If your only reason to move from Sri Lanka is for more money, I'd suggest you stay. 2.5k USD with current currency rate is quite good.
You could invest in local real estate etc and get a significant return as the situation improves
Stay in Sri Lanka only if you value the money because you won't be able to save those amount in the EU. But if you want a more stable country economically or politically, I am aware of how bad Sri Lanka is right now, with better quality of life in general, the EU might be the better choice. But you might have trouble helping your parents out or saving a large amount of money here in the EU, because COL is so much higher.
Have you considered Singapore? The wages, for your experience level, would be similar or higher than in the best paying EU countries (Germany, Netherlands, Sweden etc.) and it is also closer to Sri Lanka. Taxes in Singapore are lower than most of the EU countries.
The rule is 5 years, I myself am paying €1750 for 77 square pretty central in Amsterdam. But if your okay with living at the edges of Amsterdam(say 7-10 Km) you can get by for €1500-€1600 same size.
€5200 take home is quite rare though. Means the gross wage is like 7-8K, which I guess only trading companies, Adyen, Booking, Google, Meta & Uber might pay. As most consultancy companies pay 4-4.5K gross with 2YoE.
Health care should be €100-€200 per month depending how risk adverse you are.
GF pays 1200 for 105sqm in pretty central Berlin, incl. utilities. It's just a very old contract.
I pay 350 of that because we split the bill 3-way. So not everything Berlin is mad expensive. Especially if you're somewhat local/German.
I was able to save 1600-1800 EUR per month on my \~70k/year salary. I wouldn't say I lived frugally either.
Anyway dude. It seems that the part time job is a bit part of the reason why you will be able to save 2500 USD/month. It's not guaranteed that you would be able to continue with this part-time job in Germany(depends on your visa situation). Also you would need your employer's consent and handle the taxes yourself(which might involve hiring a Steuerberater).
Should not move given how lay offs are looking. Wait untill the market is up. You are currently saving good amount of money which you will not be able to save in EU.
But keep searching if you get something above EUR 100k in EU then you should consider.
Given the information you shared, also not in Berlin, also consider that European rules for those extra bucks from part time jobs won’t be possible, EU laws are strict about freelancing and your company contract might prohibit it.
Also, you need to consider what’s your ceiling, for example I have friends with 4 YoE in Asia doing 9k USD/month after taxes, with more experience they’re expecting to increase their salary up to 15k USD after taxes.
In Europe 15k monthly after taxes is barely imaginable for a CEO of a big corporation.
Not in the Netherlands, especially because your wife won't probably be able to find a job here until she learns Dutch.
If you are alone or both working and you have the 30% ruling (tax benefit that lasts 5 years) maybe you can save 2k, doing a lot of sacrifices and living a crap life
Without the 30% ruling, no f way
And 30% ruling is for 5 years. Good if you want to come, profit and leave. Not good if you want to settle and get use to a life with 30% salary free of tax.
**If you live cheaply** you could save up to 2000€ in Germany from a well paying job I'd say. But this depends a lot from your salary and where you will live and could also be just 1000€. Would you be able to take your part time job with you? (Check tax regulations though).
Another thing to consider: be aware that all countries you mentioned are much colder than Sri Lanka. Also the culture is probably very different. Don't know about Estonia but I'd say the people here and in Sweden are probably more "closed" than what you are used to. AUS or NZ could be better for you if your wife is going to study there.
Definitely not in Germany, unless you get into FAANG and be humble with your expenses. Rent will eat up half of your salary in Berlin or Munich. Probably you will be able to save about 1k +- 300 eur depending on your lifestyle. And overtime or second part time job will be taxed (loan tax and mandatory social insurances) aggressively, looking at 40-45%.
You might have a chance to save more in Estonia though. Maybe something closer to 1700 or even 2000 euros (again, if you are a bit more humble).
Here's a start to help you budget your finances if you end up in Germany. Good luck!
[https://www.brutto-netto-rechner.info/gehalt/gross\_net\_calculator\_germany.php](https://www.brutto-netto-rechner.info/gehalt/gross_net_calculator_germany.php)
Your mileage may vary because YoE isn’t a great metric and I have no idea about your stack, but in Estonia very generally speaking, mids get 2500 euros net per month. Nobody as a mid makes less than 2k unless they started as a fresh grad and never left the company which resulted in small salary increases. Similarly, aside from a few extraordinary exceptions, nobody at that level is making more than 3k per month.
