LIFE AT MINIMUM WAGE: USA vs. Germany | Housing, Utilities, Food & More!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 มิ.ย. 2024
- What's the cost of living in Germany versus the USA for workers at minimum wage? Let's find out.
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In today's episode, we compare cost of living in the United States versus the cost of living in Germany with factors such as housing, utilities, food and transportation - all to better understand just exactly how far your money takes you in both countries.
Episode 100 | #costofliving #germany #americaningermany #usa #germansalaries #americansalaries #socialism #capitalism #capitalismvssocialism #universalhealthcare #wages #taxes #housing #food | Filmed March 11th, 2023
Jump to Your Favorite Topic:
00:00 Intro
01:50 Minimum Wage in Germany vs. Minimum Wage in the USA
06:04 Housing in Germany vs. Housing in the USA
14:20 Shocking utility costs in Germany vs. utilities in the USA
19:09 Transportation in Germany vs. Transportation in the USA
24:44 Where is the cheapest food?
26:06 Where did all of the money go?!
To Learn More about the Topics in this Video, Check out these videos:
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• "McJob" USA vs. GERMAN...
THE BIG DEBATE: American Capitalism vs. German "Socialism" - SALARIES, TAXES, & SOCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
• THE BIG DEBATE: Americ...
THE SHOCKING Cost of Living in USA vs. Germany (Part 2) | HOUSING, UTILITIES, TRANSPORTATION & FOOD
• THE SHOCKING Cost of L...
Free College: How can Germany afford it? (And not the USA)
• Free College: How can ...
THE REALITY OF UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE IN GERMANY vs. American Private Healthcare
• THE REALITY OF UNIVERS...
UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE BENEFITS IN GERMANY | Does America do better or worse?
• UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE B...
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Originally from the Midwest of the USA, we moved to the #blackforest in 2013 and quickly embraced #expatlife. As American expats living in #Germany, things weren't always easy, but we've grown to love our life in Germany. We started this #travelvlog to share our experiences with friends and family, and to help those who are interested in moving overseas! Whether you are interested in moving abroad, working abroad, studying abroad, raising a family abroad, or just want to #traveleurope, we're here to give you a first person look at what lies ahead. 😊🎥🌎
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Mit dem Gutscheincode (FORESTFAMILY) sparst Du in Deutschland bis zu 90€ aufDeine ersten 4 Boxen von HelloFresh ( bit.ly/HELLOBLACKFOREST )- Kostenlosen Versand für die 1. Box gibtʼs obendrauf dazu!
I am a huge Hello Fresh fan :) I hate shopping but I love cooking.
uhm... big-ish mistake:
income / 30% = 10/3 * income
income * 30% = 3/10 * income
u did calculate it right, thou... just the slide/animation has the wrong sign...
or do i have it wrong?
I saw a video of a what was apparently the toughest slum in stockholm and im like is this a joke where is the broken boarded up vacant lots shops and buildings where are the street thugs homeless hookers and addicts wandering about? Where is all the filth and trash its a slum its suspose to be shitty dirty and rundown it looks like a middle class mabey working class urban yuppy community stateside and it has good transit it must be an expensive core area or rapidly gentrifying. Ok there are talking about crime but all i hear is some property crime theft and drugs like chalk outlines are we talking here. i legit checked to see if it was the swedish version of the onion making fun of rich people in safe parts of town being terrified of crime
One minor point to make is the idea of internet/cable in the US. Traditional cable and satellite TV in the US is now down to around 53% of households and "streaming" cable like TH-cam TV, Hulu Live, Sling, etc. is at less than 10%. Rates for people in the 18-34 range in the US was down to 34% as of January 2023 and is almost assuredly lower now.
I honestly wish your audience is not only Germans but mostly US Americans, that then see that worker's rights, social security and universal health care are not frightening "socialism" but the basis fir a free society.
We hope this makes it across the pond as well. I think the US has a lot to learn when it comes to worker benefits and the overall benefit that does to one's economy and social safety net.
@@TypeAshton could you share, from your youtube-analytics, where most of your audiance comes from? Ist it evenly split or does it depend on the video? Oo thx.
@ochala9541
Unfortunately, it's mostly Germans who watch our Expat channels. For me, it was 70% German, 10% USA, and 20% others. The fact that I couldn't reach an American audience, or really any significant audience outside Germany is part of the reason I stopped making videos for this niche. I don't need to show Germans how Germany is. They already know.
I am an American who frequently watches this channel and hopes to move to Germany in the next few years. Still have to improve my German quite a bit, though.
Unfortunately, it doesn't. I live in the US and when I tell these things to my American family and friends, they are like "Woow, really?" and forgot about it the next second. NOBODY would wake up and accept the truth that the US is broken....very broken and NOBODY is doing anything about it.
Don't forget, we'll soon have the "Deutschlandticket" starting in May. That means the monthly public transport expenditure for all of Germany will drop significantly to 49€ per month.
However, great video as always, very informative!
There also often are special offers from the local public transport company for companies.
I have a yearly ticket for local public transport and it costs me ~30 Euro per month.
The city bus in my 30k city costs 1 € per ride for years.
@@arnodobler1096 which is unfortunately not common in Germany. Public transport prices very often rise at least once every two years in most public transport associations, while there are even big cities in Germany that did not really update their prices for public car parking in over a decade …
@@patrickhanft Yes, that's right.
The city wrote that since the price reduction they have 40,000€ additional costs per year. A piece of cake for 30,000 inhabitants.
In some months the turnover is higher than before.
@@Atavar74 The best about the 49 Euro ticket is not the price (it would have been better to have 29 Euro ticket, 9 € was not sustainable, but 49 is pretty close to what I already pay. No, it is not the price that incites me - it is the possibility to use it everywhere in Germany. Not thinking about using it for trains - that would be too much of a hassle. But when you arrive at some destination and can then just go on with the ticket as if you were at home, never having to fear you have accidentally bought the wrong ticket - THAT is the charmer for me.
The main advantage in Germany is that you are fully insured no matter how much you earn.
and when you earn not enough, the Jobcenter will help you out with "ergänzende Sozialleistunge" to reach the minimum income needed
@@ulliulli it all sounds so great - but really - it is not. I have lived in several countries in Europe - Germany is by far the poorest - in Italy people are much better off ... strange, is it no ?
@@Irene_Lauretti interesting. Can you elaborate further?
@@Irene_Lauretti I thought that Slovenia is the poorest and has the lowest living standard in Europe.
@@Irene_Lauretti So why are so many Italians moving to Germany and not the other way around? It's not the climate thats for sure...
This video does a great job fleshing out one of the most important differences between Germany and the USA for the average person. Great content!
Thank you!!
Even beyond the money the comfort factor of knowing you're covered in Germany is worth a lot. Knowing if the car does die you can switch to the public transport. If you have a big medical issue then you're covered both for the hospital but also all the aftercare. If you lose your job there's still an income to live on. etc.
and this comfort helps to stay healthy as well cause stress is bad for health.
.My spouse and I are adding a variety of stocks/ETF to my present holdings for the long term, We've set aside $250k to start following inflation-indexed bonds and stocks of companies with solid cash flows, I believe it is a good time to capitalize on the market for long-term gains, but it wouldn't hurt to know means of actualizing short term profit.
Having an investment adviser is the best way to go about the market right now, especially for near retirees, I've been in touch with a coach for awhile now mostly cause I lack the depth knowledge and mental fortitude to deal with these recurring market conditions, I nettd over $220K during this dip, that made it clear there's more to the market that we avg joes don't know
credits to Yuval Eric Brokman, one of the best portfolio manager;s out there. he;s well known, you should look him up
google his name,
Yuval Eric Brokman.
search his full name.
You guys are an invaluable wealth of information for someone like me looking to move to Germany after I get out of the military this year. After having watched most of your cost analysis videos I think it is safe to say I will most definitely come out with more disposable income after taxes, social contributions and living expenses there than here. Vielen dank! Also, I started using Lingoda to learn more accurate German. Which is helping a bunch. I am doing about 12 classes a month. Good luck with the new baby. Hopefully Jack is a good big brother.
move to the netherlands instead. You will be way more happy. There are so many Germans who flew out of Germany currently. Me including.
True , these Videos are not the actual truth , because I lived my whole life here and will move out , so do ur own research and u will see.
I think it depends - as always, on personal requirements. If you value relative stability, and state intervention and are an employee with plans to have it stay that way, Germany can be a great option and has also a high quality of living. You also learn to value how big of a deal it is to live in Europe's major economy when it just comes to the availability of services, products, convenience, and cultural things to do in a broader sense.
