ERE in Estonia

Kalevipoeg · Post by **Kalevipoeg** » Sat May 18, 2013 12:37 am

Hello. I'm a 29-year old from Estonia and I've been fortunate enough to have been almost retired for about the past 4 years. At least that's how it seems in retrospect. Education here is free (if you have good grades) and currently I'm close to completing my PhD (biochemistry), which has been mostly quite enjoyable. I've been working for perhaps 2 h a day on average and get to pretty much set my own schedule. I feel a little guilty about not working harder, but also think it's a bit silly to feel that...
Although I love doing research and believe there are lots of things out there that should be studied or developed - some perhaps even profitably - I'm no longer sure if there's a future for me in my chosen field. At least if I want to work on something I believe in and enjoy. Still, a string of international postdoc positions might be fun and I could perhaps, if I'm very lucky, eventually stumble upon an opportunity to do some meaningful research in a pleasant working environment. That seems unlikely though so I'm thinking that organizing my finances for the foreseeable future might be the sensible thing to do once I graduate and stop depending on my parents. The latter should be quite feasible as the median salary in Estonia is around 800$/month and (which I'm a bit ashamed to admit) thanks to the generosity of my parents I now have ~400-500k$ in mostly real estate.
I'm pretty frugal by nature but have not given much serious though to investing and frankly I'd have considered myself lucky to get 4%. Perhaps I've read too many horror stories... So this website has been pretty inspirational to me

For years I've joked about retiring but I've started thinking that it's actually a rational thing to do, even though most out there would disagree. And I have to admit it feels too easy - that I should be able to do this. But why not? At least as long as I or others don't screw things up massively a relatively comfortable life should be quite possible.
My current arrangement is haphazard and needs to change though: I live in a ~50k$ condo and am renting out a second 120k one for about 4% and have a third 300k one in another city that has been sitting vacant since I bough it last year. It's vacant as I hope to graduate and move there soon (not permanently, more for a change of scenery and a reward of sorts), but that's not likely to happen for perhaps 6 months if I'm lazy. It's also larger than I need and located in the heart of the capital, which I personally don't appreciate much most of the time. So I'll probably rent it out in the near future. I'm not sure what do about the other condos though: the 120k place has a mortgage of ~40k that was taken out before the recession (2007) and thanks to low Euribor rates the interest is currently below inflation, so there doesn't seem to be much point in paying it off or selling the property. Still, it's incovenient to rent it out while living in another city. Ideally it'd be nice to have maybe three sub 100k condos in close proximity and a house with a workshop (I love making stuff), but that can probably wait until I figure out what to do with my time (and where to do it) for the next 5 years or so... Sometimes having too many options can be a bad thing

Post by **jacob** » Sat May 18, 2013 12:54 am

I did the "international postdocing thing". It's cool in the sense that you get to live in another country, get paid to travel, etc.
The downside is that you're restricted in what you can do in said country. For example, you're not allowed to pursue other kinds of work and you either perform satisfactorily or you're kicked out of the country. In addition, you can't settle (buy real estate, establish strong local relationships) because postdoc appointments are time-limited to 2-3 years. Also, you can't really take advantage of retirement plans; have issues establishing financial accounts, etc.
In short, postdocing is generally a sketchy/risky career move. Conversely, the required flexibility might just make you sufficiently minimalist and nonconsumerist and make it possible to save a lot of money. Worked for me.

secretwealth · Post by **secretwealth** » Sat May 18, 2013 1:03 am

I think postdocs offer a lot of great value--you can live in another country, get paid to do interesting research (for as long as your field keeps your interest), and make some great contacts along the way.
I know Finland has had a lot of post-doc positions, which is close by both geographically and linguistically.
As for living your properties out--can't you hire a management company to do it for you?

Kalevipoeg · Post by **Kalevipoeg** » Sat May 18, 2013 1:50 am

I do feel it'd be a waste to completely get out of research as the reason I got into it was to make the world a better place

It's fun to be the first human to learn some new fact, better yet if that fact can save a life (or a few billion lives). But I've lost some of that idealism: it's hard work that requires rigor, creativity and - at least in the drug and biotech industry - it may take a decade to find out if what you worked on is actually of any use (>90% chance it isn't). Still, finding what doesn't work has value as well and learning new skills is always fun. So getting a postdoc position or five seems like the most interesting thing I could do professionally and it could certainly open up new opportunities. Finland is a possibility I've considered - I even speak Finnish. And if I do find a good opportunity I'll probably get a real estate management company while I'm abroad. It will mean a significant reduction in income though as up to now I haven't been paying any income tax on the proceeds (this illegal and also very common in Estonia) - but that will have to change anyway...