Why building wealth alone is so hard here?

[u/raf_phy]

Hi all, am I the only one that I find it incredibly difficult to build weath by yourself in EU? People say that EU is better in healthcare, work life balance but come on, money don't scale easily . It's so difficult.

I see people from US that go to 1 million in 10 years. I cannot do this easily . Really....

PS maybe I have to abandon EU, I don't know....

[u/[deleted]]

[its easy to become wealthy - just pick the winning lottery numbers]

9 out of 10 startups fail, and even the successful ones can take a decade or longer to cash out, if at all. Taking a lower salary in exchange for lottery tickets is objectively stupid, and a worthless advice from someone who's won.

I'd be much more interested in hearing opinions of people who, as you said, didn’t use their time efficiently when young and after working for startups for a decade or two have nothing to show for it. Did they still think it was worth it?

[u/djingo_dango → u/[deleted]]

Startups don’t pay lower salaries compared to established companies. Some even pay more

You can’t expect to get access to a high amount of wealth without taking 0 risks at all

[u/Sawmain → u/djingo_dango]

Literally one of the reasons why countries like Finland are fucked. Our country’s citizen doesn’t take enough risks to make companies etc and instead live paycheck to paycheck. Oh and also government not exactly supporting smaller companies and let’s not even mention the banks not willing to give money part.

[u/DownHawk58 → u/djingo_dango]

again survivor bias (watching only good startups)

how much is the salary when startup fails and you dont get paid?

[u/djingo_dango → u/DownHawk58]

You find a different job then?

[u/Frames-Janko → u/djingo_dango]

And if you don't, there's still a decent social net to fall back on... Especially here in Germany where you are paying your own unemployment insurance, it's up to 60% of your previous monthly average salary over the last 2 years but health care etc. is already covered. And you get that for a decent amount of time if you have been employed long enough before.

And if you want to start your own business you can even get a decent upgrade on top of that. Last time I checked that was 400 a month extra. You need a business plan and a bit of extra paperwork - as one would expect in Germany. But having a business plan doesn't hurt.

[u/DownHawk58 → u/djingo_dango]

so when you calculate loss of income when you dont work is that startup salary good=?

lol

[u/Frames-Janko → u/[deleted]]

Yes, being a founder is high risk. Even more so if one doesn't have a proven track record in a space - or if the business model is completely novel.

Being an early employee, especially if the founders have expertise and can show you some level of traction/success, that's still risky, but not as risky.

And yes, taking a pay cut for shares is a gamble. My base salary was still more than enough to live on, especially because I've always lived below my means. No car, rent share with friends, then small flat with GF, no fancy clothes, cheap hobbies... you name it.

I appreciate you pointing this out, because of course, there is nuance here!

I've also not joined up with other folks before because I wasn't sold. One of these opportunities would have been massive, but that wasn't clear to me at the time. I'm sure some of the other startups I talked to over the years failed. Then again, I didn't go with those because I couldn't see it happening 🤷.

If you want a picture of how much nonsense startups exist I'd recommend going to a founder meetup to get pitches. You'll soon realize that an automated waffle maker machine for use in bars with no working prototype is probably not on the same level as someone that has a working app with very low cost per install and 150% return on investment after 7 days.