Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#141

Post by jasoncartwright » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 7:38 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #121

Europe is great. I have several friends who've made this move. I'd say that they have a higher and more relaxed quality of life at a much lower salary than I know of in the U.S. Salaries are lower, taxes are higher, but I think it balances out well. One thing I've noticed is that if you're willing to live a bit outside of a major city and along a commuter rail line (a commute not extraordinary by U.S. standards but s…

> One thing I've noticed is that if you're willing to live a bit outside of a major city and along a commuter rail line (a commute not extraordinary by U.S. standards but seemingly insane by European), housing costs can be much much lower.

YMMV, IMHO etc, but living too close to the middle of cities is the biggest mistake I see people from who move to the UK make. Yes, you get a shorter commute and a great social life, but the crazy cost (esp. in London) doesn't justify it - and these people often end up moving further out.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#142

Post by afarrell » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 7:42 PM UTC

I moved US -> UK in July and don't regret it at all. This depended on me getting a tier-2 visa though. This is harder without a degree and programming skill.

If you want recommendations for communicative, knowledgeable, & ethical recruiters in London or Dublin, I'd be happy to connect you. My email is in my profile.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#143

Post by afarrell » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 7:44 PM UTC

jasoncartwright wrote: post #141

bane wrote: post #121

Europe is great. I have several friends who've made this move. I'd say that they have a higher and more relaxed quality of life at a much lower salary than I know of in the U.S. Salaries are lower, taxes are higher, but I think it balances out well. One thing I've noticed is that if you're willing to live a bit outside of a major city and along a commuter rail line (a commute not extraordinary by U.S. standards but s…

> One thing I've noticed is that if you're willing to live a bit outside of a major city and along a commuter rail line (a commute not extraordinary by U.S. standards but seemingly insane by European), housing costs can be much much lower. YMMV, IMHO etc, but living too close to the middle of cities is the biggest mistake I see people from who move to the UK make. Yes, you get a shorter commute and a great social lif…

It depends on if you are okay with living with flat mates. My wife and I considered living farther out, but that increases cost of transport and the length of time in transit.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#144

Post by loxs » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 7:45 PM UTC

scrollaway wrote: post #133

ColanR wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet you still don't disprove his point. "More than needed in a year" doesn't deny a relatively inferior financial position.

Is "working 1 month to be well off for the entire year" an inferior financial position to you? I have news for you: for nearly the entire rest of the world, it's not. Leave your bubble for the new year, will ya?

I also am happy with my financial situation. That doesn't mean that what I said is not true. Salaries which a re "standard" in the US, like 100-150k USD are very hard to attain in Europe, working for European employers. They are certainly not "standard".

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#145

Post by afarrell » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 7:47 PM UTC

kbouck wrote: post #138

bane wrote: post #121

Europe is great. I have several friends who've made this move. I'd say that they have a higher and more relaxed quality of life at a much lower salary than I know of in the U.S. Salaries are lower, taxes are higher, but I think it balances out well. One thing I've noticed is that if you're willing to live a bit outside of a major city and along a commuter rail line (a commute not extraordinary by U.S. standards but s…

> pension If you move to Europe, build up a pension, and then move back to the U.S., you should be able extract the money from that pension (according to the conditions), regardless of where you reside in there future. > taxes You are obliged to report all of your foreign earnings to the IRS as well as all of your foreign bank account status each year. You are taxed on your income both in the local country and in the…

You can ether use the foreign earned income exclusion (which I think has risen to closer to 100k) or the foreign tax credit.

You also want to take extensions so that you can qualify as a nonresident, or you will pay the ACA penalty for not having health insurance.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#146

Post by loxs » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 7:48 PM UTC

gorbachev wrote: post #91

loxs wrote: post #34

Prepare to be much worse financially. You will earn less, pay higher taxes (as percentage) and will feel much poorer. Cars, especially nice ones, are much more expensive (in absolute numbers, not only as percentage of income) to buy and own. Petrol is several times the US price. Rents are higher in most cities (at least compared to income). Maybe only SV is worse compared to Europe. All tech gadgets are more expensiv…

Whether or not living in Europe or US is more expensive depends entirely on your life situation. If you're single with no dependents and you're healthy (and don't get an expensive sickness), then I would mostly agree US is better financially. If, on the other hand, you have kids, and/or some sort of health condition, it becomes pretty much a wash, or in favor of (some) European countries. Those higher European taxes…

Absolutely true. And when you have in mind that I am actually writing to the OP, who is young, presumably healthy and in the beginning of his career, it's easy to agree that he is not taking a (financially) smart decision by moving to Europe.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#147

Post by Pica_soO » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

German here. Had a friend who studied info scienes. He does the tour- as in traversing the Mediterranean coast (Marroko, Porto,Spain,France,Italy, Austria, the Balkan (the european middle east), Greek, Israel - living in AirBnB Flats, working remote. Great landscape, great climate, tax avoiding if you stay in no country longer then the max-tax time.

Con: Sucks if you want a stable live and a family.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#148

Post by jasoncartwright » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #143

jasoncartwright wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One thing I've noticed is that if you're willing to live a bit outside of a major city and along a commuter rail line (a commute not extraordinary by U.S. standards but seemingly insane by European), housing costs can be much much lower. YMMV, IMHO etc, but living too close to the middle of cities is the biggest mistake I see people from who move to the UK make. Yes, you get a shorter commute and a great social lif…

It depends on if you are okay with living with flat mates. My wife and I considered living farther out, but that increases cost of transport and the length of time in transit.

That's very true. Flat shares are often a lot of fun with the right people.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#149

Post by chatmasta » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 7:53 PM UTC

radicalbyte wrote: post #10

I moved from the UK to The Netherlands a decade ago. It was a fantastic decision. It's nice here, most people speak English (although I learnt the language) and there's a lot of demand for Developers. There are also crazy tax incentives which result in you paying basically 0 tax for the first 5 years. That covers the costs of learning the language (3k EUR and it takes 2 years).

Can you talk more about those tax incentives?

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#150

Post by loxs » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 7:55 PM UTC

taway_1212 wrote: post #115

tluyben2 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What countries? My experiences are excellent in Netherlands & Spain public healthcare. I hear people complain about NHS a lot but never used it so no idea.

It is definitely true for Poland. As for UK, I had a flatmate with intense head/chest pain wait for 4 hours for an ambulance because he was diagnosed over the phone as not being an urgent case (which was probaby right, as he did not die in the meantime) and that was the wait time for non-dying people.

This is still qualified as an "emergency".