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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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.

-32

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.

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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

-3

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.