If you are an Entrepreneur, or very self-sufficient, and independent. And hate high tax burdens that are going into financing stuff that is often a redistribution of money, and are also often not at all used efficiently (to be fair, that is true for every state or even big cooperation), Germany might not be the best fit.
Personally, I migrated from Germany to Cyprus (EU), and never regretted it. Even if I miss out on a few of the benefits (partially) mentioned above.
I'm trying to retire out of Germany and plan on staying there or in the Netherlands or the UK.
@@dux_bellorumthe UK? Are you ok my guy?
Car sharing is actually a pretty good option. We used it, when we were living in London. It was perfect for trips to the countryside. Here in Switzerland, we were also members of a car-sharing club until we bought a house in the countryside. With 2 kids in a rural area, a car is not strictly a necessity (due to great public transport), but makes life a whole lot easier.
Max is going to love the Deutschland-Ticket.
Addendum: All families are pretty much into expensive vehicles. The most expensive car I ever bought in my life (had a total of 7 over the years), was a used Toyota Verso (which is extremely flexible: It seats 5 with a good boot, or 7 if you pull the additional two seats up, leaving you without any mentionable cargo space) at 12K. This, when we had an annual household of 200K.
We used it for a couple of years when we lived in the city center. It just didn't make sense for us to keep a car (with a payment) plus registration and insurance and gas. Even once we had Jack, we still used it and it saved us hundreds every month.
Yeah, my Parents live in a bike able citiy and are pretty active (they are in their 60ies). So they like dirve, once to twice a month, mostly to visit relative in countryside care homes. So they dont need their own car. It way cheaper for them, to just use the car share. For most bigger purchases they use a bicycle trailer. Most of the time they ust use their bicycle bags, its a suprising amount that can fit in those.
Again: goosebumps!
There are quite a lot young Germans who are dreaming about moving to the U.S. because they can earn a lot more money there. They are convinced they would have a much better live across the ocean. But they probably have never seen what you showed today and in the last videos. This should be enlightening!
The grass is always greener elsewhere. Well, sometimes it really is, just not always the way people believe. ;-)
@@mogon721 The grass is always the greenest in Shotland.
Those Germans would be glad to learn that almost everything in this video wouldn't apply to them. Any Western European that is able to legally immigrate to the US will most likely be getting a job that is 3-4 times that of minimum wage. Legal immigrants tend to do extremely well because the higher barrier to entry means they actually need to already have the skills necessary to do well in the US.
The most important thing that those young Germans need to know is that better pay comes with the expectation of harder and longer work. Americans aren't inherently more productive than Europeans, but the United States has a culture that expects fewer vacation days and more work out of employees in other ways. If those young Germans plan to devote most of their energy in their life to work, then they will see much more fruits of their labor in the US and Germany, but if their goal is to live a nice relaxing life without a focus on work then they'll have a better time in Europe.
@@steemlenn8797 Have you ever seen artificial grass in LA? It's the greenest you will ever see. ;-)
@@BulletRain100 Wow, so brainwashed. Productivity per hour worked is higher in Germany and most of western Europe than in your land of limitless self-exploitation. People can afford to work fewer hours because of that higher productivity. Your bigotted work "ethic" twists your brain with that nonsense. But actually, you cannot explain what those "fruits" of your labor are supposed to be. You cannot eat your money. You can't take it with you into your grave. Work is not the purpose of life. It's sad when somebody can't even see how empty his live is because his only measure of self-esteem is something as worthless as money or property.
You know, these young Germans DO see more fruits of their work than you. They have a productive life. They have time to enjoy it. And they work to live, they don't live to work their behinds off.
You know, it's hard to explain to somebody in that bubble of superficiality how superficial their life is. But let me tell you, you are the epitome of that problem. You'll never grow as a person if your only purpose is greed.
I love your channel. I had to comment on this video. I have a family of 5 with a husband who is unable to work(severe mental health diagnosis). Your budget hit home. I am a government employee and our 14 year old car(our only car) died a few days ago. I have no way to get to work. The nearest bus is 4 miles away. Uber will cost me $2,000 a month. My credit score makes it impossible to even obtain a loan for a couple thousand to purchase a clunker. On top of that, I'm being sued for my delinquent loans, which will likely take half of my bi-weekly takehome pay of $1,438.15.
I will likely loose my job if I don't show up by Wednesday. I have-$583 in my bank account.
I have often dreamt of moving to another country with mass transit, with a bit slower lifestyle. Sadly, that would be my only escape from this life in the U.S.
My story is not unique. I know this. Much like many other Americans I know, I cry myself to sleep every night.
I hope that in some way, your situation will take a turn for the better soon!
I wish you all the best and that your situation will improve fast. Don’t give up. When one door closes, another one will open up. Good luck and God speed
❤ hope you are better now
I just posted a comment because I believed you had made a miscalculation, because I couldn't believe that the American family would go into debt over the grocery bill while the German family had so much more, but I double-checked and I was wrong. That's a huge difference though, wow! And like you said, while the German family has universal healthcare and doesn't have to worry about huge unexpected costs, it only takes a broken leg to send the American family even further into debt. That's wild! Hard to believe that so many Americans think their country is the best. I'm sure there's many things in the US that are pretty great, but the overall system ain't it.
Yea, as a Belgian I honestly like that my expenses and income are so predictable.
I rather have a lower income that I know I'm going to be ok with than a higher one with pitfalls.
This is what happened to friends of ours, both in academics. She fell ill with an auto-immune disease, had to stop work and now he is going into retirement with a lot of debt. They have nothing to leave to their children. They both said, in retrospect, that although they both earned a lot more teaching in USA at universities, they spent a lot more of their income there, and they wished they could have stayed in Europe.
Kids under 18 are also fully covered for free here in Germany so you don't even have to worry about them needing any therapy like speech therapy or medicine because you don't even need to pay those 5-10€ like an adult would.
My nephew has ASD and ADHD and attended all kinds of different treatments and therapies and this was all fully covered.
There's a reason for the saying "Nothing is as expensive as being poor". However, what strikes me more and more every time you do such comparison videos about the cost of living is, how American style of living, usually triggered by the decisions of urban planning and especially zoning with it's pressure to the detached single family home and multiple car ownership, makes it difficult for the vast majority of the population to reduce cost of living to a modest level, if necessary.
That shows in the high costs of anything related to mobility and infrastructure, e.g. Germany's broadband prices are huge compared to many other European countries, but costs in the US for that are ridiculously higher in comparison and if you think about that how sparsely these networks need to cover huge areas with much lower number of subscribers per square mile in comparison to denser urban areas, it is easy to understand how these prices emerge. (And yes, there is this usual 30€/month cell phone subscription in Germany, but many can easily cut that to a 10€/month plan, if they need to save money, and you would still have about 5gigs of data on that, which can cover most needs if used sensible. I don't know if something like that is possible in the US).
To be honest, I believe that many policy decisions over many decades have created the conditions that "make it easy" for many Americans to become financially disconnected and slip into precarious circumstances. Good for the society in which there is a sense of responsibility to maintain the conditions for "easy circumstances" instead of making it a personal responsibility to "not be rich" and at best to grumble here and there against rising gas prices. Build denser cities and more cost effective infrastructure to reduce poverty and over-indebtedness!
True. I mentioned briefly in this video at the end that it's likely this American family probably couldn't buy if they wanted to not go into debt... But to find something with three bedrooms to rent, would mean moving even further out and probably longer commute with gas. There's some exceptions to this in certain areas... But it's a problem so many families in the US face if they also want to live in a neighborhood with good schools.
I live in California. My broadband is 80 bucks a month, and I have the highest tier of service. Spectrum threw in basic package for streaming television. Also, cell service has also went down substantially. I pay only 30 bucks a line. I could get service for 20 if I tried a lesser plan
@@karenholmes6565 maybe i should have you negotiate my monthly cable and internet bill with spectrum down. $230 a month. Then again, we don't watch "basic" TV.
@@uliwehner I have no desire to pay for cable. I stream all of the content I am interested in viewing. I already had paramount and prime because of other services I subscribe to. When a show I am interested in on a streaming service comes out I pay for that service, and then cancel once all of the episodes come out. I spend between 5 and 10 bucks a month. Like I said, spectrum allows me to stream a lot of cable shows for free with ads. My elderly mom lived with me until she passed in 2020. She had to have a robust cable package. Since she left us I haven't seen the need to keep it going.
