[mamon]

That's exactly my case: working as a niche IT specialist I earn about 4500 USD per month after taxes.

It might not be much by SV standards, but in my neighborhood (which is a capital city of one of CE countries) it is top 2% income. It's enough that after maybe 5 years of saving I'm now able to buy 1 bedroom apartment in the city center WITH CASH. Buying 2-3 bedrooms would also be possible if I needed it and decided to live further from the city center. Add cheap healthcare, free education, overall low living cost and that's really hard to top.

I get job offers from UK on regular basis, but never seriously considered it for that reason.

[taway_1212]

8500 USD after taxes here :) (in Poland) I spend around $1000 per month of that.

[galfarragem]

Be thankful, you might probably afford the best living standards that is possible to afford as an employee... worldwide.

I was an expat in Poland for some years (unfortunately non-STEM job) and with that money your only limit is yourself.

[taway_1212]

My plan is to retire in 5-7 years. I could do that sooner if I went into stock market (and prayed that the mythical 4% per year returns will be sustainable in the future) or became a landlord, but I prefer to play it safe.

[Luc]

Would you be retiring in Poland? What kind of monthly expense do you foresee?

I'm also dreaming of doing this, though currently on the other side of the world.

[taway_1212]

> Would you be retiring in Poland? What kind of monthly expense do you foresee?

Yes, retiring in Poland. My plan is to go broke at 90-95.

I'm thinking 5000-6000 PLN per month ($1300-$1500), plus owning a property, will allow for a great living. This should even cover a very good nursing home (well as far as these places can ever be very good) when I'm unable to take care of myself. (I dont' and won't have children).

BTW there seems to be plenty of people from the UK who moved permanently to SE Asia (I imagine it can be cheaper than Poland + no winters) and who are sustained via rent from their London flat/house.

[Luc]

Yes, I actually know of a couple on a sailboat living off the rent of their house in London.

I would like to retire in Europe. Thanks for your answer, it's nice to have a realistic ballpark figure.

[charlesdm]

What is playing it safe? Keeping it in cash in a bank account?

[taway_1212]

> Keeping it in cash in a bank account?

Yes. There are accounts in Poland which pay around 0-2% post-tax above inflation (the number vary year-to-year, depending on current economical conditions), which will help the capital still earn a bit of money.

[charlesdm]

Keeping your entire net worth in one currency seems pretty risky to me. Nothing is ever as it seems.

[kornakiewicz]

For all, be aware that this kind of money are extremely rare (but doable in some niches) in Poland. Half of that is generally perceived as very good salary for most IT jobs, and median is probably quarter of that.

[gambiting]

Yep - even our prime minister/president doesn't make that much a month, more like half that. I used to know a Polish guy making million Polish zloty/year(so about $300k) but he was the head of the Polish division of a major German insurance company.

Most of my Polish friends working in Poland as programmers(ranging from C++ to Web development) make about ~$2500-3500/month, and that's considered extremely good for where they live(Krakow and Warsaw).

[taway_1212]

Yep that's true. I don't count on making this kind of money locally (I don't even go through Polish job ads any more, as I can make more remotely or by taking up a contract in Western Europe), I just randomly found this opportunity.

But still, you can work remotely for a US company and make that kind of money. That's pretty realistic and was probably the source of the fortune cookie wisdom.

[twa19999]

>> But still, you can work remotely for a US company and make that kind of money.

How does one do that, except by working for infamous Crossover company?

[mamon]

I never thought such kind of money is possible in Poland, except in one shitty company that shall remain unnamed here. Could you tell what do you do to earn such a salary ?

[taway_1212]

One was a remote job at a SV startup and now I'm making pretty much the same in an in-office job in an international corp. I filled a niche they badly needed to fill (it's not like I'm some unicorn though) hence the unusally high pay.

[mamon]

Is that niche called Machine Learning? :)

[taway_1212]

Nope, it's Big Data (infrastructure, pipelines etc.). Nothing exciting or innovative, it's just that there are too few people in this field who know what they're doing compared to the demand.

[mamon]

That's weird, because most Big Data jobs I know about are paying below average rates, like 3000 USD after tax, no more. Basically there's almost no market for such skills in Poland, yet.

[vram22]

>working as a niche IT specialist I earn about 4500 USD per month after taxes.

Interesting. Is this working for a Western European or US company, or a local one (CE - assuming it means Central European)?