Navigating Financial Transitions: How AI Legalese Decoder Can Simplify Your Shift from High Earnings to Average Income
- July 27, 2024
- Posted by: legaleseblogger
- Category: Related News
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Navigating Financial Security as a Single Expat
Growing up in a working-class environment undoubtedly shapes oneās perspective on finances. For many people, including myself, this upbringing instills a deep-seated fear of destitution, hardwired in our psyches. My early financial education consisted of advice that reflected a scarcity mindset, typically revolving around the principles of frugality. This āpoor-personā advice primarily emphasized the importance of spending as little as possible, avoiding debt at all costs, and steering clear of potential financial burdens such as smoking or even pet ownership.
Transitioning Into the Tech Industry
Against all odds, I have transitioned into the tech industryāa realm that often feels worlds apart from my humble beginnings. This shift was not without its challenges; it required a significant investment of time and effort in education and skill development. However, I now find myself in a favorable position, working remotely in a U.S.-based job while residing in the Netherlands. This arrangement permits me to earn an impressive salary of around $165,000 USD, which is roughly double what I would earn if I were employed locally at an equivalent position, estimated at about $80,000 EUR.
Facing the Reality of Job Insecurity
Despite my current success, I can’t shake a persistent unease regarding the stability of this job. The tech industry has undergone substantial changes recently, leading to increased competition and a fluctuating job market. I harbor a deep-seated concern that the U.S. job may not last, and I doubt my chances of securing another similar position if it were to fall through. This creeping anxiety is compounded by the reality of my situation as a single expat; I find myself isolated, without the support of close family or friends nearby.
As a 34-year-old woman without children and living alone, the notion of preparing for potential uncertainties weighs heavily on my mind. While I hope for the possibility of finding a partner and building a family in the future, I am acutely aware that I may need to plan for a future where I remain single and childless. My utmost priority is achieving a sense of financial security that allows me to feel stable and prepared for whatever life throws my way.
Seeking Guidance for Intelligent Investments
Given my circumstances, I am reaching out for advice: what strategies should I consider now to invest wisely and lay a solid foundation for my financial future? If I find myself earning a high income now but suspect that this situation may not endure, how should I proceed?
In addition to considering various investment options, I recently came across the AI Legalese Decoder. This innovative tool can assist meāand anyone in similar situationsāin deciphering complex financial and legal documents. By simplifying legal jargon and providing clear, usable insights, the AI Legalese Decoder can empower individuals like me to make informed financial decisions. This tool could serve as a crucial ally in navigating contracts related to investments, loans, or even employment agreements, ensuring that I fully understand the implications of each choice I make.
In conclusion, while I am experiencing a positive turn in my professional life, the shadow of uncertainty looms large. By focusing on intelligent investment strategies and utilizing helpful resources like the AI Legalese Decoder, I hope to forge a path toward greater financial security and resilience in the face of inevitable life changes. I appreciate any insights or advice from those who have traversed similar paths.
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I assume you can live quite nicely with 50k ā¬ / year. Everything above that can go to savings.
Don’t really get the issue here.
If you have 6 figures in ETFs and 6 to 12 months in emergency cash go talk to a therapist who can ‘free’ you from the poor mindset as you describe it. I was in a similar place until a therapist helped me realize I had it all sorted out pretty nicely.
What also helped me is that I calculated that if everything would fall through (my 6 figure job) and my partner would work a bit more we would still be able to pay our home and get food on the table with a lower paying job on my end. And I also know I can be really happy living frugally if I need to be so that’s reassuring.
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Got something like this in a less extreme version of something comparable; milk the cow, keep costs low and save up. In that way you ‘only’ need to reduce the savings rate and you already ‘pre’saved quite a bit.
I know how you feel, I live in Portugal and work in cybersecurity for 7 years, in this time I went from 800ā¬ net (average in Portugal is 1200ā¬ net) to more than 5k net, working remote as contractor.
So we get contract renovations every 3 or 6 months depends… so I undestand the fear of having to go back to a worst situation.
For me the way is to save a lot, but still live life and travel a bit, and if it ends… I got it once so I will get another job like this or better soner or latter.Ā
Dont let the fear take the joy of having a good job and the ability to do fun things while we can.