@@karenholmes6565 we have been thinking about dropping cable, but we had to wait until " the last of us" concluded. So good.
This was a good thought exercise, to bring the practical costs of family life front & center. My wife & I are raising two children on a single income, & I've worked for the same employer for the past +20-years. Compared to most of our peers, we're making a fairly decent wage, however our budget is beyond tight. Ideally, we need a second income, but that just doesn't work, when factoring-in vehicle costs & a babysitter. My employer once had an annual cost of living raise every year, however they discontinued that benefit over 10-years ago, and that's made things tough for us as a family. We can no longer afford to put monies aside for our retirement. We have a number of large expenses on our plate (i.e. house repairs, car repairs, etc...), and are wrestling with what we can realistically afford, under our current income. Very frustrating to say the least.
We enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work! Guter Tag!
Suggestion: explore and show how Germany support people which has low income by covering part or living costs. As well as how is taken care of people that are for any reason comoletely depending on social help (Hartz IV).
I suppose that might be interesting for US citizens, is not only health care that is good here.
Greetings from Nürnberg! :)
An exact comparison can not be drawn, because both systems are simply too different.So I think you've come as close to reality as possible.I am of the opinion that people who work in the low-wage sector do not feel particularly comfortable either in the USA or in Germany.However, people in Germany have less to worry about survival than in the USA.
Thank you very much for the enormous work and time you have invested in this important topic and have explained very clearly in your videos.
I know a single mom working in the low income sector in Germany and I think you used the right words to describe her situation. She’s not comfortable, but she doesn’t have to worry about so many things, that someone in her situation in the USA would have to worry about.
Her income is actually spent mostly on rent, food, clothing, the small car she needs to get to work and child „fun stuff“. She doesn’t have to worry about health insurance, childcare, or even losing her home or not having enough money for food.
Wow, that was amazing! I've been following your videos for some time now and I truly enjoy your thorough research.
I've always been wondering why so many households in the US are in debt and I used to attribute it to all the clutter they accumulated and just wild spending habits. Now I'm feeling really bad for not seeing and knowing about the real reasons.
Thank you so, so much for your thorough research and for putting together this video! 👍🍀
Btw I sold my car last year and my expenses for public transportation are currently at 90 Euros per month.
I was really surprised you moved Max from Berlin to Stuttgart, as Stuttgart is probably one of the most expensive cities to live in Germany. If you are looking for an average bigger city, Hannover is always the way to go :)
The difference would have been even higher.
The Top 10 most expensive cities are flooded with Stuttgart and München xD But to be fair its very hard to compare.. because if we go that route you have to compare Munchen Frankfurt Berlin Stuttgart with the likes of NY, LA and so on... So I think the its fair to go of Infrastructure and so on.
the size comparison was certainly more adequate. but when u want to do apples to apples in terms of housing cost you'd have to factor in local wages levels, etc.
They compare in car industry.
Agree. You can not *cherry pick* a region vs another region to compare smt at the same lvl. You need to use the *average* of a country vs another country, to get the average stat of smt, other than that, is a never always right comparison bc i can compare the lowest Cost of living region in the US vs the HIGHEST cost of living region in Germany, to make smt seem lower in difference than it is. Just like this video is about. It is a weak path to compare smt. Highly biased.
*>> I am from Stuttgart* while we have one of the highest Income region in Germany, a *Döner* (did) cost in Stuttgart 4(,50)€ vs 2€ in Berlin some years ago.
Because we (family of 4) lived just outside of Basel, Switzerland where we worked, we did fine without a car for about 8 years. That was, until we got a dog and my wife decided she wanted to do Search & Rescue with the dog. Because the training was often for a whole weekend and included schlepping a LOT of equipement, we bought a nice Opel stationwagen used. But we still used public transportation to get to and from work. So we only used the car then for vacations, Search & Rescue training and large shopping trips.
good for you.
P.S. - I moved to Switzerland in 1977. Since then we've taken longer trips through parts of the US on vacations, but also to check out, if moving back could be feasible. Since my wife is Swiss, she would, generally speaking not be elligable to work in the US for at least one year, if not longer. so we'd have to live on a single income for that time, perhaps longer. I came to the realisation during each trip, that just financially, we'd have to reduce our standard of living we'd come to expect living and earning in Switzerland so much in order to exist in the US, that it would be more than unwise to move to the US. We simply have it too good here. And that's not even counting political situations, social situations encountered in the US which we simply don't have to be confronted with here.
But it wasn't a hard sell to stay in Switzerland. Although our income was (we're retired now) more in the lower-middle-class area, we never lacked fuild finances, always took full use of our 5-6 weeks of paid vacations by visiting new and exciting places in Europe/US and our kids enjoyed affordable and quality school and university eductions in the fields of their choices (Sociology and Medicine). And as retirees, both of us having taken "early retirement" - my wife with 64, me with 62 years of age - we're very satisfied with "only" a bought condo (garden apartment) and "only" one car (a Kia E- Niro EV) and "only" one dog (an 11 year old used=rescued Galgo Español - granted I'd love many, many more dogs, but that an agreement I struck with my wife - one dog is better than more dogs and no wife).
Both of my parents never had a driving license here in Germany and I'm 30 and don't have one either. My two older siblings both now have one but my older brother only passed his about 2 or so weeks ago and our older sister never uses her license and just takes public transport within the city. My older brother only got a license because he works a bit outside of the city and only in night shifts so getting there is a bit inconvenient if you don't have a car and he is now in a higher position where he was able to afford it.
My partner has a driving license but only uses it for his job and very occasionally when we need a car to move something then we rent one for a few hours and he can drive it. It just doesn't make financial sense to buy a car and maintain it when the bus he needs to get to work has a stop 2 minutes away from our apartment and has a stop almost directly in front of his job. Similar situation for me but it's a bit further for me but I still just need one single Tram. I also only work during the day and can work from home a few times a week.
This is so true! Our family income is about 2400 net a month for a family of 5. And my husband is in a phd program so he will make more than double the money ones he's done. We have a car and live in an apartment that has a huge garden close to Hannover. We pay around 500€ for food a month. Healthcare is free, childcare is free in our state for children over 3. We can still save a few hundret euros every month even though our rent is a bit more than 30% of my husbands income. He could make around than $200k in the US after his PhD, but! we could have less money there than he here since healthcare and rent would take up so much of his income.
Wow, love your videos! 🙂Thanks so much for all the time you spent researching this!
For me it's quite astonishing that half of the US citizens with an income of more than $100,000 per year can barely make ends meet with their money. In the big cities, it might be similar for us with a corresponding lifestyle, but here with me in the country, you could still live quite luxuriously with such a salary. But our region here also has one of the lowest costs of living in all of Germany.
I worked for five years on minimum wage and it was sometimes pretty hard, but we lived pretty simply and so we two could make it. Really a crappy feeling when I found no sleep at night because I thought about whether any household appliances or the car might break down and then what needs to be done because it's the 20th of the month and there's only €30 left in the household budget.
I’ve been watching your videos for about a year now (and recently became a subscriber) and want to congratulate you on the wonderful job you’re doing, from “building” your house, getting your graduate degree at a German university … to these recent comparisons of wages and living expenses in the USA and Germany. Extremely meticulous research, surely not easy to come by and very time consuming, and finding suitable examples and counterparts in the 2 countries. I’m looking forward to more.
A great video yet again! Your uploads have become part of my sunday schedule, and it's always something to look forward to!
Awe that's so awesome. Thank you so much!
Same here. I think the quality and time Ashton, and perhaps Jonathan, put into research for this short video is astounding!
excellent research -> excellent video. As others have stated, I wish more people in USA would watch your productions.
The work you put into these videos is staggering. Thank you!
This(!) was exactly the outcome I predicted on the first part of this series. The cost of living has a huuuuge impact on the quality of life as well as the financial situation.
Tiny little thing: in Germany you can apply a certain percentage of your commuting costs vs your income as a tax rebate. So do certain payments for paying off mortgages which are designed to allow for either private home ownership or an Eigentumswohnung, a fully owned apartment in a condominium.
There are multiple such tax rebates available. I am certain that also applies to the USA but I have zero info about those.
Thank you so much, Ashton, for your dedication and fairness. Your (again, as much as I can tell) unbiased method as well as sources make this one of only a handful of comparison videos I've ever seen to take a scientific approach to a topic that so easily drifts off into emotional shouting matches.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I look forward to more videos from you. I've been dropping your channel name left, right, and center on reaction videos for others to watch when it comes to high information content.