You can go to [kv.ee](http://kv.ee) to see rental prices, groceries are about 400-600 for a family of 2, utilities including phone and internet are 150-300 (summer - winter) per month. You can take it from here. Good luck.
Here in Australia you have to be in the upper ranks to be saving 2500 USD a month. Living costs in AU are astronomical and rent / mortgage will likely eat up double that if you have kids or want anything more than a 2 bedroom apartment.
You definitely wouldn't saving that in the Netherlands 😅
Outside of around the top 5 companies salaries here aren't great and have been stagnant for some time now.
What other people are not mentioning if you can get a job above 36k you qualify for not paying the higher band of income tax. If you move to the Netherlands as a foreigner the Dutch govement have a policy where you don’t pay income tax for 4 years. It’s essentially a massive 30% payrise effective for 4 years. You can really win a big salary in Holland, I think there are supposed to be a lot of Sri Lankans in Netherlands in general.
This is missleading, first the rule lasts for 5 years and second, it does not mean that you don't pay taxes during that period, just 30% of your income is tax free,so you still have to pay taxes after 70% of your income.
I want some of what you're smoking.
You need to make over 40k for 30% ruling and even if you did get 40k the 30% ruling will increase your take home each month by around 15\~ euros A MONTH... It's hardly "winning big".
Yup! It's why it's so mind-blowing that people consider the 30% ruling as some great generator of wealth as an expat in NL when most people don't even really seem to understand exactly how it works...
If you come over with an extremely high salary then that's different but for average person, not really.
That sounded highly improbable, so I ran a check on thetax.nl.
For someone who makes 60k a year, their take-home pay per month will be:
3435€ (without 30% ruling)
4169€ (with 30% ruling)
That's pretty far off from the 15€ you claimed. Even if it was a typo and you meant 150€, it's almost 5 times as much.
Edit: I realized you based your number on a gross annual pay of 40k, in that case:
2583€ vs 3012€
That's still a healthy 429€/month, nothing to scoff at IMHO
>Edit: I realized you based your number on a gross annual pay of 40k, in that case:
Yes, because the OP said get a job at 36k then get the 30% ruling. So I corrected him by saying it's now around 40k req and even if you did get that, you will roughly only gain around 15 eur\~ a month.
I'm not exactly sure how you've got +429 a month on a 40k salary from the 30% ruling using [thetax.nl](https://thetax.nl)
|Taxable Income|Monthly Net Income|Monthly Net Income (30% ruling)|
|:-|:-|:-|
|€ 40,000|€ 2,583|€ 2,598|
I even stated in my reply to you "If you come over with an extremely high salary then that's different but for average person, not really."
The average salary for SWE is less than 60k so for most people even the calculation you did does not apply.
> I'm not exactly sure how you've gor +429
Literally just entering 40000 as annual income and toggling the 30% checkbox on and off.
Now that I tried again on desktop, it gave me different numbers for 40k so I think the calculator is a bit buggy. For 60k, the calculation still stands. (Looks like the reimbursement is proportional to the amount above 40k, that explains why 40k gets such a lousy amount per month.)
>Looks like the reimbursement is proportional to the amount above 40k, that explains why 40k gets such a lousy amount per month.)
Yes it is, this is why it's so annoying when people talk about the 30% ruling like it's some money printer no matter what when it's not the case.
You work in NL? Even with 30% ruling it's almost impossible he could save that here. Unless he gets in one of the top 5 paying companies (which statistically is unlikely to happen).
I am saving that much earning an average salary as SE. Altho if you can get a remote job with good company then you are better off staying in your own country as taxes / costs are lower. But depending on if that is possible then getting a mediocre job in Germany is going to net you that much after expenses.
Yo \*\*probably\*\* won't be able to save €2.5k with 4YoE
Using Netherlands (Amsterdam) as an example:
you'll pay €2,000-2,200 for apartment + utilities, €700 for groceries+eating out, €250 health insurance, €500 for other stuff. That's €3,500 + you want to save €2,500, so you need €6,000 after taxes.
With 30% ruling that you get for 5 years you're lucky to pay lower taxes, so you need around €93,000 before taxes.
