[ChuckNorris89]

>about 2000€ a month, enough to pay for a students living expenses

Just out of pure curiosity, where did you live/study that 2000 Euros are student living expenses?

In my neck of the woods in central-western Europe (Austria), 1000 Euros per month is already really good money for most students and 2000 is what you make as a junior full time employee in a good tech company.

[archi42]

Depends on the city and the student. E.g. Munich is known to be quite expensive. 2000 Euro would probably still be comfortable there, but 1000 Euro would probably require quite some frugality.

At my alma mater (SW Germany) you could live on 450 Euro with the same frugality. OTOH a friend (living in the same dorm!) burned through 2500 Euro a month, that's until his parents started to expect some progress after a few years.

[yarcob]

It was revenue of 2000€, I still had to pay taxes, social security, etc.

But yes, it was still more than enough. I lived on around 600€ side job + 200€ government stipend before I made my app.

[cfontes]

Try Amsterdam, for example. €1000 is your rent.

[kergonath]

The usual course of action is flat sharing. Rent is then a bit more reasonable. In London you could find rooms from a few hundred quid pcm, then depending on location the sky is the limit. That was the most expensive city in Europe, pre-Brexit.

[heeen2]

For a room or a whole apartment?

[jack_pp]

Rooms range from 500 to 800 in amsterdam, I just checked the facebook group and the first post is student housing available for 317 euros.

[fergie]

If you are studying at a decent English university then you are talking €25000 a year just in accommodation and tuition fess.

[bryanrasmussen]

I would think 2000 euro in Denmark would be about a student's living expenses.

[kawsper]

I lived on student pay alone and used student housing, students today get around 849.79 EUR (before taxes) from the government, it was a bit lower back then (but I don't know about inflation and currency conversion).

[bryanrasmussen]

I guess I'm one of those folks who grows up and grows out of touch with how much money other people actually have. damn.

[thekingofravens]

Not an 1:1 comparison, but but in Seattle (US) if you could convert your 2000€ a month to the roughly 2400$ US it is you would still have at least one roommate to be able to pay rent. Different story in the US, as kids tend to leave home often due to a much lower cultural focus on the family. Individualism is obsessed over here.

[andix]

Vienna for example. Although it is possible to survive with around 700-900€ per month, eat, live and study.

But if you also want to go out, go to restaurants/bars regularly and live in a nice place (not a shared dorm room), 1500-2000€ are way better.

[ChuckNorris89]

I think we have two very distinct student lives in mind:

The one I know most students have, is living very frugally, cooking at home, counting every penny to not go into more debt, studying hard to get a head start in life and partying hard on a budget, mostly house parties with booze bought from the supermarket with the occasional club or restaurant outing being a treat.

The other one is the Instagram lifestyle student, travelling to fancy places, practicing expensive sports and hobbies, eating out a lot, going bars and clubbing all the time. That's not your typical student, more like the 1%-er.

Living alone in a non-shared apartment is already a huge luxury for most students unless you come from a well-off family.

[parasubvert]

1000-2000 a month is hardly “jet setting” and has nothing to do with instagram. We are talking the difference between living in a shared accommodation and maybe having a small apartment, maybe having a used car, etc.

Plenty of students get bankrolled by a combination of scholarships, their parents, and loans, and have for decades. There’s nothing wrong with it (or with going the frugal route either).

Edit: To live in dorm 25 years ago in a standard Canadian university (for me) it cost $500/month plus another $500 a month in mandatory food card. That’s equivalent to 650 euros. That’s plus utilities, off campus food and drink, computer, recreation, and transportation, probably another 100-150 euros. My family was hardly rich (school teacher and truck driver) and helped out, I worked part time, and took out loans. Things are more expensive now.

[jiofih]

As the other comment mentioned, 2k/month is a starter salary in the nordics. It is near instagram-lifestyle money in Portugal, Spain and most of the eastern EU for a young single person.

A student having their own apartment (and a car??) is already a luxury 99% of the world will never experience.