You have lots of tax rebates in the US. If you have children you can use that as a tax rebate, if you drive for work (drive to meetings, meet customers at their home, etc) you can write that off, if you are a private business owner you might be able to write off commuting to work, if you pay a mortgage or any kind of loan you can write that off, if you use your cellphone for work purposes you can write off your monthly cellphone bill. There's tons and tons and tons of other things you can write off.
Mortgage payments are not tax deductible in germany.
@@jessicaely2521 In germany you can be an employee and write off driving to work and you're not supposed to use a private mobile for work purposes. My wife has a work sim and a private sim in the same phone because that gives her the ability to turn off the work phone outside working/on call hours. But it would get far to extensive to add all potential write offs because both countries do have a long list of possible options.
@@tnit7554 Beg to differ. If you have a mortgage that was setup for refurbishing your apartment or house to make it more environmentally friendly like better insulation, solar panels, heat pumps, etc those mortgage payments can be applied to your available income as rebates for your Einkommensteuer. It's a bit complicated (like all German bureaucracy, sigh) to get the Finanzamt to acknowledge that but it is definitely possible.
INTEREST on mortgage payments as well as depreciation of the building / apartment(s) on the property ARE A TAX WRITE OFF / TAX DEDUCTION in Germany, along with disagio for the loan, real property purchase tax (Grunderwerbsteuer), realtor fee, some maintenance bills, yearly property tax, home owners association fees, property maintenance fees etc. - AS LONG AS ONE RENTS OUT the house / apartment, and the owner doesn’t live there.
Example: you buy a 2-family = 2 apartment house, which on first sight might look a lot like a single family home in the States, you live in one apartment and rent out the other apartment, then the costs related to only the rented out apartment can be written off. That apartment must actually be rented out and you must declare the rental income resp between renters show that you’ve advertised it as rental property (to be let they call it in Britain I think ?) made repairs, which of course are also a write off, for short, it is a business for you.
We’ve done that in Germany, we bought and then rented out a small 2-room apartment in a larger set of buildings, with various size apartments on the top stories and several small business rooms/sites on the ground floors (such mixed purpose buildings are not uncommon in Germany, the zoning is handled completely different from how it’s done in the US).
So it is a write off / tax deductible because it’s considered “NEGATIVE INCOME” supposedly to become positive income at some time. Kind of like a business.
Of course the rents and fees received (whichever costs you’re allowed to pass on to your renter and choose to pass on) must be reported as income. Again, like a business.
Especially in the early years of the ownership of this rental property we got rather large tax refunds … at the end of 20 years the mortgage was paid off, the tax refund had meantime dwindled to less than 1000 € because the large write offs like interest and depreciation were finished, we’ve had a few not so great experiences with some of our renters over those 20 years, the current renters wanted to move out, we didn’t really want anymore the hassle being a “landlord” can sometimes create, the housing market was really bad = low since a few years, and the new management of the property (which also had bought 80 % of the buildings) had ownership majority and pretty much could do whatever they pleased, if they would have decided to gilden the roof and put marble in the hallways we would have had no way to veto it and would have been forced to pay our share of improvements … so when at that time we were among the last 3 “hold-outs” of individual apartment owners and the management made us all an offer, we all took it.
Sold the apartment for much much less than what we paid for it, but because of rents and especially tax refunds we received over the 20 years, our net loss - after deducting mortgage, interest and all costs we had to pay over the years - was only around 6000 €.
That sounds terrible, a net loss of 6000 € on a real property, but housing markets go up and down in Germany too (always up only in some metropolitan areas like Munich and Stuttgart and such, whereas our property was located in a small rural town), and after all we now had a nice chunk of money in our bank account, which we otherwise wouldn’t have had, because we simply wouldn’t have had the willpower to put a nice amount in the piggy bank every month after month … C’est la vie.
And here in Germany the proceeds and any profits from the sale of up to 2 real properties used as “income” are not taxable as long as you hold/keep the property/properties for a minimum of 10 years. So even if we would have gotten double the purchase price it would have been a tax free gain.
Only when one owns 3 income producing properties, the profit will be taxed, and in that case also for the other properties, even dating back to an earlier sale.
Socialized capitalism so to speak.
Help the middle class accrue some money to allow a somewhat comfortable life, but don’t reward the richer ones too much …
And for self-used properties there are also some credits and tax write-offs available, for example “Baukindergeld”, (money given tax free for each underage child when a family builds or buys a house or apartment), „Förderung von Wohneigentum“, loans from the KfW (which was founded in 1948 to help build up a destroyed Germany) and probably others.
The films set in the USA I have seen where "poor" people were both employed and had 2 cars and a house now make sense. This series is definitely an eye opener not only to the Americans.
Loving the series! Excellent work, even though it's not always possible to make an apples-to-apples comparison on such subjects.
Could you guys consolidate the series about income comparison into a playlist, so that it becomes easier to share it, please?
I live in Switzerland - but yet I still watched your series till the end as it is so well made.
That's awesome! thank you so much
Love seeing yalls content show up in my feed. It's kind of my dream to live in either Germany or Denmark so learning some of the more practical tid bits is a great help I feel
You could move to the border regionbetwen the two. There is a German minority north of the border and a Danish minority south of the border. So you could learn both languages. ;-)
By the way, the local language (it's more than just a dialect) would sound strangely familiar for an English speaker because that's the region where the Angles came from.
According to Statista, the percentage of households in Germany unable to pay their montly bills is around 8.5 percent.
Looking at several financial websites in the US that percantage is set somewhere between 40 and 60 percent, depending on how they calculate.
Half of US households can't pay their monthly bills? How does that even work?
@@Lillith. dept
@@Lillith. yeah... credit cards. Lots and lots of credit cards. If a credit card is full, you just order another from a different bank and shift the debt around.
40 to 60% of US can’t pay their bills?The economy would collapse if that was the case.Let’s keep it real here guys;)
@@dontcareimacat7821 It did, though. Remember the financial crash in 2008? That was caused by millions of Americans defaulting on their dept. The government had to bail out the banks. Nothing has changed in the system since then. So it’s going to happen again.
Thanks for this series of videos, very sobering indeed! I was thinking about relocating to the Bay Area from Berlin (I work in tech), but watching these videos made me reconsider. Even though on paper you earn at least double in SFBA, most of it is actually burned by crazy housing, transportation and childcare costs. While Germany is not perfect, it does offer overall a better bang for your buck :)
I lived in the Bay Area. Would never consider doing so again. I earned double in the States to what I earned here in Germany when I first moved here, and I have never been happier. In my opinion, the difference in standard of living is so vast that there is not enough money in the world to entice me back to America from my wonderful German home.
SFBA is the most expensive area in the US. Yeah the prices are horrendous, it's a shame.
It's so hard not to live outside your means in America when you are constantly told to buy more and buy bigger. Went minimalist towards the final years in Texas and realized that all the stuff I bought means nothing. Love that I'm in a new country and I don't have the urge of seeing something and thinking it would like nice in the flat.
MrMoneyMustache in case you don't know.
Doesn't do much anymore, but you can simply start the blog from the beginning. Give your old consumer sucka self a much needed facepunch!
Excellent video as always.
I've an idea for another one, if you haven't done something like this yet: starting a business in America vs Germany, including employee wages, tax contributions, social benefits, and the assistance programs available to entrepreneurs in both countries.
I guess, in this aspect, Germany is not coming out well. German bureaucracy is unfortunately a killer of personal enterprise. However: Doing such a video, with the level of in-depth research we know and cherish from this channel, would most certainly be an extremely challenging and time-consuming endeavour.
@mina_en_suiza I'm sure it would take lots of time and attention. The beaurocratic side, I'd bet is nightmarish. We have enough of that in the states related to starting and operating businesses (and about 10,000 little fees and filings that it's easy to get tripped up on).
My main question's got to do with funding. Namely -- loans, grants, protections, etc in place for the business. There are a lot of options here in the states, sure, but the government also doesn't make it easy to own or operate a business, and there's a lot of things that go into operations (example: banking) that have fewer benefits for businesses than they do for standard consumers. Lots of services that consumers can get cheaply, businesses have to pay more for.
Plus, another issue is that not everyone qualifies for business loans or grants -- and not just on financial merit or creditworthiness. That's an issue I faced as well.
Hi, they are black forest family!
