If you live in eastern/southern Europe, it's very easy (and pretty normal) as a software engineer. I spend less than 20% of my salary, because the cost of living here in Prague is appropriate for people making $17k yearly (before tax), while I am making a typical SW engineer wage you'd find in an average town in the USA or western EU (~$90k yearly before tax).

You must be bringing something unique and very senior to the table, or company is overpaying you maybe 2x of what it would take to get a great local SW engineer. I know there is long term shortage of senior folks there, but it shouldn't be that desperate.

Plus you mention before tax, so unless you are contracting (which is probable but no real clue), you are left with much less after taxation, being in very high tax bracket. So the numbers posted don't work anymore, unless you live very frugally in crappy tiny apartment/room (or riding family wealth).

I worked there 10 years ago, so maybe things changed dramatically. Its true they still keep pestering me in linkedin, so maybe it did change so much. Anyway, Prague is great place to visit, but I found it rather bleak for long term living and raising family, especially when compared with other places located more west. There is only so much you can buy with money within given society.

There are no tax brackets in Czechia. Tax is flat 17% + social and health insurance. That wage is now completely ordinary for average senior developer.

Things in Prague indeed did change dramatically in the past 10 years, especially during the last 5, the Prague IT market grew several tens of percent a year during that time. Right now Czechia has the lowest unemployment rate in Europe, and looking for a good developer indeed is very desperate (I am responsible for hiring from my position - which I hate to do, because it's nearly impossible).

Culturally, I think you should try Prague for a month or two again. The city did change a lot, including a large influx of new people (several hundreds of thousands in the past 10 years have immigrated into Prague).

I remember Prague of 10 years ago (I was born in a smaller city in Czechia) and it was a place I did not like. Today's Prague is awesome.

Do you work for a local or remote company, if you don't mind me asking?

Local foreign-invested startup at the moment

Thanks, that's amazing, and depressing (for me).

> Then you must be pretty rich.

Not at all!

If you own a house or rent a tiny apartment and live frugally you can do that with a middle-class income.

If you prepay all your expenses you can live on $0 a month... That's not a very useful argument.

Owning a house probably makes you pretty rich in the eyes of many people.

if you own a house you are rich.

You don’t own the house until you’ve paid off your mortgage. If you’re doing that under 50, you’re probably pretty decently well off. And also if it’s actually you who owns the house and not your sibling or parents who you’re living with.

70% of Americans own their own home. Are 70% of Americans rich?

I would expect 70% might have a mortgage but owning - as in not having to pay the mortgage because you own the home entirely - would be well under 70%.

No, 70% live in a non-rented home (an adult son living in their parent's home is also counted, for example). Also, only 34% are fully paid off.

If you’re under 35 and own your home outright you’re either rich or your parents are.

Err, are you saying 70% own their own home (i.e., no mortgage) or 70% live in a house which some percentage >0 and <90% is owned by the bank?

There's kind of a big difference there...