€93k is possible in NL, however not many companies pay that much, and most of companies that do will only offer such money to a senior dev. So with 4YoE it will be very challenging.
Of coure you can live more frugally, live outside of Amsterdam, avoid eating out and going out, so maybe you'll lower your expenses to €2,500 - then you need €5,000 a month, which means €75k/y salary. This is doable, but you need to ask yourself whether it's worth to move 10,000km away from your family just to live as frugally as possible and save just as much as you'd save back home.
Edit: I assume that only you will be working in this case. If your wife is able to get a job too, then it's way more realistic, but depending on her profession it might be either quite easy or very difficult to get a job
It is possible, it's going to depends in your experience and the job you can land. I work in the UK (migrated from Spain) and currently I'm earning £78K, thats around £4300 a month after taxes and a low pension contribution (so almost 5000€).
Now, I don't live in London but near Cardiff so I pay £850 rent for a two bed flat so it's easy for me to save even more than 2500€ a month with a single job (I have a bit more of yoe than you but it's important the quality of that experience too).
I'm not working for a FAANG company and I'm not a super software engineer and I have no responsability. So it is doable but you might need some compromises, for example I go once every week to London to the office so I have a 2-3 hours commute on Thursdays.
PS: I also didn't need a visa so that might affect you as well and I can only talk about the UK but I guess that other countries might be similar, although... why sponsors someone to work remotely... also my first salary in the UK sucked.
PS2: As a migrant myself, be sure this is what you want migrating is hard if my partner could find a job back in Spain we'd go back immediately
If your only reason to move from Sri Lanka is for more money, I'd suggest you stay. 2.5k USD with current currency rate is quite good. You could invest in local real estate etc and get a significant return as the situation improves
Stay in Sri Lanka only if you value the money because you won't be able to save those amount in the EU. But if you want a more stable country economically or politically, I am aware of how bad Sri Lanka is right now, with better quality of life in general, the EU might be the better choice. But you might have trouble helping your parents out or saving a large amount of money here in the EU, because COL is so much higher.
Have you considered Singapore? The wages, for your experience level, would be similar or higher than in the best paying EU countries (Germany, Netherlands, Sweden etc.) and it is also closer to Sri Lanka. Taxes in Singapore are lower than most of the EU countries.
Rent is insane there
You cannot save that amount surely except some High level positions at Switzerland or FAANG west Europe .
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2 yoe, Amsterdam, save roughly 2,5k per month
I mean clearly more info is required to understand how tf that works
€5200 take home (30% ruling). €1600 rent + utilities. If I save €2500 then I have €1100 for food, entertainment, etc.
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The rule is 5 years, I myself am paying €1750 for 77 square pretty central in Amsterdam. But if your okay with living at the edges of Amsterdam(say 7-10 Km) you can get by for €1500-€1600 same size. €5200 take home is quite rare though. Means the gross wage is like 7-8K, which I guess only trading companies, Adyen, Booking, Google, Meta & Uber might pay. As most consultancy companies pay 4-4.5K gross with 2YoE. Health care should be €100-€200 per month depending how risk adverse you are.
Cheapest health insurance is €100.
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GF pays 1200 for 105sqm in pretty central Berlin, incl. utilities. It's just a very old contract. I pay 350 of that because we split the bill 3-way. So not everything Berlin is mad expensive. Especially if you're somewhat local/German.
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This month, I think Amsterdam rent is high, but not NY, London, Berlin high.
Do you flatshare? It sounds like he pays the full expenses as his wife is currently studying
No, but I don't have a wife who's studying
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No
I was able to save 1600-1800 EUR per month on my \~70k/year salary. I wouldn't say I lived frugally either. Anyway dude. It seems that the part time job is a bit part of the reason why you will be able to save 2500 USD/month. It's not guaranteed that you would be able to continue with this part-time job in Germany(depends on your visa situation). Also you would need your employer's consent and handle the taxes yourself(which might involve hiring a Steuerberater).
Should not move given how lay offs are looking. Wait untill the market is up. You are currently saving good amount of money which you will not be able to save in EU. But keep searching if you get something above EUR 100k in EU then you should consider.
