It's completely possible to live and retire early comfortably as an engineer in Europe. On a salary of 40k in the UK outside of London/oxford, (which is achieva

It's completely possible to live and retire early comfortably as an engineer in Europe. On a salary of 40k in the UK outside of London/oxford, (which is achievable as a mid level dev pretty much anywhere there are developer jobs), you'll live a pretty comfortable lifestyle. > the quality of life is just lower (less car ownership, much smaller homes without swimming pools or air conditioning, tiny kitchens without garbage disposal, American fridge-freezers or dishwashers, etc.) All of those things are why I actively choose to live in Europe over the US. Having an american fridge freezer, a pool and 2 cars wouldn't increase my quality of life, but sacrificing access to quality healthcare, reasonable rights of not being abused by my employer, neighborhoods designed to be walked around, not driven, etc all _would_ dramatically reduce my qol