Life after 2 years in Germany:

I moved to Germany during the main Covid-19 years. Before I grew up in Austria and living there for 30 years. It is now a while since the last post since I am more focused towards work and improve my knowledge about investment. Also, the Voxel Generator asset is constantly evolving. The house where I am living is really nice, and the rent is affordable.

Thanks to the good salary, I can invest at least, €2000 each month into Stocks or Crypto currencies. Back in Austria only about 1000 Euros could be invested each month while living with my parents. Also, the landlord is really nice and taught me a lot about the house and how that real estate works. I also could get a look into what a one-family house really costs each month. One-family houses are the dream of German people, but they are incredibly expensive to maintain. The rent increased from 375 to 425 Euro each month due to increased energy cost.

Environment and People:

The environment here in Erlangen is pretty nice and is surrounded by huge forests. The countryside is just 5 km away, and also I commute to the workplace through a huge forest by bike. Also in those forests there are many shrooms you can collect, but most are not edible or toxic, so you really have to know what to do. The air is by far cleaner than in Salzburg, where I grew up thanks to those huge forests.

These forests are protected areas and are maintained by the local government. Erlangen also has those bars and clubs if you are interested in, and beer has a high historic here. The “Enlas Keller” is a huge underground labyrinth in Erlangen which was used to store beer inside the cold tunnels and can be visited. The weather is mostly cold over the whole year, except in the summer.

Overall, the environment in Erlangen is very peaceful. The place where I live is called Buckenhof and is an autonomous region in Erlangen. It is at the border of the countryside and resembles a typical German village. And Buckenhof is a very old-fashioned village, as the government buildings are incredibly old.

The people I met so far are from all kinds. Some are nice, some are not, but you can talk with most of them. The people at my workplace are very nice, that’s for sure, but there is no generalization possible. The company I am working at is really nice and much better than what I experienced in Austria, but I am incredible lucky here. It allowed working in an autonomous fashion where the results count and not the amount of hours you clocked in. Also, I could work in home-office most of the time, which was very new to me, but I like it especially during winter.

Disadvantages

What I really hate in Germany are the taxes which are way too high and the bureaucracy. There are rules and regulations for absolute everything, including what you are allowed on your own property. I also found out that some taxes are not visible on your paycheck. I got told that if you earn, 5000 Euro gross each month which are 3000 Euro net, it really costs the company 8000 Euro. Calculating everything including all hidden taxes, you end up with a real tax of about 67% which is just crazy. The real perfidy thing is that some taxes are hidden in order to avoid civil unrest.

The government gives me a very communistic feeling, which attempts to do everything to keep you poor while rich do not have to pay taxes by using weird company structures. The taxes are incredibly convoluted, but the employees inside the tax agencies are not allowed to answer your questions. I did my taxes using a tax software called “Wiso Steuersparbuch” which I highly recommend buying when living in Germany.

Overall, the government is a huge welfare state which punishes work, and their welfare state costs a lot of money. Furthermore, their overcomplicated bureaucracy is eating up many taxes. Innovation is hampered a lot by over regulation of everything. Therefore, most companies in Germany are historic and very old, as most new companies die thanks to the bureaucracy before they are founded. Best example are the struggles Tesla has with their factory and the CEO is the richest guy on earth. Germany is the best country if you are lazy and poor as it does a lot for you, but it will show its true face whenever you want to get out of poverty or “god forbid” try to get rich.

For me, this is not acceptable, and therefore I will relocate to Switzerland in 3 months. I already got a higher paying job there, otherwise I would not be able to move to Switzerland. I will then give information about the life in Switzerland, as it will be completely different. Furthermore, I then have lived in every German-speaking country and will post a comparison between Austria, Germany and Switzerland.