I've been following your videos for quite some time now, and must say, that I am always very impressed.
Full disclosure, I'm an expat from California, living in Germany since '74. Came here as a child went through academia and have remained here ever since. You may be an "echo chamber" to me, but you've in my eyes, validated many of my feelings and thoughts on living in the United States versus living in Germany.
You've gone into depths which I have not really accessed, since I never really had to validate my opinion.
But since you've been putting out these specific comparison videos, I've been sharing these links to friends and family in the United States. ...doing this to try and get them to take a good look at their current situation & trying to get them to leave their USA centric view of the world and to maybe think about what my home country could definitely do better.
Thank you again for doing a wonderful job of research and presentation!
What did they reply?
Nothing really, which was a relief. Worst case would've been some of my elderly relatives spouting Republican bullshit about all this being communist lies.
@@JB-zu2we I was about asking if they called you a communist, but didnt wanted to use this prejustice.
All your recent video essays are coming together like puzzle pieces for this comparison. You’re playing the long game here. I like it!
Excellent work with a powerful punch at the end. Thank you so much!
Another excellent video! And on your final point of cutting out all the fluff, nothing boils my blood more than when someone says "you don't need that Starbucks coffee." Why not? Why don't we get to enjoy the things we like just because we don't make a lot of money? Why do I have to choose between taking my wife out to dinner or paying the electric bill? To be fair, my wife and I are living comfortably, and we can enjoy these things, but many people can't. I have a coworker, who is a single mom of two, who is in the red every month. It makes me sick to my stomach every time our CEO tells her that she just needs to budget better. Yet his and his wife's cars total over $160,00. He's so out of touch with reality it's not even funny. (Which is why I'm starting a new job in a week, making almost $15,000 more a year doing the same thing, and working from home.)
10000% agree. We really have a cost of living crisis going on, and even for those making a pretty nice income, things can be tight.
WOW! 160K???
Let's say both would have gotten a small car costing 1/10 of that... let's round for 20K. That means there is 120K or, if invested, according to 4% rule, 400 dollar per month for eternity that they could have additionally!
btw. that one starbucks coffee per day for 2 people adds up to the same amount. As is eating out. The "small" things are adding up fast and heavy.
As someone who lives in Florida, it has become increasingly difficult for people to pay their bills. Rents and home prices have skyrocketed, home owners insurance has gone through the roof, healthcare and food prices are pretty high and public transportation is almost non-existent, so you have to have a car. Because of increased property values at such an exorbitant rate, the property taxes have become outrageously high. We were lucky, when we had our house built, the prices were much more affordable and we also got grandfathered in, at a lower property tax rate and capped tax increase per year, that was available back then (SOH-Save Our Homes) but no longer exists. A house just down the road from us recently sold, and the new assessed property taxes on that house are a whopping $7500 a year, compared to about $2300 for the previous owner. The minimum wage in Florida is $11.00 and will increase to $12.00 in September. I can see, why people have such difficulties even paying their rent, let alone buying groceries, insurance, etc., even if you make more than minimum wage. That's why people have to get room mates or are forced to live with their parents. We are truly in a crisis but very little is done about it. One gets the impression, that my home state is trying to weed out a certain socioeconomic percentage of the population, so only people with a lot more money can afford to live here anymore.
there is only one problem ! If all poor leave , who will work ??
@@rosemariebrown2413, my home state has not thought about those pesky repercussions that will come home to roost.
As always a wonderful video educating viewers on the differences between Germany and the United States. Housing may be one of the single aspects of poverty for low income workers. Between housing and food most people cannot make it.
I should add my own experience with home ownership has not been great. Yes we are homeowners. But we've never benefited as "experts" say we should. Our home in Oklahoma City appraised for $56K in like 1986. Then the housing market died. I mean our home, we took a loan out for $40K to remodel the kitchen, replace the roof, etc, dropped in value so quickly to about $12K. We owned the home outright because of inheritance. When we moved in 1998 we only got $50,500 so we were still under water 12 years later. :(
We were also drowning in CC debt and part of the $40K went to pay that off. Bad habits though meant we were back in the same boat quickly. I took on some side jobs, paid the CC debt down and have been CC debt free since. We still use CCs but we pay off the balances each month.
This makes us lucky and fortunate.
But we are looking to move again and the latest housing crises (the institutional/investor buyers) have made housing unaffordable. We are left wondering where we can move to and how much we are going to have to pay for housing.
I was so confused for a second. XD I had to go back to all family calculations to see where the heck the american family lost so much or why the german one didn´t get much deducted. I first thought that it was a mistake in the graphics but no! It was the transportation cost. Next to all the other ones that were a little bit higher the transportation was a huge chunk.
Just realised I'm actually excited esch Sunday morning to see what number crunching we will get into today....hahaha
Another fantastic episode and very interesting addition at the end which does make me wonder how "financial literacy " compares between the countries.
Especially as I think most Dutch (don't know for Germany) are used to saving before buying and most Americans seem to "just" buy and figure out how to pay later...
Granted I do personally feel we are not taught enough about finances in school.
Anyways keep up the excellent work!!
Thanks so much! Next week we are going to move on to crunch other numbers (political elections and campaign finance!)
@@TypeAshtonhahahaha cant wait to see how those numbers compare especially as I know very little about those types of finances (they don't really make the news here!?).
@@TypeAshton Looking forward to that
@@TypeAshton That will be exciting. I'm looking forward to it!
Hej, I really like the channel. Instead of watching your episodes, I mostly listen to them (while cooking, driving and biking). It would be totally convenient, at least for me, if there was an audio link. Thanks for your great channel.
Hi Ashton, another great video. I think there are so many variables you need to consider which at the very end come to the same result. To bring it to the basic point you did I applause to you. You nailed it down to a great picture. I admit I am German but travelled to the US feeling a thousand times East to West and Middle to South I had the same InSite by talking to friends and colleagues. Certainly, there are personal motivations to live in the States. But Germany is a nice place too. 😊 Keep on with your great videos. Thanks
In the US, on federal income tax, mortage interest is only deductible when the tax filer exceeds the zero bracket amount. In 2022, for married filing jointly, your itemized deducitons must exceed 25,900. There is also a limit on the deduction for the combination of home mortage interest and state income taxt. This limit is 10,000
Thank you for the wonderful information and data you provide. It's an eye opener on just how much difference there are between the two countries. Thank you for providing the final comparison chart at the end. It would be nice if a total could be provide during each section within your video, only a suggestion that I would like to see.
Die Videos sind ehrlich und immer gut mit Fakten unterlegt. Dafür einen großen Dank von mir!
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
Your research is impressive! And you're putting it out very well!
The follow up I was looking for 😁👍
Thanks for another great video.🥰
Awesome! Glad you liked it.
I am honestly more shocked than last week or the week before. I do not really know what to say exept "Great video as usual"
One could perhaps also mention that the single worker Max in Germany is very likely entitled to 50-60€ per month Wohngeld (rent support from the government for low-income workers).
Of course, it would be better if employers were obliged to pay a real living wage.
... and thanks for the nerdy (in a good way) videos that go much further than the typical assumptions and guesses.
Ashton crunching numbers. Always highly interesting.
Thank you.
What is hurtful is that the US has the money for all the social programs Germany has, an increase in the military and research budget and still reduce the deficit, by returning to the Tax system under 41 Bush or Clinton. Since 2000 so much money had being given the the Ultra Rich 1% by lower taxes it is ridiculous.
21:15 - starting at may 1st that cost will go down drastically thanks to the "Deutschlandticket". Its a monthly pass for every public transport in germany (expect fast long distance trains) for 49€/month.
yeah i think about getting it even though i bike to work (it's only 10 minutes) but i travel quite a bit for my job and being able to just hop on public transport anywhere you currently stay is really nice and probably worth the 50€
also you can just take a train on a weekend to go see something you'd probably wouldn't otherwise, or go shopping in the next bigger town instead of around the corner.
Excellent work, as always. But I've got a little supplement to add in your calculation. As a home- or condoowner you have to add something for future repairs like a new roof, a new heating system, repairs on the outside of the building. Otherwise the relative value of your prperty will soon start to decline. As a renter in Germany you may forget about those expenses.
US credit card debt is at record levels right now. And that's topping "normal" debt, like buying a house, medical bills (US), tuition (US), ...
It's really getting out of hand. University tuition, for example, has outpaced even the rise in inflation. I'm curious what will happen with the current Supreme Court case about student loan forgiveness.
