“You will own nothing and be happy” ….WEF, Davos….
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2k EUR /month would be nice. Some would want more. But somebody like me could live getting everything I want (games, manga, books etc), pay bills, have enough for plenty of food and have some savings (alternatively you can pay mortgage)
Some European cities ( CH excluded) are at the top as the most expensive ones to live matching cities like LA NY or San Francisco where you can earn the monthly salary of this European cities in 10 days , Dacia and Fiat 500 sell like freshly baked bread because nobody can afford something better our PP is going to shit but hey that’s fine
I think that if you remove rent/mortgage, which is the main expense for most people, then you don’t need much to live financially happily. For me personally, €1000 after taxes and rent/mortgage would be more than enough.
Probably because we don’t have to spend 3k for an Ambulance. Or an overnight in a hospital costing 20k.
> US millennials (the generation born between 1981 and 1996) even named their price: they need an annual $525,000 (€480,700) salary to feel financially happy.
Delusional.
I need something to cover taxes, basic needs and still have some left over for savings. The main thing is that the family is healthy.
The main thing is that there is no war.
Compared to the US, you have way cheaper and more reliable public services, so you do with less money.
50k a year in Western Europe?! damn… Europeans do settle for less.
Of course we do, we know we can’t have more, so why even think about it.
I really envy people who can be happy on like 2.000 EUR a month, I just can’t, I need at least 6.500 EUR net (for two people) so I can have a allowance of 200 euros a month for personal things (games, books, eating out) and have a yearly vacation.
Whatever buys me home and pays the bills. Whatever allows me to have kids later. 1600 euro is enough in a smaller town here in Poland. At least for the step 1.
> US millennials (the generation born between 1981 and 1996) even named their price: they need an annual $525,000 (€480,700) salary to feel financially happy.
Meanwhile, Gen Z Americans ask for $128,000; Gen X $130,000; and Boomers say $124,000 a year would do. As a whole, the average American would settle with $284,167, according to the study.
Fellow millennials… what gives? How is there *such* a difference in the numbers different age groups state here?
Also someone needs to do these studies properly to account for cost of living. Of course people ‘settle for less’ where living costs are lower. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love half a million a year, but I’m quite happy with the much lower household income we have just now of *well* under £100,000. We can pay our mortgage in a major UK city, pay for the dog, pay for leisure activities and put back some savings just fine on under £100k in the UK. If you can’t do that in the US… well that tells you something about the cost of living there…
Getting 5k net a month is the target for the next year or so. That will get me stable and happy enough,maybe get my own apartment and move on with starting the family. For a simple life that should be good enough for most Europeans
I think the main difference between us and the US is for a large part of the US there’s precious little to enjoy without money. I’ve been there a couple times and the food is bland (likely poisoned too with all the chemicals n shit they put), the infrastructure is totally car-centric, everything is actually quite pricey on the west coast at least, and every single activity is paid-for. If you drive down the highway you’ll see endless swathes of soulless suburban developments with homogeneous detached houses and strip malls/retail parks. That’s not including healthcare + education, which are major financial stressors for Americans.
As a Londoner I’m one to talk but if you’re skint here you can still enjoy many parks, sightseeing, museums, food, etc on the cheap. You can take a wrong turn down an alleyway and find ye olde pub that’s been serving some sorta speciality whiskey for the last 800 years. I make decent money and the only reason I’d want for more is so that I can put a downpayment on an apartment quicker. And I think this is the case for a lot of places in Europe – depending on where you are you get some of the highest quality of life of any place in the world, for most strata of the population
At least, two millions for me.
I am highly skeptical of this survey:
>The Empower “Financial Happiness” study is based on online survey responses from 2,034 Americans ages 18+ fielded by The Harris Poll from August 7 to August 14, 2023, and using data from the Empower Personal Dashboard™. The survey is weighted to be nationally representative on the following dimensions: age, gender, education, race, region, income, size of household, marital and employment status. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 2.9 percentage points using a 95% confidence level.
I have not been able to find any details about the methods. But a 400% deviation in one age group is extremely dubious. If they don’t publish their data I’m just going to assume one asshole millenial put in $5.000.000.000 as their monthly income into the online survey field and it skewed the results considerably.
Depending on where you live, and if you have to pay rent or not, 3000€ a month for a household is a very good number in my region.
Big numbers dont mean that much if the expenses are also very high.
Trying just a little bit harder wouldn’t hurt the Europeans. I’ve worked in multiple continents and Europe seems to be wasting the opportunity to be the best they can
A big part of happines is feeling secure. In europe 52.000 eur gets you more financial security then 100.000 usd in many places in the US because we don’t have the same risk of extreme medical dept or losing your job and not having any income for months.
