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by keiferski 82 days ago
I don’t think it’s completely meaningless if you’re trying to save / invest. A smaller percentage of a larger salary is often more optimal than the reverse.

This is why for example working in a high COL city with a high salary is ultimately better; your 10% going to savings will be higher. It might not matter if you never leave the high COL city, but ceteris paribus I’d rather have a larger number in the bank account.
1 comments
fauigerzigerk 82 days ago
>I don’t think it’s completely meaningless if you’re trying to save / invest

It's largely meaningless, because some of what people are saving for in one country can be included in tax and social security contributions in another country - e.g. pensions and university tuition.

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simianwords 82 days ago
What do you think is more meaningful a metric?
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fauigerzigerk 82 days ago
Depends on what it is you really want to know. For macro economic comparisons you would probably want to use some metric that has "disposable income" in its name. And then you'd have to ask what this income includes. Does it include cash transfers? Transfers in kind (e.g. for health and education)? Does it use PPP or market exchange rates?

Here's a dataset that Eurostat publishes. It includes cash transfers and transfers in kind, compared using PPP (PPS) exchange rates:

Adjusted gross disposable income of households per capita in PPS

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tec00113/defa...

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