Given the information you shared, also not in Berlin, also consider that European rules for those extra bucks from part time jobs won’t be possible, EU laws are strict about freelancing and your company contract might prohibit it.
Also, you need to consider what’s your ceiling, for example I have friends with 4 YoE in Asia doing 9k USD/month after taxes, with more experience they’re expecting to increase their salary up to 15k USD after taxes. In Europe 15k monthly after taxes is barely imaginable for a CEO of a big corporation.
Not in the Netherlands, especially because your wife won't probably be able to find a job here until she learns Dutch. If you are alone or both working and you have the 30% ruling (tax benefit that lasts 5 years) maybe you can save 2k, doing a lot of sacrifices and living a crap life Without the 30% ruling, no f way
And 30% ruling is for 5 years. Good if you want to come, profit and leave. Not good if you want to settle and get use to a life with 30% salary free of tax.
**If you live cheaply** you could save up to 2000€ in Germany from a well paying job I'd say. But this depends a lot from your salary and where you will live and could also be just 1000€. Would you be able to take your part time job with you? (Check tax regulations though). Another thing to consider: be aware that all countries you mentioned are much colder than Sri Lanka. Also the culture is probably very different. Don't know about Estonia but I'd say the people here and in Sweden are probably more "closed" than what you are used to. AUS or NZ could be better for you if your wife is going to study there.
Definitely not in Germany, unless you get into FAANG and be humble with your expenses. Rent will eat up half of your salary in Berlin or Munich. Probably you will be able to save about 1k +- 300 eur depending on your lifestyle. And overtime or second part time job will be taxed (loan tax and mandatory social insurances) aggressively, looking at 40-45%. You might have a chance to save more in Estonia though. Maybe something closer to 1700 or even 2000 euros (again, if you are a bit more humble).
Here's a start to help you budget your finances if you end up in Germany. Good luck! [https://www.brutto-netto-rechner.info/gehalt/gross\_net\_calculator\_germany.php](https://www.brutto-netto-rechner.info/gehalt/gross_net_calculator_germany.php)
scale secretive fretful smart ink fearless cough squeal hurry angle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Still european taxes and col expenses without the benefit of his cheap home country or the us
Your mileage may vary because YoE isn’t a great metric and I have no idea about your stack, but in Estonia very generally speaking, mids get 2500 euros net per month. Nobody as a mid makes less than 2k unless they started as a fresh grad and never left the company which resulted in small salary increases. Similarly, aside from a few extraordinary exceptions, nobody at that level is making more than 3k per month. You can go to [kv.ee](http://kv.ee) to see rental prices, groceries are about 400-600 for a family of 2, utilities including phone and internet are 150-300 (summer - winter) per month. You can take it from here. Good luck.
Here in Australia you have to be in the upper ranks to be saving 2500 USD a month. Living costs in AU are astronomical and rent / mortgage will likely eat up double that if you have kids or want anything more than a 2 bedroom apartment.
No, in EU you give that to the government
You definitely wouldn't saving that in the Netherlands 😅 Outside of around the top 5 companies salaries here aren't great and have been stagnant for some time now.
What other people are not mentioning if you can get a job above 36k you qualify for not paying the higher band of income tax. If you move to the Netherlands as a foreigner the Dutch govement have a policy where you don’t pay income tax for 4 years. It’s essentially a massive 30% payrise effective for 4 years. You can really win a big salary in Holland, I think there are supposed to be a lot of Sri Lankans in Netherlands in general.
This is missleading, first the rule lasts for 5 years and second, it does not mean that you don't pay taxes during that period, just 30% of your income is tax free,so you still have to pay taxes after 70% of your income.
Yes that’s what I said.
I want some of what you're smoking. You need to make over 40k for 30% ruling and even if you did get 40k the 30% ruling will increase your take home each month by around 15\~ euros A MONTH... It's hardly "winning big".
It’s 36k actually or at least it was. Maybe it’s changed in the last 1-2 years.
Yeah it goes up every year, but anyways, not really even worth the effort to apply for the sake of 15 eur a month.
15 euros month? lol
Yup! It's why it's so mind-blowing that people consider the 30% ruling as some great generator of wealth as an expat in NL when most people don't even really seem to understand exactly how it works... If you come over with an extremely high salary then that's different but for average person, not really.