@@TypeAshton the Court will likely strike it down as an overreach of executive power.
If you want to feel better, remember: Every dollar debt is a dollar wealth somewhere else.
Great and informative video. Thank you!
Every Sunday I look forward to seeing Dr. Ashton and her deep dives. Once again, another well researched presentation.
Because a lot of the difference in the finances of the hypothetical families is due to social spending, I’d like to suggest a topic: taxes, who pays them, and how much they pay, how is the tax burden distributed across incomes both in absolute dollar/euro amounts and as a percentage of income (not just tax rates), and fraction of GDP captured by taxes. A follow on topic might be how those taxes are spent: local services and infrastructure building and maintenance, military, police, schools/universities, wilderness presentation/national and state parks, who benefits from transfer payments/subsidies, is it sustainable, and how demographics influence them. This might require a more granular evaluation given, at least in the US, the wide variation in state and local tax policies and spending priorities.
Ab April soll es ja das Deutschland-Ticket für 49€ geben, das gilt für ÖPNV in Stuttgart sowie Regional-Bahn (deutschlandweit). Da haben sich die 205(?)€ dann auch erledigt.
Big difference between the US and German family is peace of mind. The German family can plan a vacation of two weeks somewhere near the Mediterranean without worrying about who's going to pay the kids education or health care. Though in the low income category, they can look forward to some good family time.
Just two tiny nitpicks about the german family. I think you estimated that they get car insurance for one driver. It is most likely that they would get a slightly more expensive plan that insures both of them.
It is also likely that they get a second monthly pass for public transportation, though probably not the full 205 Euro one, but a cheaper option that only includes the inner city plus whichever zones they need to get to where they live (plus the workplace of the person in question, if it is not included already).
If both are of the same age and have a clear record regarding accidents the car insurance for both drivers will cost about 25 Euro per year more. Regarding the public transport the costs will comedown drastically in May when the Deutschland Ticket for 59 Euros kicks in. I am living in a small city (about 12.000 people) but I am already planning to sell our second car and exchange it with an E-Scooter for my retirement in summer.
From my point of view the food prices considered are a bit low since it reflects maybe one or two years ago. However based on the fact that food inflation in America is at least as high as in Germany the overall picture is not changed.
In Germany the car is insured, not the driver(s).
The car owner takes out the mandatory liability insurance, (without which one cannot register a vehicle.) Additional “Kasko” insurance which would pay for the damage to one’s own car is not mandatory.
Insurance will cost more if the youngest driver is below a certain age (younger than 27 for example), and it will cost less if only the car owner and his/her spouse will be driving the car, provided both are over that certain age. It will also cost less when it is a new car and you’re the first registered owner of that car.
It is extremely expensive when someone insures a car - as owner - for the very first time, it can start at 250% of the premium unless you can claim for example that your spouse already has a car insured in her/his name at a good rate and then of course you must use the same insurer … and many sons and daughters start out their “car insurance life” claiming parents who have a car insured, again with the same insurance company.
And there are great differences between insurance companies, usually you shop around or use a search engine to find one that suits you and your circumstances.
The insurance premium is based on a yearly payment, there will be an up charge for semi yearly payment and an even higher up charge for quarterly payments, and not every insurance company will allow monthly payments (and if they do it comes at a hefty up charge.)
Not to be forgotten, the percentage of the payable premium will go steadily down with each year the car is insured without an accident for which the insurance has to pay. It is called “Schadensfreiheitsklasse“ (SF rating) resp „Schadensfreiheitsrabatt“.
And after some 20 resp 25 years of “no accidents” on our cars for which our insurance had to pay, we’re at an SF23 or thereabouts, which means we’re down to paying only around 25 % of the yearly premium. (The percentages vary by insurance companies).
When we got rid of one of our cars, the new car took its place, keeping the same percentage of the formerly insured car.
When we change to a different insurance company, we report to them the SF we had with the former insurance company and get the same SF, though the actual percentage will probably vary a bit.
When the insured car is in an accident for which the insurance company has to pay for the other guys car, then you’ll lose SF rating, usually by quite a lot of SF “steps” and might find yourself back at paying 100% again …
A few years ago my husband had a minor accident, the insurance company paid and then informed us how much they had to pay (it was around 750 €) and how many years it would take to get back down to the current level, and if we paid that amount back to the insurance company within 1/2 year, then it would be for the insurance company as if the accident never happened and we could keep our low SF. Needless to say, we paid the 750 €. And what our insurance company did is by the way mandatory for small damages, I think it’s somewhere up to 1200 or 1500 €, they must inform you and give you the chance to repay.
Of course with today’s expensive new cars it’s rare that an accident will end up paying less than thousands … still, this SF rating is a great incentive for more careful driving …
And yes, some insurance companies offer “1 accident free” meaning you won’t be losing SF for just 1 accident, and of course those insurance companies will not offer cheap rates.
Too many accidents and you might find yourself at 300% premium or getting cancelled by the insurance company. And then it’s rather difficult to find another insurance company and if you do, they’ll cost an arm and a leg.
Happened to us when first son # 1 and later son # 2 had too many accidents with cars “owned” and insured by my husband, he got cancelled though he didn’t have any accident himself.
Last but not least, traffic fines and such, even a drivers license revoked, have no impact on the insurance, one can own and insure a car without a drivers license. (Of course one is then not allowed to drive that car.)
As regards public transportation, to be fair it is mostly good to excellent in metropolitan areas and often very miserable in rural areas, so that a car or even 2 cars are often necessary.
After looking at your final numbers, it‘s no surprise that credit card debt in America in 2023 has now exceed a trillion US dollars. That would also be an interesting comparison as many Germans don‘t have credit card debt, rather use their „Dispositionskredit“ at the bank. The interest rates for that type of credit is high, but a joke compared with the 18-23% for credit card debt in the US. Over the last 40 years I have been able to compare the quality of life that I had in Germany with that of my brother and sister in the US. They made higher wages, but I had more vacations and time with my family than they did. I would hope that the Germans who think the grass is greener on the other side of the ocean can better appreciate what they have!
Congratulations to episode #100 !!! 🥳🥳🥳🎉🎉🎉 .... and again VERY WELL DONE !! Grüße aus der Südpfalz.
Awe thanks!!! To be completely honest, I totally forgot that this was episode 100 until we uploaded last night and I was editing the description. 😂 I feel like we should have celebrated or something.
But seriously, thank you so much for watching and supporting our channel. ♥️♥️
@@TypeAshton According to the German saying 'Man muss die Feste feiern, wie sie fallen!', you should open a bottle of champaign...! Cheers.
@@TypeAshton Congrats 💐🥂🍾🥨🎂
Thanks Arno! ❤️
🥂🍾🎉🎊✨Congratulations on your 100th episode!!!
Thanks again for that well made video.
Comments: Steve and Stephanie would probaby deal with their $8373 in annual debt by: 1) not buying long term care insurance ($1,000), not saving in a 401K ($3,340), and not saving for college ($10,286). The last two would eliminate some tax deductions so their taxes would go up about $4,000. That would net them about $10,600. Alternatives are to get rid of the second car, get lower quality child care, or reduce their annual $3600 entertainment budget. Their lack of retirement savings would be made up somewhat by their house asset.
Thanks, this was entertaining and informative.
Thank you for the high quality content 🥳
Thank YOU for watching! We're glad you enjoy them.
Steve and Stephany spend almost $19K on childcare, if they have other people watching the kids, like grandparent, they would be able to get by. Driving an old beater of a car is also a lot cheaper than driving a nice 2nd hand one. But still, you wouldn't expect a family making $146K a year to have to make these kinds of economic choices. I always thought you had made it when you make 6 figures.
First of all: thank you, Ashton, for all this amazing work to calculate all this! It is extremely difficult to choose the right parameters for each country to keep things fair on either side, I realised while watching. And I find it astonishing that your calculation comes out that "positive" for the German side, even though Stuttgart is supposedly the third most expensive city of Germany (according to other information only the 5th, but I think the general tendency is clear - Stuttgart is closer to the top notch of costs).
One thing, though, is most obvious to me, for both Americans and Germans: we all have to work hard for our money, we all do not get anything for free.
USP of this channel is providing info in terms of living standard comparisons US-GER beyond the PPP-GDP per capita table. Much more convenient than having to actually move to find out. 😁
Your videos are AMAZING, please know it! I cannot imagine how much research is conducted, but it’s surprising to compare those scenarios 😮
Hi Ashton, I've loved watching this and your other video on salaries between the USA and Germany. Would you be willing to share your list of things you compared and tools you used to estimate costs? I want to run a similar comparison between western Washington state and Ireland since my family and I are trying to decide if it works out financially to relocate.
