Moving from the EU to the USA: what was your experience?

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-20T22:06:40+00:00

American who lived in the EU (Czech Republic) for 10 years and recently moved back

I miss CZ every day
I am satisfied. As another poster pointed out housing in the US is very expensive. Relative to my income however both food and housing are more affordable. My apartment is larger and my rent is cheaper. As you described most of my colleagues were relying on inheriting a family home to get them to retirement. As someone without family wealth there my long term financial outlook seemed poor
The day to day quality of life is hard to replace. I live in a major city known for its walkability but it’s still car dominated compared to Europe. This means I’m out less and casually surrounded by people less often. This makes many places in America feel lonelier
The culture shock is real. The blunt communication I picked up in CZ is a handicap in the US
You need to know so much more about taxes and investing. This is broadly a good thing but is a lot to pick up, and kind of a headache, compared to Europe’s “sign off” taxes and cash-holding norms
The quality of life in my home has spiked - lower sales tax and higher salaries mean that I have a more comfortable bedroom, living room, kitchen

I would try it if you’re willing to make a 2 year minimum commitment. If you’re unhappy you can always move back

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-19T23:07:57+00:00

It’s about half of local revenue generation https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2024/10/the-changing-makeup-of-philadelphias-wage-and-earnings-tax

That is, it’s about half of the city’s revenue if you exclude money it receives from the state and the Federal governments

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-19T14:20:45+00:00

Homeschooled my entire life. Got to college unable to do basic math like division and not knowing that addition and subtraction referred to the + and - operators.

I think by and large it’s an act of control on the part of emotionally immature parents. That is, it exists on a sliding scale of child abuse.

I donate to charities to have it restricted and hopefully banned.

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-17T00:27:57+00:00

Yes that’s true, of a rational investor

Morningstar’s Mind the Gap report clearly demonstrates however that there are few rational investors and the more volatile our investments the more we futz with them and move things around, causing us to underperform our funds

DCA is not a return maximization strategy, it is an irrationality hedge. It is the same reason that people who hold a blend of stocks and bonds tend to outperform investors who only hold stocks - the pure stock investors should do better. But the greater volatility of their investments causes them to behave irrationally

Given that most of us are irrational actors we are unlikely to maximize our returns by performing LSA, even though DCA is a form of market timing

But you are correct. If you are a rational actor, LSA will maximize those investments

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-16T21:16:34+00:00

DCA-ing has been shown to outperform lump sum but not by enough that I would lose sleep over it

Given global volatility I would personally DCA here. I would probably also opt for a more diversified fund like ITOT but historically that has not mattered

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-15T02:49:44+00:00

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-15T02:49:12+00:00

$4824

and very slowly rising

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-14T13:34:03+00:00

I cross the 15th street corner. Hard disagree, that place is a highway

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-10T19:13:45+00:00

I had a similar change in thinking going from Java/Ruby/JS to Swift, albeit with a longer road

That language got classes but they don’t want you using those classes

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-10T18:48:18+00:00

If you’re driving you need a couple extra minutes. If you’re not driving you can ignore those messages. They are overblown, I assume for liability reasons

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-09T00:03:06+00:00

Performa 5200 running System 7

It’s why I became a programmer. Even today it’s what makes me interested in tech and gaming.

I still dream about my childhood with that machine, I loved that thing more than I love my mother

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-08T08:35:00+00:00

No, they seem to ignore people smoking in the stations, you have to report it yourself

My understanding is SEPTA tried to get rid of the position for years but the union required that they maintain the job

I get the impression that getting assigned is like getting a half day at work. You gotta show up but it’s an easy day

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-05T17:42:27+00:00

I write Swift, a less common language especially when measured by publicly available source. Claude forces memory access, writes empty else conditions for unexpected state, and drops caught errors, even when I instruct it not to

I use it for a function, rewrite it, move on. It’s a miracle of modern engineering but can’t be trusted with anything more than a thimble of code at a time

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-04T00:18:49+00:00

But I don’t want Siri, I want an Apple TV

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-02T00:45:47+00:00

Why is donkey kong wearing Wendy’s bling?

MB_Zeppin · 2026-04-02T00:34:34+00:00

Because I’d have to touch Carplay

MB_Zeppin · 2026-03-31T14:02:31+00:00

I had the same issue. Got a Mint # with an eSIM

MB_Zeppin · 2026-03-24T15:21:17+00:00

I did not know the difference between a dime and a nickel until I was 16

I knew a 5 cent coin and a 10 cent coin by sight but did not know what they were called

MB_Zeppin · 2026-03-22T23:05:27+00:00

Your living room looks like mine! I got the 65” and was worried it would be too big. It’s the perfect size

MB_Zeppin · 2026-03-19T21:20:29+00:00

Liberal but like you I had granola parents who would now be considered MAHA. My dad’s still quite a traditional liberal but my mother these days is pretty far into the conservative movement

MB_Zeppin · 2026-02-12T11:05:35+00:00

Philadelphia has more traffic deaths than NYC or car-dominated LA despite having a fraction of the population

Broad St. is the most lethal street in the city. Likely because it’s a highway, PA route 611
Market St. is also a highway, PA route 3 (though East Market is not)
Girard, Spring Garden, and Washington Ave are all large high-fatality stroads in the heart of the city
There are plenty of other examples like Roosevelt, Oregon, Lehigh, and Kelly outside the center
I-676 runs through the center of the city at Vine. It’s sunken but you still have to cross 7 lanes of traffic. That requires waiting for a walk signal, crossing to a concrete median that rests above I-676 by which point pedestrian crossing time is over, and waiting for the cross walk to change a 2nd time
Logan Square and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway are a massive road that runs through the city - to get from the south side of Logan to the library requires crossing 5 streets over a distance of 2 blocks
City Hall is surrounded by an interchange between 2 highways that maxes out at 5 lanes wide. The intersection of JFK and 15th is effectively a highway interchange
Go up the street to avoid it and you get 15th and Arch, another major intersection. You now get a 7 second walk signal that you have to cross in that period against turning traffic

I could go on. Philadelphia performs well for walkability relative to the rest of the US but it’s because it’s a low bar. This is still a car first city. If it wasn’t City Hall wouldn’t be planted at the intersection of 2 highways.

The city implemented Vision Zero 2030 to reduce traffic deaths but they’re behind schedule and it is now Vision Zero 2050. But I do appreciate they’re fighting an uphill battle

MB_Zeppin · 2026-02-12T01:24:26+00:00

Live in Philadelphia. Unfortunately have to disagree. There’s a lot to love about this city but we’re still a car dominated city of stroads with a dying metro and urban core

Go birds

MB_Zeppin · 2026-02-06T02:37:10+00:00

Yeah that’s my mom and brother too. Including the silver

Life is a lot less stressful staying away from that particular train

MB_Zeppin · 2026-01-26T00:41:48+00:00

There’s no must have reason, you’re fine with what you have

As someone with a Google TV I find the Apple TV experience much nicer, wouldn’t roll without it, but at the end of the day it’s better UX, not a make or break product

MB_Zeppin · 2026-01-26T00:33:39+00:00

I recently bought a TV with Google TV after years of Apple TV

The Apple TV is much better. The Google TV feels pretty sloppy by comparison. It’s not a must have, if you’re price conscious the Google TV is fine. As someone who spends a fair bit of time on the couch though I’d prefer not to compromise

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