4 ms·

not with income I have, I earn 5 times my city average income and 2-3 times my position average income and I'm prety sure this won't last for much more years, s

not with income I have, I earn 5 times my city average income and 2-3 times my position average income and I'm prety sure this won't last for much more years, so I want to bank on it if I would earn much less I would value mu spare time much more than I value it now currently with this opportunity, I don't know anyone who bought their first apartment without mortgage and help of parents in my age and is planning to buy second soon in same conditions

tluyben2 7y ago
I'm sure you did think about this, but are you calculating this 2-3x fairly? I notice many people don't. Especially (disgruntled) EU people who think they make very little compared to their US counterparts in tech. In the EU, when you are comparing your self employed income with published averages for your city for that position, you are usually comparing apples and pears. When self employed, you need to deduct a lot of things that are automatic when you are not self employed; depending on which country in the EU you live in, we are talking about pension plan payments, healthcare (insurance or similar which is mandatory in most EU countries in one way or another), vacation money (which is what this is about), insurance for when you (for some reason) cannot work anymore or get fired (which I don't think is in all countries, but at least here that's included), sick day money, 13th month (mandatory in some countries), bonus, social benefits, car (if needed), computer, phone, home office, travel cost (if needed), taxes, etc. I have been making 'US type' money being self employed for decades, but if you count all of the above, I don't make that much more than what a similar position does in my EU country with a regular job (comparing just the numbers, I make 2.5x more and that 2.5x is almost exactly all the above costs). Still I like it better, so I will never stop. Sure you can choose to ignore many of these factors, but then it's simply not a fair comparison. Also, and again, i'm sure you thought about this, but for the other people reading this; in the EU in many (all?) countries, if you only have one client as a self employed person, the state could see you as an ad-hoc employee of that company, which means that that company actually has to pay for all kinds of taxes/social security (depends on the country) and if they don't, you will have to. This would 'ok', but in many countries I have worked in as freelancer or self-employed, paying these like that are far higher than if you manage it all yourself.

tluyben2 7y ago

I'm sure you did think about this, but are you calculating this 2-3x fairly? I notice many people don't. Especially (disgruntled) EU people who think they make very little compared to their US counterparts in tech. In the EU, when you are comparing your self employed income with published averages for your city for that position, you are usually comparing apples and pears. When self employed, you need to deduct a lot of things that are automatic when you are not self employed; depending on which country in the EU you live in, we are talking about pension plan payments, healthcare (insurance or similar which is mandatory in most EU countries in one way or another), vacation money (which is what this is about), insurance for when you (for some reason) cannot work anymore or get fired (which I don't think is in all countries, but at least here that's included), sick day money, 13th month (mandatory in some countries), bonus, social benefits, car (if needed), computer, phone, home office, travel cost (if needed), taxes, etc. I have been making 'US type' money being self employed for decades, but if you count all of the above, I don't make that much more than what a similar position does in my EU country with a regular job (comparing just the numbers, I make 2.5x more and that 2.5x is almost exactly all the above costs). Still I like it better, so I will never stop. Sure you can choose to ignore many of these factors, but then it's simply not a fair comparison. Also, and again, i'm sure you thought about this, but for the other people reading this; in the EU in many (all?) countries, if you only have one client as a self employed person, the state could see you as an ad-hoc employee of that company, which means that that company actually has to pay for all kinds of taxes/social security (depends on the country) and if they don't, you will have to. This would 'ok', but in many countries I have worked in as freelancer or self-employed, paying these like that are far higher than if you manage it all yourself.