Once again a great piece. And you landed your bombshell well. To add to that; credit card usage and unsecured loans - wider consumer debt on white goods, car repairs etc is substantial. Experian tells me the average household credit and retail card debt is over $7000. The monthly payments on that are going to be in the hundreds, with interest meaning that debt will stay relatively constant. In Germany that’s likely to be less than €2000. That does need to be modelled against our 4 characters but the point stands - Americans are suffering badly from being left to the wolves of capitalism. Germans have more restriction and expectation but substantial social safety.
It is true that credit card or total debt per capita is higher in the USA but part of that are cultural differences. US american tend more to live in the moment and are willing to go a bit into debt to get what they want when they want it. While the average german is conservative with money and saves until he/she can buy what he/she wants.
@@omadduxo I think there is something in what you’re saying about cultural acceptance of debt but the evidence suggests you’re actually pressured into debt in the USA, there aren’t options for healthcare and other insurance. And the cost of debt is serious.
And this 205,83 € per Month is for the entire metropolitan region. Roughly a 30km radius.
And from 1st of May, when the “Deutschlandticket” will start, you will pay only 49€ for public transportation in all around Germany.
But it will be interesting to see this for a family in rural Germany and the rural US. There are lower costs for Housing, but the German guys will have much more mobility costs.
I suspect you are much better off in Germany on minimum wage. I would only consider moving to the US when you are in the top 10 percent income bracket or at least in the upper middle class.
Nothing could tempt me to move there. Nothing
I am in the gov 6% bracket in Germany and i would not switch to the USA. Too expensive and one of the only two parties is totally fubar
@@phoenix-xu9xj For my 40 hours/week job here in Belgium minimum time off starts at 42 days/year.
I have 55 days.
Asking me to drop that to say, 15 days + worrying about sick leave and all that...yea...you're going to have to pay me A LOT for that.
My thinking is that if you are young with no kids the US is a better option to work hard and earn some money. But Germany is a better option if you wanna have kids or have a medical condition.
Also, it’s painful to say it but I do believe that German tax system does not allow people to save and accumulate wealth by taxing too much.
@@lenaspb1831 I mean, of course.
When there's less of a need to accumulate wealtth that's not surprising.
I don't really see that much of an upside to make it easier to go from comfortable to wealthy in a society.
People really don’t understand how ridiculous the cost of living in the US is
Thank you Frau Doktor. Another great one.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Another great video. This is something that I have long thought after living in both countries. I know from experience that transportation costs are much less in Europe in general and inexpensive public transit readily available. Cars are about equal in cost when considered as a whole, but generally with a family only having one car in the EU. Utilities are much higher in Europe, but somehow it seems that you use less. Even discounting A/C, the cost of utilities to operate your home in Germany seems mostly equal. Maybe it is the appliances or other items being more efficient or lower use rate, I do not know and I am not as well equipped as you in figuring it out.
One item that you touched on would be very interesting for a future episode. That is debt levels and the cost of servicing that debt. Some of my experiences are a little out of date, but a comparison would be very illuminating. For example: I had a VISA card from Berliner Bank in Germany and the interest rate was 5.5%. In the US current interest rates on credit card debt is 20% or more. Mortgage interest rates and terms might be an interesting subject (interest rates, down payment percentage, length, etc.). Keep up the good work!!
I just saw a video about the rewards/incentives American credit cards offer and how you should acquire a credit card to have a good credit score. My German mind said: "BS". They offer you rewards for not clearing your debt right away and instead paying ridiculous high interest rates.
@@wora1111 Credit card debt is at all-time record highs in the U.S. right now, just short of the trillion mark, I believe!
I’m from the UK. My impression is that there’s a high expectation to own your home in the UK & US with a relatively small rental market, whereas in continental Europe there is a large and dynamic rental market which enable people to move locations for jobs etc relatively easily.
What this video completely misses is that the United States still operates in a frontier manner, where the most movement of people is based on a boom and bust cycle. Denver was an extremely poor choice for an example city because it has one of the hottest markets in the US. This is in large part due to cities such as San Francisco, Las Angeles, Seattle, and Portland becoming bust cities where it's better to leave. The challenge for Denver is that many of the people moving to Denver are old and wealthy. They are successful people who advanced well in their careers looking for a good place to work for one more decade before they retire. Their kids are either in college or have graduated and their kids will most likely already be working good starting jobs and are on the road the becoming top earners when they're old. These extremely wealthy people see Denver's housing prices as cheaper than where they came from, so it's very easy for them to bid up prices and get nice houses. Only the most successful young people are able to afford a house in Denver so most don't. I personally moved to Denver half a year ago and decided to rent a house instead of buying one because there the mortgage was $1,000 more a month than rent. I don't plan to live in Denver for more than a few years so I wouldn't be able to keep the house as a rental property when I leave.
Great video as always 🙂 From what I learned from my friends, most Americans live paycheck by paycheck. Not just people on minimum wage, people who make big money just spend more. We definitely sat down before moving to the US and tried to calculate what we would have left by the end of the month before we decided to move. Your videos would have been a great resource back then! However, as you said the costs vary across the country. Keep it up, girl! You can be so proud of what you have achieved within the last months.
Keeping up with the Joneses (who are often unable to keep up with their bills) is one of the main factors for the paycheck-topaycheck trap.
There is an old classic "The millionaire next door", you should have a look at it. The numbers and some stuff are greatly outdated, but the rinciples hold true.
Spot on…many still believe it is way to expensive to live in the EU-Germany..and it really does come down to the quality of life vs. quantity of life, not to mention health care, etc. Thank you!
We live in Austria but much of what you discuss applies to us :0) Thank you very much for your research. It really strikes the imagination when you carefully compare the numbers.
It's crazy to me you're giving Steve and the other 30% "aim" for a rental budget... Before I left Israel (2 years ago) if you pay 70-85% of minimum wage on rent- that's normal. if you get to rent for 50% of your salary on minimum wage- you're lucky and found an owner who loves you and giving the 20 square meters studio to you as if it was charity.
great video as usual :)
In middle and higher end apartments, you have to earn three times the rent to even get your application considered. So you can't just go get an apartment at 50% or 70% of your income, you'd have to already have it, or find an older or mom n pop one or a room in a house where they don't require that, or live with people you know.
Super interesting as always. The problem is - of course - finding the correct basis on which to compare: Is it average vs. medium income, average costs etc. There will always be left some "comparing apples with oranges" or pears, as we say in Germany. My impression, whenever I went to visit my inlaws in the US is that I do not understand, how they get by. In Germany, I live for 6 years without having a car and never felt I really need one, even if I occasionally rent a shared car. In the US it is most of the time impossible to live without a car. There is also a different thinking on spending money. With my family and some of their friends "instant gratification" seems to be more important than "longterm financability"...i. e. a credit card is there to be used - that is: amass credit - and not as a means of payement. When we spoke about the credit card and its payoff, they did not understand that I never had a credit on my credit card in my life. I use it for payment, accrue free miles or whatever and at the end of the month pay it off. We were in completely different worlds. Also their friends use money differently. How much one can compare cities like Denver and Stuttgart...IDK. The most average towns in the US and Germany, according to the official statistics, seem to be Salem, NJ and Haßloch. Thanks again for your work and the information.
How they get by: My guess is higher gross income and credit card or mortgage debt ? Working more hours/more overtime ? No pension ?
@@autohmae More likely, they don't, and are just scraping by enough to not realise it yet.
@@Llortnerof It does remind me: people around the world really need better financial education. It's one of the topics very much lacking in a lot of schools.
@@autohmae They often have the education. They just choose to not act on it.
Buy a small, slightly used car for 10K or a new big one for 40K? That's (if invested) 100 dollar per month in eternity more. You can tell that, show a 2 hour presentation, let them write a test about it including the math... and the next car will be a 50K truck because they "deserve it".
Or the daily coffee from starbucks. They can get perfectly fine, good, free coffee from their company, but instead they drive to a starbucks in their break to pay a huge sum for a bad coffee.
Not to mention to CC debt. If they didn't pay interest on it, they would have more to spent. That easy (and in my eyes not good) calculation, even that get's ignored!!
Thank you for that 96 hour mark, that number will means a lot more then a vague 'percentage of wage.'
