Location Planning for Corporate Careers and Financial Independence
Guide on how to geo-max Europe for Software Engineers
If your goal is to have a great corporate career, optimise for company and job early on in your career, and location later.
If your goal is financial freedom, optimise for location first, and company/job later.
In this article, I’m gonna tell you why I think this.
Optimising for Corporate Career Climb
If you want to climb the corporate ladder, starting out right is key: the faster you start learning from the best people and getting promotions in relevant companies, the earlier you’ll reach a director or executive role.
You’ll also end up making money anyway.
So, if to join a good team and company you need to relocate to a low paying country (because maybe that’s where your best offer came from), just do it.
Later on, you’ll manage to relocate to a higher paying country if that’s what you want, and you’ll leverage your experience to secure a top paying job.
Optimising for Achieving Financial Freedom
If your goal is to achieve financial freedom and you are not sure about wanting to climb the corporate ladder, then it’s a different story.
In this case, your best bet is to start optimising for your saving rate—in absolute terms—as early as possible.
For this, a high paying location helps a lot.
After you’ve spent some years as a junior/mid-level professional in the high paying location, then it might be time to relocate to a lower pay/cost location and get a good job there or a well-paid remote one (leveraging your high cost/pay location salary to negotiate a good salary).
If you’ve done things right, by that time you should already have some semi-passive income from your accumulated savings, which should cover for a good percentage of your living costs in your new LCOL location.
At this time, you can either climb the corporate ladder locally/remotely, coast or start a business.
Best location to optimise for Achieving Financial Freedom in Europe
If you're a developer in Europe interested in financial freedom, Switzerland should definitely be on your radar.
Financial Freedom for me basically means having enough invested capital that generates income to cover all or at least some of your living expenses.
Why Switzerland? It's the best location for growing your capital as a junior or mid-level developer in Europe.
Once you've built up a substantial income from your investments, you might shift focus towards minimizing living costs and enhancing your lifestyle.
Europe offers unique opportunities for geo-arbitrage, given the variety of places to live and work in, with very different costs of living and earning opportunities—all within close proximity.
If you're adaptable to relocating, you can use these regional differences to your advantage, optimizing your lifestyle and financial growth at various stages of your life and career.
Starting in Switzerland, you could save $100k or more within just a few years.
This robust financial base, especially if invested in high-yield opportunities, can, together with your acquired work experience, allow you to opt for more flexible jobs later on. For more details on this topic, check this article.
In general, there are several benefits from starting your career in Switzerland:
The potential to fall in love with the country and decide to settle permanently.
Excellent connectivity from cities like Zurich, making it easy to explore Europe and assess other cities for their cost of living and quality of life.
Opportunities to work at different pay scales—from smaller companies to big tech—allowing savings ranging from $50k to $1M+, depending on your career choices and lifestyle.
While Switzerland stands out, it's not the only path to a successful career in Europe. There are various strategies that can lead to a fulfilling life and career without relocating to Switzerland, but it remains one of the best and most straightforward options.
For more insights on how to secure a developer job in Switzerland, stay tuned.
When is it time to leave Switzerland?
A good time could be when you start to have kids.
As a family of four, would you rather have a household total compensation (TC) of $350k in Switzerland or $150k in Warsaw, Valencia, or the South of France?
If we look at the numbers, it's gonna be quite similar.
I interviewed a family living in Zurich, with a 350k household TC.
Here are their cost-of-living numbers:
Taxes: 105k (30%) → 350k in Zurich is about 245k net.
It could be a bit higher (~280k) if you're self-employed and don't contribute to any pension/insurances.
It could also be lower if you're a single earner with a full-time role (215k), as you'll pay more taxes and insurances.
I chose 245k shooting for something in the middle.
Hard costs: 108k chf/year total.
2k rent (3.5k*12).
54k kindergarten (4.5k*12: 1 kid doing full-time = 3k/month; 1 kid doing afternoons 3 days a week = 1.5k/month).
12k health insurance.
Living expenses: 72k chf/year.
24k food (about 2k/month).
48k miscellaneous (nanny, doctors, tennis, swimming, shopping, language course; around 4k/month).
If we sum up the above two variables, we would get something that I’d call:
“Swiss-related costs”—costs inherently associated to living in Switzerland.
