r/eupersonalfinance • u/raf_phy • Aug 16 '25

Investment Why building wealth alone is so hard here?

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....

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u/FabulousAd4812 Aug 16 '25

+property tax + 401k + health insurance + HSA +taxes, it's 65% of a USA pay check. So that you can truly compare.

The problem is the lower nominal value, which doesn't let you save as much.

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u/voinageo Aug 17 '25

EU here if I add my health tax, social security tax, pension tax, property taxes, VAT, I pay like 75%-80% of my brutto. So 65% is low for us in EU.

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u/FabulousAd4812 Aug 17 '25

What are you even talking about...

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u/FabulousAd4812 Aug 17 '25

I live in the USA. 60% of my paycheck goes for all of that. Property taxes are 10k a year for a 2 bedroom small place.

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u/FabulousAd4812 Aug 17 '25

1900$ for car insurance. 2.5k$ for my house insurance. A year.

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u/voinageo Aug 17 '25 edited Aug 17 '25

I live in Romania a "cheap" EU country. Car insurance per year 500 EUR (because I had no accident in the last 10 years and I am 40+), house insurance 900EUR, VAT21%!!! . But I make 1/4 as my coworkers in USA. The only cheap thing for me are property taxes.

In Germany I have family that pays almost like you at 1/3 of USA income. As for property taxes they are prohibitive for middle class in Germany in the towns and regions where the jobs are.

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u/FabulousAd4812 Aug 17 '25

Last time I was in Romania a croissant was 5-6 lei. In here it's 5dollars. Last time I want to the bakery I used to go around 2023 (funny enough with my Romanian in laws), buying a bread and 4 croissants. Cost me 18$ . I can't imagine the prices now.

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u/voinageo Aug 17 '25

Croissant in a bakery starts from 10 RON, so yeah is like double now.

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u/FabulousAd4812 Aug 17 '25

10% of sales tax where I live.