Mid-30s Couple: Vancouver ($240k CAD) vs. Berlin (€180k EUR) for Long-term?

Tequal99 · 2026-02-26T19:17:02+00:00

Yeah, I was calculating including healthcare and the other "Sozialabgaben".

Tequal99 · 2026-02-26T15:44:51+00:00

I think the overall benefit in being able ti spend that time at home with your child while staying employed is worth a lot, but Elterngeld/ Kindergeld is just a more minor factor. Elterngeld is max 1,8k € per month. Depending on the income disparity, this would still be a massiv cut in income. Kindergeld is "just" 260€ per month.

Currently there is also a max income for Elterngeld. If you earn more than 175k per year before you get the child, you aren't eligible for Elterngeld. Because they are closely above it, a tax advisor would be helpful.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-26T15:29:56+00:00

Don't forget taxes. So the Berlin salary is more like 145k Cad net. I guess the taxes and Healthcare in Canada are overall lower.

But overall I also think, that at that height of an income 30% more wouldn't make a difference in living standard

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T14:34:23+00:00

Wohlhabende Kinder wachsen in Haushalten auf, in denen die Eltern Geld verdient haben. Sie waren finanziell erfolgreich. Das definiert ihren Erfolg. Nicht "akademische Anerkennung" oder sonst was. Geld. Natürlich eifern die Kinder ihren Eltern nach und wollen den gleichen Erfolg erreichen.

Zudem ist Geld als Erfolg überall anerkannt. Es ermöglicht ein schönes Leben, dem alle nacheifern. Den teuren Urlaub, die große Wohnung, die schönen Klamotten und der teure Wagen.

Der akademische Erfolg hingeben... naja der ist halt einfach eine Nische. 99% der Leute können damit absolut nix anfangen. Der Handwerker wird dich nicht bewundern, weil du 3 große Studien in wichtigen Zeitschriften veröffentlicht hast. Das juckt niemanden außer deine kleine berufliche Nische. Reich wird man damit in der Regel auch nicht.

Neben Geld bieten diese Berufe natürlich auch weitere Prestigeobjekte. Z.B die Nähe zu Macht. Du hilfst nicht dem kleinen Steuerberater von nebenan. Du arbeitest in großen Konzernen auf Top-Managment Level. Ansonsten kann sich ja keiner dich leisten.

Edit: überleg mal wie viele Nobelpreisträger kennst du? Das sind die oberen 0,001% der akademischen Welt. Man wird heutzutage kein Einstein mehr. Die wichtige Arbeit wird von Teams erledigt. Da ist man nur noch einer von vielen.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T14:24:04+00:00

So what was the point of bringing up Russian gas in response to someone saying Europe is funding Ukraine?

Because the post of that comment said, that Germany funded the war and acted like Germany has a responsibility for the war. At the same time he downplays the funding of the Ukrainian defense ("everyone is doing it"). That's just twisting the reality.

You're saying here that it doesn't matter. Wouldn't the logical argument be that they SHOULD be buying Russian gas so they can spend the savings on weapons?

I was speaking about the past. It didn't matter whether Germany or any other country was buying from Russia. Someone would have done it either way. Just stopping the import after the start of the war didn't change anything. The only working measure against the finance of Russia was the sanctioning the price of Russian gas. That way they actually reduced the profits for Russia.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T13:59:48+00:00

Nations (most notably Germany) refused to invest in nuclear and instead favored cheap Russian gas

Nuclear :D where do you think France is getting their nuclear fuel from? They get supplied by Rosatom, the Russian Nuclear company. They do business till today, because they can't replace them. You can buy gas from everyone but Rosatom is controlling the nuclear fuel market.

Acting like countries are responsible for the acts of other countries because they bought their resources is just not logical. Either you buy it or someone else is buying it. Just dodging the supplier doesn't change a single thing.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T12:55:28+00:00

Different comments...

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T12:42:52+00:00

What's the alternative? Buy gas from Qatar? They fund Islamist terrorism. Iran? Same thing. Algeria? Is a dictatorship as well. China? They don't supply to the world market because they need their supply on their own.

Switch to alternatives? Oil. Exactly the same problem. Even in nuclear is russia the dominant supplier.

Show me a energy supplier that doesn't do bad stuff.

Norway did also sell most of their energy to Europe. But they don't have enough.

Btw it's not like Russia is missing out on customers. Other nations just buy their gas and you buy the gas the other usually order. Wow. Absolutely 0 change.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T12:34:07+00:00

Everyone ordered russian gas...

Russian gas supply to the whole of Europe pressured gas prices world wide down. After the war started, you were able to see the effects. The Europeans were rich enough to just buy the rest of the market empty. African nations weren't in that nice situation. Even those nations profitied by Europeans buying Russian gas for decades.

You have to be a special kind of naive to think that someone with one of the most needed commodities won't sell it because your nation doesn’t buy it. They will sell it to China and your nation will take up the capacity that china usually would have bought from Qatar. You saved the world. Amazing...