That’d be 180k chf/year.
International costs (not dependant on Swiss) and yearly savings: 55k chf/year.
20k travels.
35k yearly savings (3k/month).
To have the same travel budget + yearly savings, living in a lower-cost location in Europe like Valencia or Warsaw, you'd need about 135k/year, which is the sum of:
Location-related costs: 80k in Valencia/Warsaw (equiv. to 180k in Swiss, or 90k in Madrid/Barcelona/South-of-France).
55k for travels and yearly savings.
Here’s another example of a family of 4 in Switzerland having very similar costs (they need 180k CHF/year to cover for their basic living costs).
Considerations on having a family in Switzerland or abroad
If you're working remotely as a freelancer, it's very possible to get taxed at <10% if you set-up your taxes correctly and in the right places (stay tuned for more content on this)
This means that you would need about 150k in yearly TC to be able to have the 135k budget we just calculated—which would allow you to have the same financials as the 350k TC family in Swiss.
150k in yearly household TC as an IT remote worker + wife/husband is more feasible than 350k in yearly household TC in Swiss, IMO. And it will be even easier in the future, as Swiss IT salaries stagnate, and remote and offshore salaries rise—check this article for more insights on this.
Benefits of the 150k TC in LCOL:
More accessible lavish lifestyle including: taxis, dining out, housekeeper, nanny, private school.
Less pressure on keeping the income high: given the lower recurring living costs, a job/income loss wouldn't be as impactful.
Accessible real estate market with the possibility of house ownership + easy to manage local real estate investments.
A remote job is more entrepreneurial, offering more potential for scaling.
Less reliance on an employment market in CH that could slowly get offshored for some professions.
Cons of the 150k TC in LCOL:
Lower "standard" of life than in Swiss.
EU passport is slightly below a CH passport.
Less reliable government.
Relying on remote jobs can be volatile and risky (that said, 100k TC as a senior dev in Warsaw/Valencia is still very achievable, even with a local job).
Up for debate:
Networking: CH does indeed have a lot of people worth networking with, but also being in the "upper-class" in a "lower-tier" location can also provide great networking opportunities.
Personal preferences:
I decided to not talk about things which are inherently subjective like culture, vibe, weather, etc.
What if you are focusing on climbing the career ladder?
I think in that case, ending up with your family in Switzerland might not be a bad choice.
Switzerland is the ideal place to end up as a director or executive in big tech or similar.
You can keep your taxes relatively low, especially if you live in Zug and commute to Zurich when necessary.
You can get very high income: above $700k Tc for senior managers/architects at big tech and above $1M for directors.
You can take advantage of a place that is inherently very family friendly (if you don’t mind spending a lot for it): safe, great school, great healthcare, international, etc.
With that income leve, you would still be able to do all the things that people might enjoy in their family life like: dining out, hiring help at home or for the kids like a housekeeper and a nanny, buying a home, etc.
These same things can also technically be valid if you are a 7 figures entrepreneur.
But tbh, if that’s the case and you’re location independent, I would still probably consider having a family abroad and getting much more value for my money, than setting money on fire in Swiss.
In the end, Swiss becomes as valuable as your reliance on the location for your ability to make money.
If you work in corporate, your pay is location-adjusted. Therefore, if that’s your path, ending up in Swiss in a high profile corporate role might be a great idea.
In all the other cases, probably stacking up cash early on, investing it wisely, and then geo-maxing it by relocating in a good value LCOL place, might be the move.
6FEE: 6 Figures Euro Engineer Coaching Program
As you probably already know, I’ve recently launched a coaching program called 6FEE: 6 Figures Euro Engineer.
It could be interesting for you if you value:
Tailored Guidance: Personalised strategies to navigate the tech markets of Europe and Switzerland, aligning with your career aspirations.
Actionable Plans: From securing prestigious roles to enhancing your lifestyle and finances, we define clear, achievable goals.
Exclusive Network Access: Connect with leading engineers and recruiters from my personal network.
Community and Support: Regular 1:1s with me and group interactions with the other members of the program.
Limited Enrolment: Only 5 spots, with 1 remaining, ensuring personalised attention and significant growth.
It's through application. You can find more info in this newsletter article.