[parasubvert]

Most students I knew didn’t have their own apartment and car but a few did if they had small children, had social reasons to live alone, or were married (yes some people get pregnant in high school).

They usually had a mix of parental help, loans and part time or coop program work, and scholarships. They weren’t super rich, they were from middle class Canadian families 25 years ago.

I even have a friend going to school today with a rental 5 bedroom house, as single parent raising 2 kids, and having 2 exchange students help out. Between scholarships , loans, and the students from China it covers expenses (well over €2k monthly).

I recognize that is richer than 99% of the world. It’s just my experience.

If you’re coming out of university and making £2k a month that is a bit low.

An MBA graduate makes €90k+ annually in Denmark. This is about the same in other European countries maybe +/- 10k

My point isn’t that some people have it good, it’s that €1-2k a month isn’t exactly glamorous living. The “jet setting” types (I have known a few) are getting an allowance of €3-4k+ monthly.

[ChuckNorris89]

>My point isn’t that some people have it good, it’s that €1-2k a month isn’t exactly glamorous living.

It isn't glamorous, you're right but I wasn't talking about inequality here, I was saying that very few students in Europe have 2K per month at their disposal.

>If you’re coming out of university and making £2k a month that is a bit low.

AFAIK, 2K Euros per month, after taxes, is your typical starting wage for a full time dev job in a decent company in countries like Germany. To get significantly more than 2K after taxes here as a new grad would put you in the top 10% of devs your age, definitely not the norm in the industry or in Europe.

>An MBA graduate makes €90k+ annually in Denmark.

Do you have a source for this? Because if you do then it would be best for me to give up my dev job in Germany and become an MBA in Denmark. Not /s, but quite serious.

[yoz-y]

Where I studied (france) a 2000€/month would leave me with about 1400€ after discouting housing, 3 meals a day and tuition fees. It's a ginormous amount of money for a student.

Dunno about MBA out of school salaries but in tech in most of europe they are quite a lot lower than €90k. In France it's around 38-45k (pre-tax) depending on location (it can go upwards a bit if you are one of the chosen ones coming out of top universities)

Edit: also a source https://www.usinenouvelle.com/comparatif-des-ecoles-d-ingeni...

[jiofih]

You can’t compare Canada to most of Europe. Cars are ridiculously cheap in the US and CA, but a luxury in EU capitals. Parking alone would cost hundreds/month, and expecting that mythical student’s apartment to have a garage is a funny joke!

For someone earning half a million, 2k may not seem much, but there goes your reality check. See the other response to your comment - living on €600/month is the more common student experience, maybe even above median.

Average income in the EU is somewhere around 30-40k/year, most parents will never ever have close to 2k/month per child. Even in expensive cities, most will live in shared student accommodation which is cheaper (200-300). This is what allows almost anyone to enjoy the cheap higher education, if it required even 1k spare income you would exclude the majority of the population.

[tallanvor]

>2k/month is a starter salary in the nordics.

Definitely not true in Norway, it's closer to twice that.

[ChuckNorris89]

Since the conversation started about students needing 2k Euros to live, the 2k we're talking about is net or after taxes.

I know Norway has high wages and prices but I can't imagine new-grads there making 4k after taxes.

[TomSwirly]

> The other one is the Instagram lifestyle student, travelling to fancy places, practicing expensive sports and hobbies, eating out a lot, going bars and clubbing all the time.

This idea that €2000 a month to live and study and pay for materials is some sort of "Instagram lifestyle" is ridiculous.

[antihero]

Not sure about these extremes. I was a working class student in the UK and most of my fellow students still managed to party pretty hard, just efficiently (Sainsbury's Basics Vodka + Blue Bolt, M-Cat, drink deals at the SU and other horrific student nights).

[probably_wrong]

Assuming this is after taxes? As a PhD student in Germany my monthly net salary oscilated roughly between 1100€ at its lowest and 1600€ at its highest. That was enough for me not to need any roomates and even save a bit for a yearly vacation.

[Macha]

Student accommodation in some capitals is above €1000/month if you don't opt for a shared room