5 ms·

For 3 kids, a Staff Engineer position in California with 500k W-2 income is comparable to a 150k income in Germany. It's madness! (super rough estimates) in C

by msoad 3y ago

For 3 kids, a Staff Engineer position in California with 500k W-2 income is comparable to a 150k income in Germany. It's madness! (super rough estimates) in California: 240k after tax which is 20k/mo. About 10k/mo for housing (remember, having 3 kids means you need a big house). 3x2k childcare. 6k gone. Everything is 3x more expensive so that remaining 2k will not go to far. in Germany 75k after tax which is 6.25k/mo. 2k housing. 0.5k childcare. You're left 3.75k to spend

lm28469 3y ago
We don't talk about communism on HN, communism bad. They don't even have Ford F150 in Germany, and they have to WALK almost everywhere they go , just imagine that
- MandieD 3y ago
  I was about to say, "we do too have those monstrosities over here!" but then remembered it was actually the Ford Ranger, which looks freaking huge here, despite the increasing popularity of SUVs (small by US standards) and crossovers.
lnsru 3y ago
Sorry, but wtf. News from Munich as it is today and what I get from new hires. Housing 3500€, because nobody will rent you 3 room apartment for a family with 3 kids. 2k housing is 3 room apartment in normal area today. Probably you don’t want stacked beds either. Kindergarten per child at least 500€. Then Krippe ends, but school starts. So 5000€ for rent and kindergarten. Maybe you live in other Germany. Edit: the special thing about German (Bavarian) school system is that in the 4th year in school your teacher does a decision if your child may study. That means, the child is going to learn a lot to have good grades. That’s roughly 30€ pro lesson. At least 8 of them comes every month.
gamblor956 3y ago
That math is so bad I don't even know where to begin... Nobody pays the marginal rate on all of their income in the U.S. unless they're making millions in W2 income, so 500k W-2 salary is 280k after taxes, not including any deductions from taxable income (including deductions, the post-tax range is anywhere from 280k-350k for a unmarried individual with no kids). Also, most things are not 3x more expensive than they are in Germany; if anything the opposite is true: our produce and meat are 1/4 of what Germans pay, we pay less for utilities, we pay less for auto fuel, we pay less for travel, we pay less for pretty much all our day-to-day expenses, and that's before you take into account exchange rates which makes things in American even cheaper compared to what Germans have to pay. So $500k in California is the equivalent of about EUR 600-750k German salary. And $500k salaries are a lot more common in California than EUR 600k salaries are in Germany...
johnnyanmac 3y ago
>About 10k/mo for housing (remember, having 3 kids means you need a big house) big house doesn't mean you need to live in the the trenches of San Fransisco. Even then: very rough numbers on a 30 year lease suggests a 3M dollar home. I see listings around 2M from a quick google. so put 3-4k back in your pocket. Hell, you don't need to have every kid have their own room so you can probably fit into a 3 bed to cut more. And then simply not live in the core of SF to get back under a million. >Everything is 3x more expensive so that remaining 2k will not go to far. only if you make it so. Sure, food will be more expensive but not magically 3x the cost of Germany (Germany isn't exactly low COL). Most commercial tech will be the same price there as anywhere else in the country. You can definitely make it work. You may not be able to get every single luxury, but we're far from penny pinching with a few tweaks.

by msoad 3y ago

lm28469 3y ago

We don't talk about communism on HN, communism bad. They don't even have Ford F150 in Germany, and they have to WALK almost everywhere they go , just imagine that

MandieD 3y ago
I was about to say, "we do too have those monstrosities over here!" but then remembered it was actually the Ford Ranger, which looks freaking huge here, despite the increasing popularity of SUVs (small by US standards) and crossovers.

lnsru 3y ago

Sorry, but wtf. News from Munich as it is today and what I get from new hires. Housing 3500€, because nobody will rent you 3 room apartment for a family with 3 kids. 2k housing is 3 room apartment in normal area today. Probably you don’t want stacked beds either. Kindergarten per child at least 500€. Then Krippe ends, but school starts. So 5000€ for rent and kindergarten. Maybe you live in other Germany. Edit: the special thing about German (Bavarian) school system is that in the 4th year in school your teacher does a decision if your child may study. That means, the child is going to learn a lot to have good grades. That’s roughly 30€ pro lesson. At least 8 of them comes every month.

gamblor956 3y ago

That math is so bad I don't even know where to begin... Nobody pays the marginal rate on all of their income in the U.S. unless they're making millions in W2 income, so 500k W-2 salary is 280k after taxes, not including any deductions from taxable income (including deductions, the post-tax range is anywhere from 280k-350k for a unmarried individual with no kids). Also, most things are not 3x more expensive than they are in Germany; if anything the opposite is true: our produce and meat are 1/4 of what Germans pay, we pay less for utilities, we pay less for auto fuel, we pay less for travel, we pay less for pretty much all our day-to-day expenses, and that's before you take into account exchange rates which makes things in American even cheaper compared to what Germans have to pay. So $500k in California is the equivalent of about EUR 600-750k German salary. And $500k salaries are a lot more common in California than EUR 600k salaries are in Germany...

johnnyanmac 3y ago

>About 10k/mo for housing (remember, having 3 kids means you need a big house) big house doesn't mean you need to live in the the trenches of San Fransisco. Even then: very rough numbers on a 30 year lease suggests a 3M dollar home. I see listings around 2M from a quick google. so put 3-4k back in your pocket. Hell, you don't need to have every kid have their own room so you can probably fit into a 3 bed to cut more. And then simply not live in the core of SF to get back under a million. >Everything is 3x more expensive so that remaining 2k will not go to far. only if you make it so. Sure, food will be more expensive but not magically 3x the cost of Germany (Germany isn't exactly low COL). Most commercial tech will be the same price there as anywhere else in the country. You can definitely make it work. You may not be able to get every single luxury, but we're far from penny pinching with a few tweaks.