141–150 of 166 posts
You can move to some low-tax or no-tax country. I can recommend Andorra, 0% income tax and reasonable prices for pretty much anything , rent, food, alcohol etc :) I also heard Belarus has almost no tax and its very cheap to live there, but there will be lots of bureaucracy :)
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Haven't lived in Munich yet, but I expect salaries in cities like London or Zurich to be significantly higher.
Zurich is VERY expensive.Switzerland is expensive in general.
Parts of the UK outside London are actually pretty cheap to live in. I live in Edinburgh, slap in the middle of the city, which is also a World Heritage Site. I have a 5 minute walk to work and flat (apartments...) go for £500/800 for a 1/2 bed. Other parts of the UK are much cheaper again.
£800 for a two bed on the Royal Mile?
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I have a 5 y.o. and wouldn't move from Tenerife (South). Private college costs ~400EUR/mo, health insurance is cheap and crime is super-low. Oh, my kid speaks Russian and Spanish natively and they teach German and English in school. Will best me by 1 language when out of high school.
Nice to see people I know in this thread, Joel. We should meet in person at some point! ;)
If you don't care much about a startup and tech scene (there is little) you can spend a nice time in the Canary Islands, Spain. It's not the cheapest place in Europe, you'll find cheaper locations in Eastern Europe admittedly. Still, you can find a nice 1BR appartment for €400-500/mo in Las Palmas City near the beach or share an appartment for somewhere around €200/mo for a room. The weather is really really nice thr…
- Northern countries (Scandinavia, Baltics): good/moderate startup activities (ask me, I'm from there), high costs and also revenues (except Baltics which is vice versa), low corruption, e-services (eg. Estonia: open company in 15 min online). Can manage in English mostly (less in Baltics but still). My key problem: long winter
- East Europe: low costs and revenues, high corruption (paperwork/tax pain), problems with English except in small startup enclaves, need local friends (especially bigger countries like Poland, Czech Rep, Romania). If you can cope with this a bit Asian/Russian lifestyle, I'd skip it and go to Istanbul already, you'd have not only pain but also gain of this mess.
- South-West Europe - each country is quite different, but generally medium costs and revenues, need to know local language or friend (spanish, italian, french, greek), ton of culture which tends to bring also bureaucracy (expect months to your paper processing) , high living quality.
Try Lithuania. Rent is about 180-400 EU/mo. Weather is good, not too hot, not too cold. Sun/rain ratio is nice. Cities is not too big, so during season bicycling is preferable. Also public transport is ok. Food for 2 person family is about 150 EU/mo. Streets is safe for foreigners. And Internet is super fast and super cheap here. And there is nice and informative video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPO4tbV4UHk
Quite cold + dead nature from September to April, especially cold and white from January to March
Upside = Best weather in Europe, English speaking, 100Mb/s fiber, cheap ryanair flights to most of Europe, cheap rent compared to Northern Europe - luxury 3 bed flat around 800 Euro.
Downside = Extremely conservative and religious state run by the church (abortion is illegal even if mothers life is at risk - WTF). 10 year prison sentences for possession of Marijauana. Extremely narrow minded people. Ugly, very dry, dirty polluted beaches, lots of rock and very little green. Very poor standard of food at restaurants and even supermarkets.
I'm leaving for the Netherlands, can't wait!
There are not that many countries/capitals where I've not been in Europe, so I think I can compare instead of pushing my hometown: My personal top of metropolis: 1. Berlin - great startup stuff, cheap (in context of west Europe/ Germany), sexy, English, easy to adopt from e.g. US 2. Istanbul - cheap, hacker friendly, kiloton of culture, but need to manage/like a bit asian way of life. Best food. 3. London - great sta…
From someone who has a strong culture & tech ecosystem balance bias: - Berlin: It's the perfect combination of cheap living costs and OKish (growing) tech community - As mentioned pretty much everything from Paris to Kiev gets really dark & cold in winter, and not in a NY/Chicago cool way. - More and more people (especially British) move to Spain, mostly Barcelona. Not as good in terms of startup community as Berlin,…