Just telling someone that a poor person needs to work 96 hours just to afford an apartment suitable for a small family... that should shock, for it is very shocking! 96 hours is obviously more then 2 people, working full time at 40 hours a week, can produce. While they digest that, remind them that 96 hours only covers the Rent....
No wonder a few of the people I visited on my trips through where working 4 jobs per family, and still getting assistance!
US-owned home maintenance / repair costs:
HVAC $110 - $200 / $3,000 - $6,000
Fireplace $125 - $375 / $400 - $2,000
Water heater $80 - $100 / $750 - $1,400
Gutters $75 - $150 / $1,000 - $2,500
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DE rented apartment costs
75/month as the maintenance fund - for possible future repairs
145 - heating (refundable if I don;t use it, I know)
I'm pausing the video during your Hello Fresh spot because I expect to see a video on the cost differences between Hello Fresh and purchasing your own groceries. 😉 Ok, now back to the video!
My eyes are often bulging out with the hello fresh ads, when they effectivly say "save X amount" and X is always just sliiightly under what I pay at all.
I don't think they will send me their stuff for 20-50cent per meal ;)
I worked in the US and work with Americans all the time, they just don't seem to get it. They look at that gross income figure and believe that they are doing better. They aren't.
In a few months the cost of transportation for germany would be even lower, as soon there will be the introduction of the "Deutschland Ticket" (germany ticket) which only costs 49€ and covers unlimited usage of public transportation in all of Germany (only excluding the german ICE "speedtrains"). So the cost would be only a quarter of the 200€ city ticket in the example and also covering trips outside the city area :-)
It would be very nice to have a table in the end giving an overview over the expenses. It is impossible to remember those numbers to draw comparisons at the end like the US is cheaper in X but more expensive in Y and so on.
great video ! Public Transport Ticket will be 49 Euros per Month from 1st May - usable everywhere (!) in Germany
Might be worth mentioning that all public transport except essentially inter city trains will be capped at 49 Euros per person starting from May this year...that brings both Germany examples down by 155 Euros a month, aka 1860 Euros per year.
And I'm not sure at what point, but if rent is too high in low income Households for a reasonably sized appartment, they may qualify for social security money while they work (Wohngeld).
This is a great point! And would even further separate our German and American calculations.
@@TypeAshton Next to the fact, that single Max will not go for a contract with Telekom but with a cheaper provider paying around 30€-40€ for internet access (without any streaming network included).
In the United States, the minimum wage is set by U.S. labor law and a range of state and local laws.
The first federal minimum wage was instituted in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but later found to be unconstitutional.
In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act established it at $0.25 an hour ($4.81 in 2021 dollars).
Its purchasing power peaked in 1968, at $1.60 ($12.47 in 2021 dollars).
Since 2009, it has been $7.25 per hour.
Employers have to pay workers the highest minimum wage of those prescribed by federal, state, and local laws.
In January 2020, 29 states and the District of Columbia had minimum wages higher than the federal minimum, so that almost 90% of Americans earning just minimum wage got more than $7.25 an hour.
The effective nationwide minimum wage (the wage that the average minimum-wage worker earns) was $11.80 in May 2019; this was the highest it had been since at least 1994, the earliest year for which effective-minimum-wage data are available.
In 2021, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that incrementally raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 would benefit 17 million workers and would also reduce employment by 1.4 million people.
It would also lift about 900,000 people out of poverty and might raise wages for 10 million more workers, cause prices to rise and overall economic output to decrease slightly, and increase the federal budget deficit by $54 billion over the next 10 years.
An Ipsos survey in August 2020 found that support for a rise in the federal minimum wage had grown substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 72% of Americans in favor, including 62% of Republicans and 87% of Democrats.
A March 2021 poll by Monmouth University Polling Institute, conducted as a minimum-wage increase was being considered in Congress, found 53% of respondents supporting an increase to $15 an hour and 45% opposed.
In 2019, 1.6 million Americans earned no more than the federal minimum wage-about 1% of workers, and less than 2% of those paid by the hour.
Less than half worked full time; almost half were aged 16-25; and more than 60% worked in the leisure and hospitality industries, where many workers received tips in addition to their hourly wages.
No significant differences existed among ethnic or racial groups; women were about twice as likely as men to earn minimum wage or less.
In May 2022, the legislature of Hawaii passed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $18 by 2028, the highest state minimum wage in the United States.
Governor David Ige signed the bill the next month.
Making me want to move to Germany more with every video! Vielen Dank!
Nice comparison! @ 20:52 I don’t get how this adds up to 822 $.
If the 49€ ticket happens in the future, this will be a big difference in transportation cost again.
The minimun wage in Denver is actually $17.29 which would change that part of the video greatly. That would make their rent budget closer to $825 a month.
I am a 21 year old apprentice and I will be debt free for my entire life and even be able to save up money. Thats pretty awesome to know in my opinion and gives me something to look foward to.
Ich bin ein 21 Jähriger Azubi und werde mein ganzes Leben lang schuldenfrei leben und sogar Geld ansparen also im Überschuss sein. Das ist einfach ein geiles Gefühl und macht einem die Zukunft rosig.
Regarding cost for public transport in Germany:
Many employers take part in various "Jobticket" programs, which makes it cheaper.
My monthly ticket would cost 73,80 € for the two areas I am commuting, but with the Jobticket it's 10% cheaper and therefore only only 66,42 € per month. In addition you get benefits from you employer, which in my case are 10 € per month (the minimum rate possible for the program), bringing the actual costs down to 56,42 € per month. With my provider there are even lowered rates on car sharing.
In Stuttgart two areas would come in at 73,13 € with the "Firmen-Abo" minus 10 € (again, the minimum rate. Employers can decide to give more).
For all 7+ areas, which you were calculation, that would be 185,25 € minus 10 €. And I think most people would only fo for one or two areas to begin with, since they don't commute that many areas and those 7+ areas cover a lot of ground. Considering gas and car insurance, 7+ areas are still rather cheap.
Those tickets can also be used in your freetime and all your employer has to do is go to the public transportation provider and join the program. Not sure how other employers handle it, but in my case this is not part of the wage / salary negotiation. After they joined the program everybody who finished the probation time of six months can get a verification from HR for the public transport provider and then fill out the form of said provider and that's it.
Edit: Those prices are for the personalized variants. Especially for families there might be inventive get the non personalized ones. They are a bit more expensive, but after 7 pm on weekdasy and on weekends or holidays you can take four additional people (or bikes) with you.
And if the kids go to school, with the new JugendticketBW they can get around for 365 € per year in the whole state of Baden-Württemberg (Nahverkehr, so no ICE and IC) as long as they are under 20 or under 27 if they are a studend or in an apprenticeship.
Eventhough there is the saying "Wenn du dich auf die Bahn verlässt, bist du verlassen", I gotta say I love German public transit. For those not speaking German, that quote means "If you rely on Deutsche Bahn, you are going to be abandoned""
For the most part, you can’t have a car payment (financing or lease) without full coverage car insurance. So that liability only coverage is not applicable.
Since you two know the costs of living in both, USA and Germany quite well, one question arises: given your present living situation and standards in the USA - how much would your gross family US income need to be to keep the same living standard in the USA as you now have in Germany? Another question which arose with me: is it even possible in the USA to achieve the same service level in insurance paid health care as in Germany by additional privat health insurance contracts adding to what you get via an employer? If yes, how much would that cost?
Maybe for ordinary things, but if you get cancer or another major issue the cost can be tens of thousands of dollars even with insurance, so how can a secondary plan cover that? And I haven't seen secondary plans for working-age people, only for Medicare (over 65), called "Medi-Gap" plans. Medicare costs (I'm guessing) $150 a month (paying the first 80%), and medigap $300 (paying the remaining 20% and deductible and copays). Then there's Medicare Part D for prescription drugs, which is separate from both, and costs maybe $80. There are additional programs for the disabled and low-income elderly (Medicaid, SSI), but they all leave you in poverty for non-medical expenses, especially with the cost of housing.
I have been watching your page for a long time now. There is one thing that was not addressed in the renting of an apartment in Germany, unless things have changed dramatically since I left. For one, apartments don't have closets, most if not all don't have built-in kitchen cabinets or light fixtures, und, und, therefore the renter has to buy these things before he can move in.
you can find fully furnitured flats in germany - usually for immigrants or students.
but when you settle here you simply buy your stuff and use it for 10-20 years (or even longer) ;)