life.
In Europe, it feels like most people are just content and satisfied with their current lot in life, and even those that are not, aren't really motivated to significantly change their position in society.
In EU there is very little variance, so most people don't see the value in extra effort that they have to put in to get ahead. Middle class is undoubtably much better off in EU - you have a lot more social safety nets and assistance, and furthermore, because most of the people around you are generally in the same boat financially, the lack of materialism is actually quite good for peoples mental health and finances.
The only caveat is, EU can have this sort of setup in large part due to economic influence of US. A lot of wealth from US is exported to EU, which goes on to fund the social safety nets. You wouldn't think that 2007 housing crisis in US would go on to affect job markets in EU, but it very much did. Also, US pretty much subsidizes military capability development costs for all of EU.
Western Europe's economic, tax, regulatory, and social welfare systems are a positive and negative, depending on who you ask.
Compared to the US, only a small segment of the population is either very poor or very rich. Everyone is basically lower- to upper-middle class.
But there's a price to that large safety net. The above policies create a disincentive to innovate and build wealth - the reason behind the stagnant you mentioned.
America: the sky is the limit. Western Europe: lower-middle class is the ground floor.
In germany it would be IT, law, medicine, accounting, engineering and management of all sorts as the most obvious.
That's a little higher than the overall 2020 median, but not by much: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/work-income/...
Sectors where the median wage was higher in 2020:
energy supply
information and communication
financial and insurance
professional, scientific, and technical
public admin & defense
education