Austria, again

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Parsimony
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2014 7:24 am

Austria, again

Post by Parsimony »

Hi :-)
Long time lurker here who wants to finally introduce himself and become part of the community :-) I am 35 years old and live in Vienna/Austria. For me it's the usual story: I finished university about 10 years ago with a masters degree in Business, ended up in a somewhat interesting job and started serving my time in the hamster wheel. I was shocked when I suddenly realized how little time of the day I had left each evening after work. It felt like: get up - work - go home - have some hours of low energy left - sleep. I wasn't really the happiest person around so with each pay raise I started spending more on stupid things from gadgets, to clothes, to small luxuries. I felt empty inside, tried to look the part and tried to fit in. I come from a solid middleclass background and I am the first one who got a university degree. My parents are retired now but back in the day my father was kind of a middle management drone. He got up at 5:30 am, went to work at 6:00, came home at 5 pm - every 5 years in a brand new VW or Audi - had dinner and ended up in front of the tv to watch the news. He stopped working at 64 and he was so closely attached to his job that he felt empty for a long time after his retirement. After some years I suddenly realized that this is exactly the path ahead of me.

I started tracking my expenses a long time ago. So I have detailed reports now how much money and time I wasted. Things started falling into place about 5 years ago when I shifted down my lifestyle and learned that happiness hasn't much to do with money. At a savings rate of around 40% I am far away from calling myself "extreme" but considering my peer group I might very well be.

Here in Europe, especially Austria, the whole story has some pleasant and unpleasant side effects.

1. The tax rate is extreme and is constantly rising. They never adjust the levels of the tax brackets so people move up with inflation. The Austrian government is taking in approximately 5% more each year. They still manage to waste everything and end up with a deficit.

2. There is absolutely no investment culture. The word "speculator" is basically an insult. People who buy stocks of Austrian companies are considered evil. I sometimes read the forum of a popular left leaning Austrian newspaper and the attitude there is basically something along the lines "no one can get rich working, so everyone who does get rich is a criminal. He should pay more taxes. No even better. Let's take his money and give it to the poor."

3. We are not France yet but our leaders really try to come close. Instead of trying to increase the efficiency of the bureaucracy and save costs there they want to punish companies for laying off people and for not investing.

4. It doesn't look like I will get much of a pension. Our politicians are so afraid of losing elections that they refuse to tell us the truth. Currently people retire on average at around 58 instead of 65, which would be the legal retirement age. They actually hide our unemployment problem this way. Instead of having boatloads of unemployed people who are older than 50, we send everyone into early retirement. The system will probably collapse in about 15 to 20 years. The whole thing starts to feel like a pyramid scheme. My contributions to the game go up and I don't really have the impression that there will be someone around to pay for me.

We are clearly heading down the wrong road. Thinking back I really regret not having looked for a job in Switzerland right out of university. People around me refuse to see that. That's probably one reason I am here - to figure out if I am just turning into a paranoid nut case or if my thoughts are somewhat merit.

So what are my plans?

I would like to be free at 45. I actually like working, I just don't like having a boss, being told where to show up and when, what to wear, hanging out in meetings and being forced to a) present shit with powerpoint or b) look at the crap other's present with powerpoint. I like math and computing and my job moved a lot into this direction over the years. So I see myself working on interesting projects without actually having to earn money, maybe open source. I don't know. I would love to move to the countryside and live some kind of relaxed reduced life style, working out, reading a lot, enjoying nature...

If things don't change the numbers will work out but my main fear is that they will change the rules along the way. Start introducing "substance" taxes where you have to pay a certain amount of your net worth or maybe they do something like the guys in Cypress - just take away a part of our money from our bank accounts over the weekend.

So for me early retirement means freedom. Money is one way to get close to this kind of freedom. Skills and a low key life style are other parts. I envy people who chose this path a lot earlier than me. I know some of you guys here are in your 20s and I congratulate you. Keep it up.

I would like to actively take part in this community in the future. One reason is that I sometimes feel like wearing a mask among friends, co-workers, even family. I tried introducing the idea but no-one really got it.

rube
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:54 pm
Location: Europe (NL)

Re: Austria, again

Post by rube »

Welcome!

Poor Daniel
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu May 04, 2017 6:23 am

Re: Austria, again

Post by Poor Daniel »

Hi Parsimony,
greets from Vienna! Would love to hear how you are doing!

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Austria, again

Post by wolf »

Welcome Parsimony. I live in Germany and I know what you mean. Germany and Austria are in some things the same, e.g. government, retirement, ...
In what kind of business/market do you work?

I am 34 and also like to FIRE :-) Currently I have a SR between 70% and 90%.

Maybe if you share your expenses here in the forum you can also increase your SR, if you'd like to.

tlevine
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2014 1:10 pm

Re: Austria, again

Post by tlevine »

Parsimony wrote:
Tue Feb 04, 2014 2:01 pm
We are clearly heading down the wrong road. Thinking back I really regret not having looked for a job in Switzerland right out of university. People around me refuse to see that. That's probably one reason I am here - to figure out if I am just turning into a paranoid nut case or if my thoughts are somewhat merit.
You look like a pretty normal paranoid nut case. I think you'll calm down when you stop working. If you can't wait until you have saved up enough money, try doing nothing for a few months some time. The best time to do this would probably be the next time you get fired, but you might be able to take a long vacation, depending on your company's policies.

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Austria, again

Post by wolf »

tlevine wrote:
Sat May 06, 2017 7:01 am
Parsimony wrote:
Tue Feb 04, 2014 2:01 pm
We are clearly heading down the wrong road. Thinking back I really regret not having looked for a job in Switzerland right out of university. People around me refuse to see that. That's probably one reason I am here - to figure out if I am just turning into a paranoid nut case or if my thoughts are somewhat merit.
You look like a pretty normal paranoid nut case. I think you'll calm down when you stop working. If you can't wait until you have saved up enough money, try doing nothing for a few months some time. The best time to do this would probably be the next time you get fired, but you might be able to take a long vacation, depending on your company's policies.
You can see this development in some countries in Europe. IMO it is important to think about all the positive and negative aspects of it and make a decision. After all, Vienna has a high quality of living. Austria on the whole also. So I guess, it is about make one free of the external factors of government. I currently read an interesting book which was published first in 80s: How to be free in an unfree world. It helps me to free me from government traps, which I and many others face in e.g. Germany.

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