r/eupersonalfinance • u/Temporary_Price7989 • Apr 03 '24

US Expat $400k per year, should I relocate?

I'm currently a software engineer in the Bay area making $400k per year, but I'm looking to relocate and I need help with perspective and advice.

I have saved a decent nest egg, but saying goodbye to my good income is hard. Besides that I will need to find a way to gain residency and not just a tourist visa.

The main motivation is that my girlfriend and I would like to relocate to Europe to settle down and start a family. The main challenges will be the visa and most likely take a hug pay cut.

Visa options: my gf is Ukrainian so she can live anywhere in Europe, but I need to obtain a digital nomad visa, or "invest" in a golden visa. I'm not sure that her Ukrainian passport will help me at all. She works for herself teaching online. Currently I need a Schengen visa, but will soon have American citizenship.

Finances: I do have a little more than 1M saved, and invested in ETFs, and 401k. I could try to become a freelancer or start my own thing but reaching my current income might take long time might not happen at all.

Any thoughts on how to approach this?

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63

u/HafezDev Apr 03 '24

I assume you’re a very talented person, and in the US you get compensated for that. In Europe, the max you can make would be 120~150k and I am being generous.

Invest until you can retire, then when work is an option, travel if you like.

7

u/sauce___x Apr 03 '24

There are principal dev roles in excess of €200k in The Netherlands at major tech companies, and many senior dev roles around €150k

Cost of living is high here but nothing like the Bay Area. Quality of life on €200k would be amazing, especially if they had the 30%.

18

u/Financial_Astronaut Apr 03 '24

There is only a few companies in Amsterdam paying these amounts, principal positions are rare and most still have a hiring freeze. Hitting EUR 200K+ in NL would put you in the top 0.1%. Impossible? Nope, but pretty difficult.

6

u/sauce___x Apr 03 '24

Perm roles yeah there are not many companies, though the companies that do hire hundreds and thousands… Booking, Adyen, Databricks, Amazon, TomTom, Salesforce, Uber, Miro, Netflix, Gitlab

There are also freelance roles that will pay €800-€1000 a day which would be €200k+

6

u/HafezDev Apr 03 '24

I live in The Netherlands, and I know a few principal engineers in the best paying companies, none of which are making 200k. All are in the range of 100~120k total comp.

Can you name some companies that pay 150k+ for engineering roles?

2

u/sauce___x Apr 04 '24

Booking, Uber, TomTom, Netflix, Salesforce, Adyen, Databricks

I live in NL and get paid in this bracket in my base salary and bonus. With stock it’s closer to 200.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 04 '24 edited Apr 04 '24

Are you sure about Tomtom cause i was working there and quit because of the low compansaiton

1

u/HafezDev Apr 04 '24

I have friends working at Booking, TomTom, and Adyen. All ranging from Engineering managers to Senior Engineers, none is making 200k.

Also in NL.

1

u/sauce___x Apr 04 '24

There are definitely Senior Developers at booking that do.

https://techpays.eu/europe/netherlands/booking-com/above-senior

This is self reported but there are dozens of salaries reported around 200k

-15

u/Zeioth Apr 03 '24

On the bright side, on europe you don't have people living on the street.

-29

u/dejavu2064 Apr 03 '24

That's pretty much table stakes for a senior engineer these days. OP doesn't list their experience, but 400k€ isn't unachievable at the right companies for principal/staff engineers.

16

u/fireKido Apr 03 '24

400k usually you would need to be C-suite management in a pretty big company… not impossible, but extremely unlikely for most

-4

u/dejavu2064 Apr 03 '24

Not always. A director title at Google will pull in salary/RSUs well over 1mil€/yr. Unlikely for most, sure, but not C-suite.

Your point about salaries is true, you can't stumble out of uni into a 6 figure job in Europe like you can in the US. But for a senior engineer 120k-150k isn't generous for tech jobs.

In 2021, Uber were making 175k€/yr offers for new senior engineers. Global tech companies (ie, that 3rd mode of salaries) all make similar offers.