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Comment by brna-2 | Hacker News Reader

Still not to bad, don't scare people off. Here are some comparisons of cost of living - to Vienna, but you can choose what to compare.

For example living in Split is cca 26% cheaper than Vienna.

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

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Yeah but you can't compare living in Vienna and Split - Vienna is a top tier city - huge regional capital with so many things going on and offerings. Split is a C tier city dead outside of tourist season, like the rest of the coast. 26% is kind of ridiculous when you compare the standard of living.

Again depends on what you value, some might find it worth, just saying the equation was much more in Croatia favor 5 years ago.

This is not a good comparison.

Split has great weather for much longer than Vienna, and people are almost certainly spending time there to be next to the sea, islands, etc. – of which Vienna has none.

I didn't pick Vienna as a comparison, I just said that cost of living and living standards between two are very much out of proportions.

But you can compare to cities in Italy, Spain, Greece, etc. the choice is nuanced and based on what you value. It used to be a clear win for Croatia a while back.

“Living standards” includes things like access to the sea and better weather.

Not everyone cares about having access to the urban amenities that Vienna has. Split is also a pretty nice place, even off-season (I once lived there for 3 months February-April.)

That is why the costs of living between the two are not as disparate as you might expect.

Yes but you can also live in other cities in Europe on the coast with similar or lower prices and different tradeoffs. This is my entire point - this was not the case a few years ago - I would say all the comparable coastal regions in the EU were more expensive.

Some people care about sea and islands but others care about culture and arts and Vienna wins on that? If sea and islands is what you want, most of south Asia is loads cheaper than Croatia!

And much cheaper in real terms, as the Croatian digital nomad residence permit provides an exemption from income tax on earned income.

There are other tax exemptions in Croatia that might still make it worth it - especially in FIRE setting.

While say The Netherlands taxes your investments such as Stocks/ETFs (not their earnings/capital-gain/etc but literally just owning stocks/ETFs/etc) - in Croatia those are not taxed after you've held them for 1 or 2 years (don't recall if 1 or 2).

Similar (owning stocks/ETFs not taxed) in Serbia, Malta, Cyprus ...etc.

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