U Srbiji je mesečna prosečna plata navodno 800€,ali retko da neko ima toliko,tako da bi nama 2000€ bilo dovoljno za život..
Some of the numbers here are so weird to me, including those in the comments. Reading about 6K after taxes as a minimum in a random European city feels very excessive.
I lived for a few years in Geneva (which is very expensive). I earned 4900 chf after taxes (I think it was 6200 before taxes). I paid 1800 chf in rent+water+heating. I paid two insurances (we were two). We were fine. We could go out as much as we wanted, we travelled back home twice a year, and usually a third time to some other country in Europe. We always stayed at Hotels and rented plenty of cars. I bought whatever I basically wanted (my thing are computers, I upgraded a lot while being there). I still saved 20K in two years. We were more than fine. That was way above the minimum to be happy, and there are very few places in Europe as expensive as Geneva.
Now I’m in Spain with 2K € a month (after taxes), and my gf is earning 1.2K € a month. The situation is not too different than in Geneva, except now I also bought a car and we are saving more (cost of living is less than half of Geneva). Sure I need to be careful when travelling abroad, and when buying expensive things, but I can go on my daily life without caring all that much about the prices of what I buy or the prices of most bars and restaurantes.
Given my own experience, in Spain currently 1.5-2.5K € after taxes is a good enough situation in which one or two people don’t really need to think much about money.
Whoa, that data is crazy.
Millenials in the US are unreal – after taxes, that comes out to about $37,000 a month???
The rest of Americans seem to have their heads on their shoulders, at around $8,000 a month after taxes. That’s very reasonable.
We are definitely happier with less money over here, though, partially because our taxes actually pay for a lot of the most important stuff, like health care and transport. So a bigger portion of what we earn is disposable income.
But $500,000 a year it absolutely absurd. I grew up in the US and am a Millenial, so seeing that is absolutely ridiculous and very disappointing in my generation of Americans.
6/10 is pretty low for a very broad description in happiness
To live on alone about £1.6k (€1.9k ish). I have a lovely flat that has a cheap mortgage because of HTB and locking in a 2.9% mortgage rate, and a girlfriend who isn’t materialistic. I can do the things I enjoy, eat the food I like and whatnot at the level, without needing to think too hard. A fair bit more would be needed once kids are added in.
That doesn’t get me to my financial goals though, that just provides a nice enjoyable life in the here and now, while working. I gross about £4.6k (€5.4k ish), salary sacrifice 11% +6% employer and 50% ENI rebate, and then add just under £1k into an ISA post tax.
This situation is pretty ideal and gets me where I want to go financially for now, but when I need to be able to afford a bigger home and various child costs, it will just be this + whatever extra is needed gross to cover that extra cost net income wise. £1.5m in real terms by 49 is the goal, and is where half odds of my salary goes.
I could use an extra 100k now
Im a millennial, I make 60k a year but I would be happy and content with a 100k. I guess it depends where you live. In Spain 60k a year would be amazing but in the Netherlands it’s okay.
Let’s say you are a couple with 2 kids.
**Housing** – 4 bedroom semi-detached or terraced house. Will cost around £575,000. 25 year mortgage, 5% interest: £3,330/month.
**Utilities** (Electricity, gas, water, council tax, internet, 2x mobile phones): £600/month
**Transport** – Train (2x season tickets from commuter zone into London) and car (leased hybrid, insurance and fuel): £945/month
**Insurance** (home, income protection, private medical): £239/month
**Entertainment** (TV licence, 4x streaming services, cinema once a month, takeout once a week, cup of coffee each day): £598.50/month
**Holiday** (summer package holiday): £334/month
**Gifts**: £100/month
This comes out as spending of £7,377.50/month, or £88,530/year, for a comfortable but not extravagant middle-class lifestyle. A modest but comfortable house, a decent car (not a BMW or anything like that), kids are in state education.
Assuming a perfectly even dual income, that’s post-tax earnings of £44,265 per partner. That’s £60,391 pre-tax.
So I think to afford a middle class lifestyle you need a pre-tax salary of around £60k and a partner earning the same.
>US millennials (the generation born between 1981 and 1996) even named their price: they need an annual $525,000 (€480,700) salary to feel financially happy.Meanwhile, Gen Z Americans ask for $128,000; Gen X $130,000; and Boomers say $124,000 a year would do. As a whole, the average American would settle with $284,167, according to the study.
I feel like something went wrong with the survey / polling regarding Millennials… It makes no sense it would be 4x the answer from generations before and after it.
This feels like a statistical error rather than an actual answer.
29 comments
“You will own nothing and be happy” ….WEF, Davos….
