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Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

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Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#101

Post by darklajid »

Cologne, Germany (labeled our 2nd most expensive city, after Munich)

- 900 EUR for a decent,3 room flat (need a place for the SO..)

- 45 EUR phone/cable tv/cable internet

- 320 EUR Food (for 2, decent diet, mostly cooking and the occasional restaurant)

- Ramen is more prominent as a novelty food here (the cheap, fast food equivalent might be "Doener" (kebap) or a "Currywurst" :)) and - except for really lousy "I have dishes from every continent" shops - are mostly limited to restaurants. Budget 7-12 EUR for a dish of ramen in a restaurant.

Typical monthly wage for a programmer (after taxes, dreived from my network): 1200 - 2400 EUR

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#102

Post by abalashov »

eliben wrote: post #57
rarestblog wrote: post #8

Moscow, Russia typ. exp: ~600$ per each family member for food/clothes/utilities (no fancy stuff) 700-1200$ renting 1 room apt. 20$ internet (10MBit+ is common) extras: 60-100$ meal for 2 at *reasonably* priced restaurant 15$ movie ticket 10-20$ taxi ride 1$ ramen noodles (called "Doshirak" here) 2.5$ BigMac avg. salary IT (after tax) $700-1500/mth (mostly around $1000/mth)

Wow, that sounds totally unlivable

Well, there is a reason Moscow has the dubious distinction of being the world's most expensive city. :-)

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#103

Post by jzycrzy »

trevelyan wrote: post #7

Beijing, China $500 to $1000 in rent, plus equivalent amount food and entertainment for a non-stressful lifestyle. You can pare down costs to perhaps $800/month by getting a room in a shared apartment and eating inexpensively. Add on $2500 annual expenses for visa, entry-exit expenses, etc. Hiring programmers costs between $500 and $1500 per month depending on skills and experience. Without a legitimate Chinese busin…

Beijing, China

$800 in rent (single, just me footing that bill). Food expenses are between $500 and $1000 a month. Could easily spend less, but it makes being social difficult.

I'm working full-time with a RMB salary and working on side projects (a bit slow at the moment).

Local programmers can be cheap, $500-$1500/month. If you want to sell to the local Chinese market online you may need an Internet Content Provider (ICP) license, which could be costly. Note that I know nothing about this process, but it's probably a good idea to talk to a lawyer if this is part of your business plan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICP_license

Do you host locally in China? Do you know any local VPS hosting?

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#104

Post by iampims »

Paris, France. (not the suburbs, in USD)

- rent: $650/month for a small apt(215 sq ft)

- food: $70/week

- utilities: $40/month (High-speed internet, TV + landline phone)

- transport: $80/month for unlimited rides in the city

- cellphone plans: $30 (cheapest, 1h talking time)

- monthly wage for a programmer: $3,000 (junior), $4,200 (mid),$5,000+ senior, before taxes (20/30/40% depending of your revenues and situation)

- minimun wage: $1,900 before taxes. $1,475 after taxes.

- free social security :)

Outside of Paris, everything is much cheaper. But then again, you can't go stroll along the Seine, admire the Eiffel Tower, relax in Jardin du Luxembourg… (all of this is free)

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#105

Post by billforsternz »

aymeric wrote: post #9

Australia in AUD (about the same as USD these days): One bedroom rent in Sydney: $1200/month (EDIT: increased the rent based on comments) Food: $400 Wages:$60K-120K/year (gross) Internet:$50/month Phone: $50/month Bus ticket: $3.20 McDonalds Big Mac small meal: $6.45 -- By the way, I am looking to hire a Ruby on Rails developer for USD600/month in India / Philippines / Indonesia to help me develop my ideas. Please co…

Auckland or Wellington in New Zealand would not be too different to this also.

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#106

Post by quadhome »

billpaetzke wrote: post #51
jacquesm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok. Man I'm jealous ;) Not with the money, but with the trip :) If you have the time please write it up while it is still fresh in your memory, so that us 'armchair Asia goers' can look through your eyes.

I'm a programmer that saved up money, quit my job, and traveled around Southeast Asia for four months (in 2009). I blogged almost every day. I took some great photos, too. Have fun browsing my stuff... Top 100 photos: http://billpaetzke.smugmug.com/Travel/Best-of-Southeast-Asia... Travel Blog: http://www.bp321.com/travels/ (I'm back in LA working, by the way).

