Waste of time you say? Were never life changing? I'm curious to hear what's your definition of "life changing"? Salaried tech compensation in Europe grew quit

Waste of time you say? Were never life changing? I'm curious to hear what's your definition of "life changing"? Salaried tech compensation in Europe grew quite a lot over the last 10+ years. Still behind US, but no longer by as much as before. Back in 2005, 2010, and even 2015 - companies were benchmarking salaries locally (and even down to that specific country). With FAANG opening up shops in EU, all other bigger tech companies started to benchmark compensation somewhat globally. I know plenty of European software engineers that got a house with 30 years mortgage, and (with salary, RSUs and bonuses) paid it off in <10 years. Granted, cost of real estate is now 3x compared to 10-15 years ago (other costs are also bigger, but not 3x). From what I've seen it's the same just about anywhere in Europe. So if you just got a mortgage now, it will take longer. But still - there's usually enough salary left (even after spending on traveling with 25+ vacation days) to put loads of money into rainy day funds, expensive hobbies, as well as investments/FIRE. Most other sectors are not really close.