[removed]
2k EUR /month would be nice. Some would want more. But somebody like me could live getting everything I want (games, manga, books etc), pay bills, have enough for plenty of food and have some savings (alternatively you can pay mortgage)
Some European cities ( CH excluded) are at the top as the most expensive ones to live matching cities like LA NY or San Francisco where you can earn the monthly salary of this European cities in 10 days , Dacia and Fiat 500 sell like freshly baked bread because nobody can afford something better our PP is going to shit but hey that’s fine
I think that if you remove rent/mortgage, which is the main expense for most people, then you don’t need much to live financially happily. For me personally, €1000 after taxes and rent/mortgage would be more than enough.
Probably because we don’t have to spend 3k for an Ambulance. Or an overnight in a hospital costing 20k.
> US millennials (the generation born between 1981 and 1996) even named their price: they need an annual $525,000 (€480,700) salary to feel financially happy.
Delusional.
I need something to cover taxes, basic needs and still have some left over for savings. The main thing is that the family is healthy.
The main thing is that there is no war.
Compared to the US, you have way cheaper and more reliable public services, so you do with less money.
50k a year in Western Europe?! damn… Europeans do settle for less.
Of course we do, we know we can’t have more, so why even think about it.
I really envy people who can be happy on like 2.000 EUR a month, I just can’t, I need at least 6.500 EUR net (for two people) so I can have a allowance of 200 euros a month for personal things (games, books, eating out) and have a yearly vacation.
Whatever buys me home and pays the bills. Whatever allows me to have kids later. 1600 euro is enough in a smaller town here in Poland. At least for the step 1.
> US millennials (the generation born between 1981 and 1996) even named their price: they need an annual $525,000 (€480,700) salary to feel financially happy.
Meanwhile, Gen Z Americans ask for $128,000; Gen X $130,000; and Boomers say $124,000 a year would do. As a whole, the average American would settle with $284,167, according to the study.
Fellow millennials… what gives? How is there *such* a difference in the numbers different age groups state here?
Also someone needs to do these studies properly to account for cost of living. Of course people ‘settle for less’ where living costs are lower. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love half a million a year, but I’m quite happy with the much lower household income we have just now of *well* under £100,000. We can pay our mortgage in a major UK city, pay for the dog, pay for leisure activities and put back some savings just fine on under £100k in the UK. If you can’t do that in the US… well that tells you something about the cost of living there…
Getting 5k net a month is the target for the next year or so. That will get me stable and happy enough,maybe get my own apartment and move on with starting the family. For a simple life that should be good enough for most Europeans
I think the main difference between us and the US is for a large part of the US there’s precious little to enjoy without money. I’ve been there a couple times and the food is bland (likely poisoned too with all the chemicals n shit they put), the infrastructure is totally car-centric, everything is actually quite pricey on the west coast at least, and every single activity is paid-for. If you drive down the highway you’ll see endless swathes of soulless suburban developments with homogeneous detached houses and strip malls/retail parks. That’s not including healthcare + education, which are major financial stressors for Americans.
As a Londoner I’m one to talk but if you’re skint here you can still enjoy many parks, sightseeing, museums, food, etc on the cheap. You can take a wrong turn down an alleyway and find ye olde pub that’s been serving some sorta speciality whiskey for the last 800 years. I make decent money and the only reason I’d want for more is so that I can put a downpayment on an apartment quicker. And I think this is the case for a lot of places in Europe – depending on where you are you get some of the highest quality of life of any place in the world, for most strata of the population
At least, two millions for me.
I am highly skeptical of this survey:
>The Empower “Financial Happiness” study is based on online survey responses from 2,034 Americans ages 18+ fielded by The Harris Poll from August 7 to August 14, 2023, and using data from the Empower Personal Dashboard™. The survey is weighted to be nationally representative on the following dimensions: age, gender, education, race, region, income, size of household, marital and employment status. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 2.9 percentage points using a 95% confidence level.
I have not been able to find any details about the methods. But a 400% deviation in one age group is extremely dubious. If they don’t publish their data I’m just going to assume one asshole millenial put in $5.000.000.000 as their monthly income into the online survey field and it skewed the results considerably.
Depending on where you live, and if you have to pay rent or not, 3000€ a month for a household is a very good number in my region.
Big numbers dont mean that much if the expenses are also very high.
Trying just a little bit harder wouldn’t hurt the Europeans. I’ve worked in multiple continents and Europe seems to be wasting the opportunity to be the best they can
A big part of happines is feeling secure. In europe 52.000 eur gets you more financial security then 100.000 usd in many places in the US because we don’t have the same risk of extreme medical dept or losing your job and not having any income for months.
