3 ms·

Assuming you had money left over to save, yes, you would be. You would be banking 3-4x as much money, if income and expenses remained proportional

nilkn 10y ago
To clarify this post (which I agree with): Imagine you're making $100 per month right now and spending $95 of it. So you're saving $5 per month. You move to the US and start making $400 per month, but your expenses skyrocket to $380 per month. But you're now saving $20 per month -- four times as much as you were before. Now imagine those savings numbers were $1k and $4k, and the difference becomes a pretty big deal.
- gambiting 10y ago
  Personally - right now I know that no matter what happens, my employer has to give me at least 3 months notice to fire me - at will employment is something that sounds almost like a bad joke around here. There does not exist any medical emergency, illness or accident, that would put me in any sort of financial difficulty. Even if 20 helicopters were engaged in transporting me to the hospital or if I had to be put on treatment costing 100k/month, I would never pay anything for it, and my NI contribution would not go up. If I lost my job as a result of an accident I would still be 100% covered. My children will never have to worry about student debt, because they either won't have any, or it will be conditional on them working, capped at a certain level and reasonable. At the same time, I make enough to pay mortgage on a 4-bedroom house, have a car that I really like, and have the latest gadgets I like. Sure, I can't afford a rolex or a ferrari - but that's fine with me. Saving more money while working in the US and worrying about the above is just absolutely not worth it to me, but again, that's just my personal opinion.
  - nilkn 10y ago
    I didn't mean to suggest you should actually move to the US. Life in the US definitely feels pretty backwards compared to some European countries these days, and your examples show that pretty convincingly. I only meant that, despite just being basic arithmetic, it's somewhat paradoxical that savings rates can go up in extremely high cost-of-living areas. It "feels" like you've gained nothing if your income increases by 4x but your cost of living does as well, but in reality you might actually save considerably more money.

nilkn 10y ago

To clarify this post (which I agree with): Imagine you're making $100 per month right now and spending $95 of it. So you're saving $5 per month. You move to the US and start making $400 per month, but your expenses skyrocket to $380 per month. But you're now saving $20 per month -- four times as much as you were before. Now imagine those savings numbers were $1k and $4k, and the difference becomes a pretty big deal.

gambiting 10y ago
Personally - right now I know that no matter what happens, my employer has to give me at least 3 months notice to fire me - at will employment is something that sounds almost like a bad joke around here. There does not exist any medical emergency, illness or accident, that would put me in any sort of financial difficulty. Even if 20 helicopters were engaged in transporting me to the hospital or if I had to be put on treatment costing 100k/month, I would never pay anything for it, and my NI contribution would not go up. If I lost my job as a result of an accident I would still be 100% covered. My children will never have to worry about student debt, because they either won't have any, or it will be conditional on them working, capped at a certain level and reasonable. At the same time, I make enough to pay mortgage on a 4-bedroom house, have a car that I really like, and have the latest gadgets I like. Sure, I can't afford a rolex or a ferrari - but that's fine with me. Saving more money while working in the US and worrying about the above is just absolutely not worth it to me, but again, that's just my personal opinion.
- nilkn 10y ago
  I didn't mean to suggest you should actually move to the US. Life in the US definitely feels pretty backwards compared to some European countries these days, and your examples show that pretty convincingly. I only meant that, despite just being basic arithmetic, it's somewhat paradoxical that savings rates can go up in extremely high cost-of-living areas. It "feels" like you've gained nothing if your income increases by 4x but your cost of living does as well, but in reality you might actually save considerably more money.