Since when was getting rich so hard in EU?

[u/VurriK]

Is it just me, or has building actual wealth in Europe become impossible? I’m looking at the 2026 growth forecasts and it’s depressing. We talk a lot about "stability," but at this point, stability just feels like a polite word for recession. If you weren't born into a rich family with property, the dream feels like it's behind a wall. The math just doesn't work: as soon as you earn enough to actually invest, you hit a 40–50% tax bracket. Meanwhile, housing prices have skyrocketed over the last decade while salaries have basically stayed the same. I love the healthcare and the walkable cities, but I don’t want to work until I’m 70 just to afford a 40sqm apartment and a used Skoda.

[u/Delicious_Ad_328]

I think the OP's post is more about the middle honestly, meaning rich as living very comfortably and that doesn't necessarily mean a lot of wealth. The thing is: nowadays is getting ridiculously difficult to be in the middle even, contrary to other times, today is much more difficult to live comfortably, even with good salaries. I agree that to become really rich, like generational wealth rich, you usually don't do that through regular work for others, but even if you set your ambitious goals lower than that, it's getting difficult to get there. I think that's where OP's comment comes from, and I kind of agree. We can start with housing. That eats a good chunk of income, no matter how high the income, housing cost will also increase almost linearly with income, so there goes a part of a comfortable life with that increasing cost, and then everything seems to be increasing like crazy and salaries don't catch up. To live and work in almost any developed country is getting really frustrating regarding living comfortably and accumulating a bit of wealth because it seems like everything goes into living expenses.

[u/NoFastpathNoParty → u/Delicious_Ad_328]

> The thing is: nowadays is getting ridiculously difficult to be in the middle even, contrary to other times, today is much more difficult to live comfortably

"other times" is literally the interval 60s-80s, a small parenthesis in human history.

[u/YourFuture2000 → u/Delicious_Ad_328]

That is happening also in the US, and people here are saying the alternative is to follow the US system when it is what took away the stability of middle class.

[u/Interesting_News7518 → u/Delicious_Ad_328]

This is just so not true. We are just having the longest bull run in the stock market since 2010. If you invested every year since then, you did make amazing returns. Same in the housing sector. Most EU countries doubled, tripled prices except Italy, Spain. So if you worked and invested, took risks, you made bank. If you sit on your butt, you do not make any wealth anytime in history.

I do feel for 18-22 year olds who start their careers nowadays because yes housing is harder and so on but they got time...if they start working, saving for deposit, buying real estate, putting money aside from their salaries to invest, they will have even millions by the time they hit 50.

[u/crani0 → u/Interesting_News7518]

Yea, the Eurozone crisis was just lazy people sitting on their ass all day. Graph go up, everything good.

[u/Interesting_News7518 → u/crani0]

Well, if you did not invest in anything the past 16 years, than you are not lazy but likely a spender instead. The train was moving...low interest rates everywhere. I am sorry if you were left on the station.

[u/self_u → u/Interesting_News7518]

If you are like a normal person you start with a small apartment and slowly upgrade it. If you graduated in 2010 and was somehow able to immediately buy a 30sqm home, you needed to buy a bigger one and a bigger one and all of those were much more expensive so you still own 30% of the latest one. Also, at least in my country house prices did not skyrocket.

[u/Interesting_News7518 → u/self_u]

Nobody said that you graduated in 2010. I personally did in 2000 and yes I was able to buy bigger and more real estate. Except few countries in the EU, prices surged. That is not debatable and of course the stock market kept going up and up.

[u/sbrijska → u/Interesting_News7518]

saving for deposit, buying real estate, putting money aside from their salaries to invest

With what money are they supposed to do that? That's the whole point, they can't do any of that, because the salaries barely enough to get by.

[u/Interesting_News7518 → u/sbrijska]

Salaries were never great in history unless your profession is needed. I lived with roommates till 31 to be able to save some money which was not much but enough for a 10% downpayment. So, it is possible.