U Srbiji je mesečna prosečna plata navodno 800€,ali retko da neko ima toliko,tako da bi nama 2000€ bilo dovoljno za život..
Some of the numbers here are so weird to me, including those in the comments. Reading about 6K after taxes as a minimum in a random European city feels very excessive.
I lived for a few years in Geneva (which is very expensive). I earned 4900 chf after taxes (I think it was 6200 before taxes). I paid 1800 chf in rent+water+heating. I paid two insurances (we were two). We were fine. We could go out as much as we wanted, we travelled back home twice a year, and usually a third time to some other country in Europe. We always stayed at Hotels and rented plenty of cars. I bought whatever I basically wanted (my thing are computers, I upgraded a lot while being there). I still saved 20K in two years. We were more than fine. That was way above the minimum to be happy, and there are very few places in Europe as expensive as Geneva.
Now I’m in Spain with 2K € a month (after taxes), and my gf is earning 1.2K € a month. The situation is not too different than in Geneva, except now I also bought a car and we are saving more (cost of living is less than half of Geneva). Sure I need to be careful when travelling abroad, and when buying expensive things, but I can go on my daily life without caring all that much about the prices of what I buy or the prices of most bars and restaurantes.
Given my own experience, in Spain currently 1.5-2.5K € after taxes is a good enough situation in which one or two people don’t really need to think much about money.
Whoa, that data is crazy.
Millenials in the US are unreal – after taxes, that comes out to about $37,000 a month???
The rest of Americans seem to have their heads on their shoulders, at around $8,000 a month after taxes. That’s very reasonable.
We are definitely happier with less money over here, though, partially because our taxes actually pay for a lot of the most important stuff, like health care and transport. So a bigger portion of what we earn is disposable income.
But $500,000 a year it absolutely absurd. I grew up in the US and am a Millenial, so seeing that is absolutely ridiculous and very disappointing in my generation of Americans.
6/10 is pretty low for a very broad description in happiness
To live on alone about £1.6k (€1.9k ish). I have a lovely flat that has a cheap mortgage because of HTB and locking in a 2.9% mortgage rate, and a girlfriend who isn’t materialistic. I can do the things I enjoy, eat the food I like and whatnot at the level, without needing to think too hard. A fair bit more would be needed once kids are added in.
That doesn’t get me to my financial goals though, that just provides a nice enjoyable life in the here and now, while working. I gross about £4.6k (€5.4k ish), salary sacrifice 11% +6% employer and 50% ENI rebate, and then add just under £1k into an ISA post tax.
This situation is pretty ideal and gets me where I want to go financially for now, but when I need to be able to afford a bigger home and various child costs, it will just be this + whatever extra is needed gross to cover that extra cost net income wise. £1.5m in real terms by 49 is the goal, and is where half odds of my salary goes.
I could use an extra 100k now
Im a millennial, I make 60k a year but I would be happy and content with a 100k. I guess it depends where you live. In Spain 60k a year would be amazing but in the Netherlands it’s okay.
Let’s say you are a couple with 2 kids.
**Housing** – 4 bedroom semi-detached or terraced house. Will cost around £575,000. 25 year mortgage, 5% interest: £3,330/month.
**Utilities** (Electricity, gas, water, council tax, internet, 2x mobile phones): £600/month
**Transport** – Train (2x season tickets from commuter zone into London) and car (leased hybrid, insurance and fuel): £945/month
**Insurance** (home, income protection, private medical): £239/month
**Childcare** (1 child, 25 hours/week): £540/month
**Necessities** (groceries, clothing, dentistry): £691/month
**Entertainment** (TV licence, 4x streaming services, cinema once a month, takeout once a week, cup of coffee each day): £598.50/month
**Holiday** (summer package holiday): £334/month
**Gifts**: £100/month
This comes out as spending of £7,377.50/month, or £88,530/year, for a comfortable but not extravagant middle-class lifestyle. A modest but comfortable house, a decent car (not a BMW or anything like that), kids are in state education.
Assuming a perfectly even dual income, that’s post-tax earnings of £44,265 per partner. That’s £60,391 pre-tax.
So I think to afford a middle class lifestyle you need a pre-tax salary of around £60k and a partner earning the same.
>US millennials (the generation born between 1981 and 1996) even named their price: they need an annual $525,000 (€480,700) salary to feel financially happy.Meanwhile, Gen Z Americans ask for $128,000; Gen X $130,000; and Boomers say $124,000 a year would do. As a whole, the average American would settle with $284,167, according to the study.
I feel like something went wrong with the survey / polling regarding Millennials… It makes no sense it would be 4x the answer from generations before and after it.
This feels like a statistical error rather than an actual answer.