Earning more within a short period of time is better than earning less within the same period. The saving rate is a lot higher. By the way, how did you get the remote US job? From what I heard it’s super competitive and most of the companies require you to be in the US.
Out of topic question:
Where do you search for a remote US job?
I’m looking to transition to a role which would allow me such a job, but don’t know what language / framework would be needed in the US market
I’m in a similar situation as you.
32M, living in Amsterdam, earning ā¬120k/year working for a US company. The same job with a local company pays around ā¬80k/year. In one month’s time, I will lose my 30% which will lead to a pretty drastic pay cut. I will also likely move jobs next year which will also lead to yet another pay cut.
Right now, I’m enjoying life and taking advantage of my luck. I like to travel extensively and I’m travelling to exotic places while I’m healthy and capable of doing so financially. For e.g., I was in Petra in Jordan two weeks ago where I spent 9hrs hiking and climbing around the ancient city in 37Ā°C weather. This is not something I could do if I was 50. From my point of view, the value of a ā¬ decreases the older we grow – as our bodies age, the range of experiences we can have also diminishes. I could have thrown that money into an ETF, but I’d rather die a happy man than one full of regrets.
Having said that, I’m not being wasteful with money. I’ve accumulated ā¬130k in ETF and have a mortgage, so I’m not wasting money on rent. I only keep 2 months worth of expenses as emergency fund- if I lose my job, I’d have to move back home with my parents and my expenses then will be minimal, so I don’t see the need to keep months of expenses in cash.
I’m also gay and unlikely to have children in the future, so I don’t need to save to support a family. This is a huge burden off my shoulders.
It’s good to worry about the future, but living in fear of destitution is stressful. We’re not growing any younger – enjoy life while you can but stay responsible.
And why do you think that exactly you will be affected by the re-structuring? My impression fo those layoffs, is that they are mostly targeting senior and/or highly paid positions. My understanding is that in the US, people in general earn significantly more for the same positions, and have less protections than in Europe, so it is all too logical that even if your company decides to trim the fat, they won’t start from you.
You seem to have it down pretty nicely. Just stay frugal. Keep investing. Focus more on living life. Obviously while staying frugal, but still.
If you get to have a high paying job for a time, it shouldn’t really be different from a low paying one, by other than the fact that you can save/invest more. And as long as you do that, you’re doing perfectly fine. At least in terms of being on the right or wrong path for financial security.
If you’re unsure what to keep investing in, consider paying off some of that mortgage. The mortgage is what might be psychologically most weighing on you.
You’re worrying about the wrong thing. With this high salary you should rather put your thoughts into optimal wealth management, than pondering about some unlikely scenarios. If worse comes to worst securing your savings would pay off anyway.
I can relate a bit to what youāre going through and for me i reached a stage where the money didnāt make me happy and after doing it for a few years I reached a stage where I would swing from either not working at all and trying to spend the money to feeling Iāll have nothing and working a lot to make more to feel safe.
Few years of swinging from one side to the other, I found a low paying job but which gave me happiness. I kept trying to make more from it and even though itās half of what it was before my life is still more fulfilled and I have many things outside of work as well now.
I do agree with what other people said, therapy will help definitely. Thereās no end to wanting more money but hopefully you realise that there is no end to it and you have to draw a line of how much youāre willing to sacrifice on happiness to reach an arbitrary number or lifestyle goal you have set.
Best of luck on the journey and hit me up if you ever want to meet in NL
Here’s my situation:
* Earn 165k USD / yr (putting aside 43% for tax as I am a ZZP)
* No car, no kids, no pets, no partner
* Mortgage owing 350k eur. I pay ā¬1700 / month (about 400/month of that will be deducted from my tax at the end of the year as it’s an annuity mortgage) The interest rate is 4%.
* My mortgage doesn’t allow me to rent the property out – would have to refinance it or do short term rentals/unofficial sublets if I seriously needed the cash
* Right now monthly I typically spend about ā¬4300 in total – including all bills, mortgage, food, spending money, education etc. I don’t have enough insight into exactly what I spend on what but I could bring this down a bit, but at least ā¬2200 of that is bills.
Please read the book “Limbo” by Alfred Lubrano.Ā
https://books.google.nl/books?id=b19iulkoUbsC&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Consolidate what you have. Perhaps buy a house which is in line with your future income. Same for all you other expenses.
