Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 269 posts

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#171

Post by oumua_don17 »

rich_sasha wrote: post #139
bartminton wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You touch a number of very important points here. Thanks for that. We're aware of the fact, that the overall situation in many countries in the world is much, much worse. So it's kind of a luxury problem. What is actually a challenge, is that I work as a freelancer for 20 years now and still have to go a long way to secure my private pension. I once calculated my personal "real" tax rate in Germany, and ended up at a…

One thing that's really hard to compare when looking at taxes is the quality of public services you get. UK has not low taxes by any measure, but certainly lower than eg Germany, at 200k you're looking at effective tax rate of about 35-40% all in. But state schools are a lottery and shut down for 13 weeks a year. Healthcare is good if you can get seen but otherwise it's the private health insurance. Public transport…

In UK, can you please tell me how at 200K pounds, the taxes can come down only to 35-40% especially at 125K or above, the 60% tax trap kicks in. [1] If you can specify any tax saving tips or refer to some consultant, I will be grateful.

Really the only way in UK is to put in a large part of your earnings into pension contributions which effectively makes it out of bounds till 55 or 57 from 2028 onwards, which means even if you have FU money you can't use it. Again if you have large RSU payouts due to working at a FAANG, it can be difficult as you start hitting lifetime allowance of your pension contributions.

[1] https://www.nutmeg.com/nuggets/escape-the-60-tax-trap

edit: specifying that the above comment is for UK

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#172

Post by matus_congrady »

ricardobeat wrote: post #109
matus_congrady wrote: post #66

I would definitely suggest Prague, Czech Republic. The city is beautiful. Climate is great. Low taxation (especially if you're self-employed). Cost of living is way better than in Germany. Quality of food, healthcare and public services is also very good. Also, if you don't like the leftist policies, you'll love Czech Republic.

I assume you are Czech. I'm curious to hear what makes you happy about the new right-wing government? It seems to have started following the same modus operandi that made a huge mess in Brazil: sectarian politics, removing 'leftists' from every inch of government institutions and instrumenting them with friends, reverting climate policies, etc. But this is only looking from afar.

I'm not from Czech republic, but I know the country pretty well (living in Slovakia).

Absolutely nothing you're describing about the new Czech government is true. They are not populistic (like governments in Brazil or Hungary).

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#174

Post by oumua_don17 »

Cambridge, UK

- A solid tech hub so you should have enough opportunities

- Good options for your wife as well to work

- You can also work in London (only 50 minutes by train to King's Cross); I do that

- High quality education for kids

While we don't have kids but from friends who do have, they find Cambridge to be great place to work, live and raise a family. And while you won't get warm winters, they should still be manageable if you look at the other positives.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#175

Post by joeman1000 »

Australia. My best advice is to go somewhere where your life is worth lots of money. I lived in Ukraine for 2 years and toured around EU for part of that time. My life in Ukraine was worth the price of bribing a cop. Someone is caught after running me over? In the cynical case they’re free for $100. In Australia if someone hits me and is caught, they’re fucked. This is especially important for your wife and son. Put them before yourself in your decision, as I’m sure you already do.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#176

Post by pastacacioepepe »

lormayna wrote: post #131
pastacacioepepe wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Moreover, the probable new government, will make immigration way more complex. That's not a concern considering OP is European, he can move wherever he wants inside the union. If the right wing wins the elections they will (probably) tighten rules for poverty immigration from outside Europe. > the salary are terrible low and the taxes are high. That's true, but if you can find a well paying remote job and a nice pl…

> That's not a concern considering OP is European, he can move wherever he wants inside the union. What's happened if an Italexit will happens?

If you know Italian politics, you know it won't happen. None of the future candidates has the standing to pull something like this off, without considering that - outside Europe - Italy has nowhere else to go at the moment. Even the popular sentiment is not there as we're already past our no-EU years and even then it was an empty electoral promise.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#178

Post by jejeyyy77 »

mardifoufs wrote: post #155
bluedino wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver...probably couldn't be more different. Would not want to lump all of Canada into one of those cities.

Montreal is the most affordable city in canada that doesn't suck. It's a bit hard to believe how cheap it still is (relatively!), yet imo it's a much better place to live in than Toronto/Ottawa/Edmonton.

Too cold and French speaking.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#179

Post by joeman1000 »

glaucon wrote: post #163
RomanPushkin wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no freedom in Australia, the government is doing whatever they want to people. Look at how they handled COVID: rolled out restrictions, punishing their own citizen to a degree any "normal" country/government wouldn't do, etc.

Just to put this in context Australia had an election eight weeks ago in which the government was changed. There's any number of reasons for the outcome of the election but this suggests that the governments in Australia are not free to do whatever they want.

It’s like switching toothpaste brands. The illusion of choice.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving Germany – where to find quality of life as experienced engineer?

#180

Post by jobegrabber »

bartminton wrote: post #102
jobegrabber wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Income tax + business tax pile up to 50% already Is that for all your income or "just" over a certain threshold? >Even if you make some good money, that does not leave you with a lot to live. You said you travelled to different countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. Do you consider that not leaving you with a lot to live? >with virtually no deductible costs you pay taxes first, and then have to take care about health…

>Is that for all your income or "just" over a certain threshold? Regarding income tax, there is a tax free allowance of 9.984. >You said you travelled to different countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. Do you consider that not leaving you with a lot to live? We travel for more than 15 years and we mostly leverage so called PEP offers, which reduce your travel cost to a fraction of the real cost. Otherwise we'd not be…

Sound's like it's quite a lot to live on if you have enough cash on hand to travel only "mostly" on PEP.

>That's the point. They are NOT!

Your private pension might not be - but with Health Care, business expenses and certain type of insurances there's more than "virtually no deductible costs" though.

There's a lot of stuff that seems unfair, I agree. I'm not here to debate that you pay more into the system as others and don't get more benefits from it - but the picture you're painting of a 70 % overall tax rate and "not a lot to live on" strikes me as a bit too grim.

Post reply on HN