Make money in America, move to a better country

American wages are some of the best in the world. Particularly for a white collar worker. The average salary in the United States is $66,622 while in countries like Germany it is €52,000. In the UK it is £37,430, Spain comes in it at €30,655, and France gets €45,180. You get the picture.

In my experience though wages for jobs such as software engineers, data scientist and others are much more than that. With medium level employees easily receiving 6 figures. This is more than enough in most U.S. cities to start early savings and quickly reach CoastFIRE. Using the strategy of working in America you can get CoastFIRE within 5 - 10 years depending on your saving rate.

Not only is American wages more, but in most cities the cost of living is also more. If you are able to make your numbers work in the US surely they will work in most European countries. Sure, Munich, London, Copenhagen might be a different story, but Barcelona, Berlin, Prague and other cities can work.

Once you reach CoastFIRE in the US, you can then pursue jobs in European cities and take a large pay cut. Your investments will fill the difference in income eventually and you will be able to work torwards citizenship or indefinite right to remain. Usually this can take somewhere between 5 - 10 years. To be fair though, you will need to have skills that these countries value, or be able to live there on a digital nomad visa.

The steps are for you to figure out, but anything is possible. This is what CoastFIRE gives you, freedom to design your life, to choose what you want and work towards it. You might not need $2 million like you do in America to retire, it might be as simple as €1 million euros. Not to mention in most of these countries, happiness, quality of life and average lifespan are higher than in America.

Fewer guns, no need to worry about health insurance, walkable cities, new cultures and access to other European or Asian cities is just a few of the benefits of moving.

As someone pursuing CoastFIRE I am going to attempt this for the next few years in the UK. I am not sure if it will be permanent afterall family is in the US but we will see how the next few years go.