How does this compare to the US and would this make you look for an alternate way of achieving FI?
It may make you weep, but the US has special tax rates for capital gains that are favorable to wages. It's complicated, of course, but as long as they are long term (held for a year or more) the tax rate could be 0%.
Of course, this is in a country that makes you pay for your own health care, with thousands of dollars of guaranteed cost for insurance, and jeopardy for $15,000+ in deductibles (first spending, before insurance kicks in) quite common. Per year. Many people might trade those two things.
But these are incremental things. Plenty of people save for retirement through stock mutual funds with 1% fees or more. We don't like it--there are better alternatives, when the fees are charged by companies themselves--but they do it, and successfully. When looking at alternatives, you have to compare them relative to each other. And nothing touches stocks, particularly US stocks.
One thing to grasp about the chart below is that it is on a semi-logarithmic scale. If the scale was linear, most of the lines would look entirely flat compared to stock performance. Stocks bring back literally orders of magnitude more than "safer" (in the short term) investments. Real estate would fare better, but still be far outstripped by stocks over lifespan lengths of time. (many people find success in real estate investing, too, though)
The most important thing is what you are comfortable with. You can save your way to retirement, or "earn" it by taking smart investment risks. But along the way, you should be able to sleep at night. If the increased taxes and complications of figuring them out aren't worth it to you, then you might find another way. That way will have its own advantages and disadvantages.
In doing some research, I also ran across a US implication for you.
The US has much lower limits (a mere $60,000) for estate tax exemption for certain non-residents. This is something hardly any US citizen worries about, as our estate tax exemption is currently $10M--per person! Although that might drop down to a measly $5M in 2025, when the expansion expires in current law.
