This is inspiring! EU residents complain about high taxes, but you've managed very well. We will end up in the EU eventually, possibly Berlin as a base for 5+ years, and I'm looking at running a drop shipping business for remote income. I have a couple of questions for you:
* In what country is your business registered?
* Any advice about German real estate? RE pros I've met complain it's not profitable there.
Thanks!
Hi there. Thank you for your words.
The thing about german taxes: we have a prograssive income tax rate from 0 to 43%. Looks a lot. And you can reach 43% quite soon. BUT Every person ahs a tax free income of about 8500€. Every child has 7500€ tax free. If you have rental real estate, you can put some money against your tax from the purchase price. Since we have 2 kids and we can put about 8500€ against our tax for the RE purchase price, we can earn roughly 40.000 a year without being taxed AT ALL.So, how was it again with "taxes are so high in Germany"? :)))))
Our expenses (including EVERYTHING is about 30K). Which let's us put (virtually) at least 10K each year aside and pay still no tax. Without breaking any law or using ANY trick.
I wrote a post about tax issues, I have to publish it soon.
We LOVE this country and are very happy to be here.
My business is registered here in Germany.
"* Any advice about German real estate? RE pros I've met complain it's not profitable there."
Well, we bough our REs some years before and we looked a lot to find good deals. It is increasingly difficult now bit I belive you can still find good deals. I just interviewed a guy (Ankur) in my blog who bought many flats/houses (recently as well ) in Munich. And Munich is insanely expensive. Still he just quit his job and is FI now. With only real estate. So...go ahead and ask HIM in the comments. I think he can give you more details.
My advice: RE is ONE of the things you should do and ONLY if it makes sense financially. Just for the sake of it...NO. I don't belive that RE is the holy grail of investments. It's a good pillar though.