> it is within reach for most programmers to jump on the real estate ladder, heavily invest, and retire comfortably. In Amsterdam, where I currently live, I wo

> it is within reach for most programmers to jump on the real estate ladder, heavily invest, and retire comfortably. In Amsterdam, where I currently live, I would say a normal salary for a senior dev would be ~ 80k euros gross. A decent apartment somewhere in the city could be ~ 500k. Unless you can pay a pretty significant deposit you won't qualify for a loan (rule of thumb is you get 5x gross salary = 400k in this case). Back in the day the same kind of apartment could probably have been bought on a working class salary. Climbing the real-estate ladder is hard for a dev, impossible for anybody making less than dev salaries.