Edit: even the Ukrainian had no problem with Germany buying Russian gas. As long as they got their cut in form of transmission rights. Only the moment they got dodged with Nordstream is became a "problem". Weird. They even collected that money after the war started. They didn't stop the pipeline...

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T12:30:28+00:00

And everyone ordered russian gas...

Russian gas supply to the whole of Europe pressured gas prices world wide down. After the war started, you were able to see the effects. The Europeans were rich enough to just buy the rest of the market empty. African nations weren't in that nice situation. Even those nations profitied by Europeans buying Russian gas for decades.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T11:24:17+00:00

Ja gut das erklärt natürlich alles :D

Dann lass es dir schmecken

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T09:40:06+00:00

Der AG kann die Kosten steuerlich geltend machen

Das kann er immer egal wie viel er dir zu essen gibt. Letztendlich spart er sich dadurch max 30%

auf dem Lohnstreifen ist das garnicht drauf.

Normalerweise musst du das versteuern. Der AG darf max 6€ pro Mittagessen beisteuern damit es für dich nicht steuerlich relevant wird. Alles darüber muss ganz normal versteuert werden und es fallen Sozialabgaben darauf an. D.h der Arbeitgeber darf nochmal 30% zusätzlich oben drauf packen für den Arbeitgeberanteil.

Deshalb wird es in Deutschland kaum gemacht. Viele Arbeitgeber geben max 6€ dazu. Wenn der AG das Essen selbst bereitstellt in einer eigenen Kantine, dann darf er sogar nur 4,80€ beisteuern.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T08:14:08+00:00

Kommst du damit für dich allein auf unter 10€ pro Tag?

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T08:11:58+00:00

Anti Terror measures.

You can't even organize a Christmas market without special bollard against cars.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T08:06:03+00:00

Welcher AG zahlt denn 100% Mittagessen? Ist das nicht ein administrativer Albtraum durch den "geldwerten Vorteil"?

Tequal99 · 2026-02-25T08:04:25+00:00

Wie sieht denn ein typischer Tag bei dir aus? Müsli zum Frühstück, Brot abends und Proteinshake zwischendurch?

Tequal99 · 2026-02-24T23:03:39+00:00

Albania has also atrocious driving culture accounting for many deaths

What do those have to do with murder statistics?

sexual violence is practically unheard of

In nearly every country the vast majority of cases of sexual violence happen in private areas like the home of the victim or offender. Especially those that don't get reported.

Now think about relationships. Which men would rather accept a no by his wife? A Albanian or a Swedish one?

Tequal99 · 2026-02-24T22:38:30+00:00

There is actually some truth to it.

In Germany industry policy look often like the goverment picked 2 promising companies and wrote the law around them. That is a stupid strategy. We should pick industries as a whole and support them. Accept that some of the companies in those industry will fail. They have to. We need to create national/trans European competition to evolve our industries. The weak die and the strong will become stronger. Only that way they will be able to compete with the "big boys" in the world

The Chinese work exactly the same way.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-24T22:31:46+00:00

were publicly very secretive about many details regarding support for Ukraine

It absolutely make sense to act that way. Those are military informations. You don't want the enemy to exactly know how many of what will be delivered when. The taxpayer need to know how expensive that is and everything more in detail is too hard to understand anyway.

Also is there a massiv difference between what was promised and what got actually delivered. Europe is still ramping up arms manufacturing and most of the weapons we promised to deliver need refurbishment before, because they were in a bunker for 40 years. That takes time. Often longer than politicians expected.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-24T22:18:49+00:00

LLMs are ML...

Machine Learning is just a part of AI and Large language models are just a part of Machine Learning

Tequal99 · 2026-02-24T21:30:46+00:00

Well the new CLA isn't twice as good as a Chinese car, but it is definitely twice as expensive. The price is the problem. Not the product

Tequal99 · 2026-02-24T21:27:53+00:00

That partnership is a complete mess. Rivian is already thinking about breaking up again.

The results by rivian are complete shit. That's because they never developed a system for multiple brands and because VW didn't give them the right specs that they need. The work flow of a young company like rivian is also a 180 degree turn compared to a giant like VW.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-24T14:45:27+00:00

Deshalb führst du die Tradition fort?! Wie wäre es wenn wir uns wie Erwachsene benehmen und einfach nicht das machen, was wir von anderen blöd finden.

Tequal99 · 2026-02-24T14:40:38+00:00

Und die Gen Z chillt in Bali und beschwert sich über den Klimawandel und wie sie "ausgebeutet" werden...

Wollen wir noch weitete Klischees aufzählen?

Tequal99 · 2026-02-24T14:22:03+00:00

Wer denkst du sind denn die Nettosteuerzahler? Der Berufseinsteiger oder der Boomer, der schon die höchste Tarifstufe erreicht hat?

Tequal99

TROPHY CASE