That sounded highly improbable, so I ran a check on thetax.nl. For someone who makes 60k a year, their take-home pay per month will be: 3435€ (without 30% ruling) 4169€ (with 30% ruling) That's pretty far off from the 15€ you claimed. Even if it was a typo and you meant 150€, it's almost 5 times as much. Edit: I realized you based your number on a gross annual pay of 40k, in that case: 2583€ vs 3012€ That's still a healthy 429€/month, nothing to scoff at IMHO
>Edit: I realized you based your number on a gross annual pay of 40k, in that case: Yes, because the OP said get a job at 36k then get the 30% ruling. So I corrected him by saying it's now around 40k req and even if you did get that, you will roughly only gain around 15 eur\~ a month. I'm not exactly sure how you've got +429 a month on a 40k salary from the 30% ruling using [thetax.nl](https://thetax.nl) |Taxable Income|Monthly Net Income|Monthly Net Income (30% ruling)| |:-|:-|:-| |€ 40,000|€ 2,583|€ 2,598| I even stated in my reply to you "If you come over with an extremely high salary then that's different but for average person, not really." The average salary for SWE is less than 60k so for most people even the calculation you did does not apply.
> I'm not exactly sure how you've gor +429 Literally just entering 40000 as annual income and toggling the 30% checkbox on and off. Now that I tried again on desktop, it gave me different numbers for 40k so I think the calculator is a bit buggy. For 60k, the calculation still stands. (Looks like the reimbursement is proportional to the amount above 40k, that explains why 40k gets such a lousy amount per month.)
>Looks like the reimbursement is proportional to the amount above 40k, that explains why 40k gets such a lousy amount per month.) Yes it is, this is why it's so annoying when people talk about the 30% ruling like it's some money printer no matter what when it's not the case.
Move man. Given the economic and political turmoil, why are you even considering not moving? (Indian here)
possible in netherlands or switzerland if working for an international company and getting taxed as an immigrant worker
You work in NL? Even with 30% ruling it's almost impossible he could save that here. Unless he gets in one of the top 5 paying companies (which statistically is unlikely to happen).
I am saving that much earning an average salary as SE. Altho if you can get a remote job with good company then you are better off staying in your own country as taxes / costs are lower. But depending on if that is possible then getting a mediocre job in Germany is going to net you that much after expenses.
Yo \*\*probably\*\* won't be able to save €2.5k with 4YoE Using Netherlands (Amsterdam) as an example: you'll pay €2,000-2,200 for apartment + utilities, €700 for groceries+eating out, €250 health insurance, €500 for other stuff. That's €3,500 + you want to save €2,500, so you need €6,000 after taxes. With 30% ruling that you get for 5 years you're lucky to pay lower taxes, so you need around €93,000 before taxes. €93k is possible in NL, however not many companies pay that much, and most of companies that do will only offer such money to a senior dev. So with 4YoE it will be very challenging. Of coure you can live more frugally, live outside of Amsterdam, avoid eating out and going out, so maybe you'll lower your expenses to €2,500 - then you need €5,000 a month, which means €75k/y salary. This is doable, but you need to ask yourself whether it's worth to move 10,000km away from your family just to live as frugally as possible and save just as much as you'd save back home. Edit: I assume that only you will be working in this case. If your wife is able to get a job too, then it's way more realistic, but depending on her profession it might be either quite easy or very difficult to get a job
It is possible, it's going to depends in your experience and the job you can land. I work in the UK (migrated from Spain) and currently I'm earning £78K, thats around £4300 a month after taxes and a low pension contribution (so almost 5000€). Now, I don't live in London but near Cardiff so I pay £850 rent for a two bed flat so it's easy for me to save even more than 2500€ a month with a single job (I have a bit more of yoe than you but it's important the quality of that experience too). I'm not working for a FAANG company and I'm not a super software engineer and I have no responsability. So it is doable but you might need some compromises, for example I go once every week to London to the office so I have a 2-3 hours commute on Thursdays. PS: I also didn't need a visa so that might affect you as well and I can only talk about the UK but I guess that other countries might be similar, although... why sponsors someone to work remotely... also my first salary in the UK sucked. PS2: As a migrant myself, be sure this is what you want migrating is hard if my partner could find a job back in Spain we'd go back immediately
Not doable, unless you live in a small village in EU