It’s normal to worry, but I think you might be worrying more than you should.
Only you can judge your situation. If you’re working on a specific role that is actually needed in the industry, and you objectively think you’re good, then you will always find another good job (maybe not instantaneously, as there aren’t that many >100k eur jobs as some people think). On the other hand, if you got your job around the peak of the tech job market, it feels a little unnecessary or it doesn’t make sense how you fit into the organization, etc., you could start preparing for interviews already.
The latter doesn’t mean you can’t ever get a job like the one you have. Believe me, I’ve seen way too many incompetent people in great companies and jobs. There is A LOT of luck involved. You’re thinking ahead, and that’s good, just try to think of it optimistically. Absolute worst case scenario, you can easily get another job paying 60k-80k, which would be enough to keep you fine and well until you work to get something better.
Hey there,
Expat living in Amsterdam here.
The thing about compound interest calculators and doing the math is that… it does’t really work like this. Who knows where we’re all going to be next year, let alone in 5, 10, or 15 years.
Since life is full of surprises – just invest the maximum that you can afford while living a comfortable (sane) life at any given time and that’s it. As you are living in the Netherlands, you should know that there are very high paying jobs in Amsterdam. You’re coming from a startup, so start thinking corporates. You can land a job with total compensation (base, bonus, stocks) that tops the $165k that you earn nowadays; and no time-zone differences.
From a remote-position point of view, though, I’m wondering why you’re not living in a LCOL/MCOL area, like Spain or Portugal. Are you really enjoying the Netherlands that much?
Good luck fellow Amsterdammer š
Iām in that boat. I was born in the DDR, parents didnāt have a lot of money. Got quite successful in tech, the last years I made > 150k. Now, because the market is shit I settled for another job just paying like 85k. Iām still fine with it. First of all I still remember where I came from, secondly Iāve saved a bunch of money in an ETF (6 figures as well) and bought a small vacation apartment, and last but not least I built my own product I sell. This doesnāt make me rich but itās paying the rent for the apartment I live in.
So what could you do? Maybe sth similar. Donāt throw away your money for shit that doesnāt matter (expensive cars etc) – the happiness you get by these is anyway just temporary and short term. Make sure you save most of the money. And try to have a fun side project that may give you some money on top.
I am curious, how much do you pay on income tax in the netherlands? If you make 165k usd how much do you actually get to keep?
I feel you so hard on this. I’m in a similar situation although as a freelancer and I constantly worry about my situation deteriorating, even though I have 400k+ stashed. Had a dry period of 9 months and had to spend 40k of my savings to dive through and let me tell you … It wasn’t easy.
All I do to try to mitigate my worries is save as much as I can, although I feel like it will never be enough.
Have you saved money? Bought some rental properties maybe? Put money in dividend paying etfs? This is the only way I see.
It’s what I’ve done with my wife, being from Easter Europe and living in the West. Live frugally, invest.
There are dev roles in The Netherlands for more than $165k too
Mind if I pm you about the US job?
We are almost in the same boat, I live in NL, worked for a big US company and got laid off some months ago it sucked, but just some things… I got a severance package that was about a year salary plus other stuff, I have it invested and producing quite a lot, I started looking for another job as soon as I knew it was going to happen. This is important because it is not the same to try to get a job after you are being laid off than when you are still working and “looking for a change”.
After all, I’m making a bit less since I work in Spain now, but I also pay only a 24% taxes that end up being more after taxes, I got a signing bonus plus other stuff with the change and I also like a lot more my new job… so yep, start looking for something, but don’t leave your current job without getting a good severance package.
Be ready for you haters to show their colors bru, it’s a bumpy road
Fully understand your situation and the emotional rollercoaster around it
3 things I would suggest:
1. If you are planning to buy your home do it now – easier and better terms when you have a proven high income, just make sure the total spend even during high interest rates is manageable
2. Learn and get the advice to handle your finances the best way – due to upbringing and limited time I too was overly conservative with savings accounts and zero payment plans / loans etc. and left money on the table due to it
3. Splurge on a few things you really enjoy be it that trip of a lifetime or expensive item – you will enjoy the memory forever