I did the same for a year and a half-ish. Oceania, Thailand, overlanded from Cape Town to Cairo, Europe, motorcycled through Central America, and now just started consulting in Sydney / Melbourne.

http://travel.quadhome.com/ is an incomplete tumblr of the first half with photo links to the second-half.

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#107

Post by randomtask »

Dublin, Ireland.

Rent - €300 p/m (room/studio in a shared house). This is about as cheap as you can get. A room in the city centre would be more like €700-900 p/m.

Food - €30-40 per week assuming you bring a packed lunch and cook at home.

Bills - around €50 p/m. Includes electricity and TV.

Internet - if you're a student you can get a 3G USB dongle for €20 with a monthly cost of €13 from O2. That comes with a 5 gig cap. Vodafone allow you to roam on any of their networks in Europe if you subscribe to their service. If you're lucky enough to live in the right area you can get Fibre to the home for €50 p/m. DSL is around the same price.

Mobile phone - choose the pay as you go option (prepay) and you can send up to 250 text messages per month for free online. plans start from €15 with 50 minutes/texts. mobile calls about 12-13c per minute. i think some of the networks do free texts to people on the same network now.

Minimum wage - €8.65 per hour

Programmer salaries - typically about €30k starting off with senior (> 5 year's experience and typically more) able to charge up to 70-80k. someone in the bottom of that range (30k) will take home 80% of that after tax. middle of that range (55k) will typically take home 70% of their salary after tax, and someone on 80k will take home just over 60%. We have a fairly harsh budget in the works so that will probably change slightly. Tax calculator - http://www.hookhead.ie/Tools/tax2010.jsp

Health insurance - companies will often provide this but if they don't then a decent plan will cost €800-900 and the comprehensive plan will cost €2000. under the drugs payment scheme (available to all residents) you will pay a maximum of €120 per month for prescribed medicine.

Transport - typically about €60-70. cycling is definitely an option though as the city is small.

As a student I have been living on €1000 per month for over a year now. This is while trying to be fairly frugal most of the time. By cutting down on the time/money I spend on socialising I could reduce these expenses significantly, but that is important to me so I don't.

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#108

Post by ido »

niyazpk wrote: post #36
RealGeek wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of our expenses are similar, but apartment rent. How in Banglore did you get an apartment for $80? Its a steal :) How much is your electricity bill? Do you use air condition and computer?

The place I stay is relatively small and I would say that the rent is just right. My electricity bill comes around 300-400 INR ($7-9). I don't have an AC - you don't need it in Bangalore. I have a laptop and an extra monitor. My Airtel DigitalTV is connected to the monitor so I don't have a separate TV.

    I don't have an AC - you don't need it in Bangalore.
As a westerner that spent about 2 months in India I have to say - although Bangalore's weather is mild in Indian terms, >30c weather (normal for high summer in Bangalore) is well within "requires AC" limits for Europeans :)

Also, if you don't absolutely require high speed internet or being around other high-tech folks there are much cheaper (and IMO nicer) places in India than Bangalore.

E.g. in Dharamsala, which is still expensive by Indian standards, you can lead a fairly lavish lifestyle for the prices niyazpk's quoted (and a lot less, too). Hope you like dialup internet tho ;)

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#109

Post by natorion »

Austria/Vienna:

-Rent for 2 rooms flat: aproxx 550 €

-Electricity, water, sewag etc: 150 €

-Internet: 30 € 10 mbit/s

-Cell: ~10 € for 100 minutes

-Food aproxx 300 € (cooking@home & eating fast food)

-Ramen is non-existant but suitable fast food is available

-Beer in store: 0,50 € to 1,00 €

-Beer in pub: 2,80 € to 3,60 Euro

-social security (health, work, pension) is covered automatically by your wage.

-netto wage for junior programmer: starting at 1700 €

Re: Ask HN: Cost of living across the world (Ramen PPP Index for hackers)

#110

Post by domagoj »

Rijeka, Croatia

Expenses:

  Apartment(1 room flat): $300-$400
  Internet (5 Mbps, flat): $25
  Grocery: $300
  Pizza: $7
  Restaurant: $10-$50
  Beer: $1.8-$2.8
  Bus: 2.5$ -> 1 ride, $70 -> monthly ticket
  Taxi: $4 for 5km 
  Mobile + 3G internet (1gb plan): $30
  Electricity: $40/summer, $200-$300/winter (if you use it for heating)
  Petrol(1 liter): $1.7
Typical wage: $1000 - $2000
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