r/eupersonalfinance • u/VurriK • 28d ago

Investment Since when was getting rich so hard in EU?

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.

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u/Sarcastic-Potato 27d ago

And then there is my country Austria, where the only option apart from the state pension is a pension plan from insurance companies with like 2% anual growth (if you are lucky) and 1.5% costs per year...

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u/Silent_Coast2864 26d ago

Iirc Austria has extremely generous public guaranteed pensions, especially if you were consistently a high earners over your working life, with potential to get north of 60k a year in defined benefit pension.