Is 140K Euro a decent salary for a family of 3?

You're joking right?  EUR 140K per annum is an insanely high salary in Germany, perhaps aside from  upper management in corporations, or maybe some specialist doctors/lawyers/etc. 

Of course you will probably pay much more in tax than you're used to, but there are other benefits/advantages to living in a new country/city than just after tax income.  Germany is a very well organized, efficient, and clean country.  And Munich is an incredibly nice city.  Hence why it's so popular.

As the previous poster said, this is a high income for German standards.
The average German family of three earns less than half of that (pre-tax).
Of course in Munich (which is Germany's costliest city) it is easy to spend it all (especially if you fancy a big apartment, household helper, international school for your kid, etc.).
Even if you don't, a savings rate of over 50% of your (pre-tax) income, like you have now, cannot be achieved in Germany (at any income level), simply because nearly half will be deducted automatically for tax and compulsory insurances.

so this offer basically triples your income - sounds like a no brainer?

Jokes aside, I read (can't find the article) that many people complain about the extremely high cost of living in Munich and depending on the size of house, if you want to send your child to private school etc you won't feel poor but you won't live like a millionaire either. I just relocated from London to Berlin with a salary significantly higher than that and must say even what people consider extremely expensive felt OK based on the cost of living I had as a reference. Coming from India you might have a whole different perspective on cost of living but I think you'd be ok Not to mention that money is not all you are going to take out of the experience!

Berlin vs London:
Salary - given I didn't get my salary adjusted to Berlin and continue earning a very good London wage , living here is a plus
Rent - significantly cheaper (I rent in Berlin, own my place in London)
Buying a property - apparently not difficult and much better conditions than the UK
Food - much cheaper in Germany
Education - significantly cheaper in Germany (private schools)
Culture - ok we are in lockdown but significantly more expensive and less inclusive in Germany (many museums in London are free, they are also almost all very child friendly, here in Germany they are expensive and unfriendly to children)

Good luck!

Live in house maid if any, i bet very expensive. Have Indian friends who said tht maud will be happy with €150 a month there. Ditto what you all said above. Hmmmm ... i miss the point what seeker2021 really wanted to say or ask dang!

Zjohns wrote:

Live in house maid if any, i bet very expensive. Have Indian friends who said tht maud will be happy with €150 a month there.

At the legal minimum wage here, a full-time (40 hours per week) helper would cost, incl. insurance and other dues, nearly €2000/month. Live-in helpers do not exist, but if you find one it would probably cost far more.

This is a salary that almost sounds too good to be true. We often hear of scams that target Indians in tech jobs so make sure it is real! Such warning have been met with skepticism if not our right scorn - and then later the people are even more outraged when it turns out that it was indeed a scam.

And saving money depends on one’s life-style. One can make a million Euros a year and get in debt if one spends more than that. And for the long run, school kids should get integrated and learn the language and then there is no reason not to have them in public schools. One might choose a private international school that instructs in English but be prepared to spend at least 12000 euros a year. And the quality of education is not necessarily better than a public school that is free.

If a kid starts out with no German then they could lose a year academically catching up on the language in a public school. This might be avoided by having them in an English instructed private school for a year and if not getting enough help to learn the language then hire them a tutor. By the second year they should be easily able to switch to a normal school

And like Beppi mentioned. Having a maid is almost unheard of in Germany. It’s not only expensive but seen as rather offensive. Having someone to come once or twice a week to do some cleaning is a privilege of the rich and a full time person of any sort seen as an arrogant excess. People should do their own housework, especially if one partner is not working outside of the home.

Thanks Tom for providing inputs..
It's a genuine offer as I'm moving to my organization's parent company in Munich, a Fortune 500.
.With daycare i meant after school care for my kid...In India these are called daycares where school bus usually drops kid after school hours..Do we have any such framework in Munich? And how affordable is it..say how much do they charge for 4-5 hrs as I 'm planning to have my kid there after school.

This kind of after-hours child care is offered by many public schools for free or almost free - but the hours are limited (in my daughter‘s case until 15:00 and not on Wednesdays).
For any private solution, you need to search hard and probably pay above €10/hr,

Seeker2021, your case sounds familiar.
I know about 4 such cases and 3 ended in the same pattern.
The tripling of a salary should ring some warning bell to you personally. Unless you’re doing a very dangerous informal job like being an professional assassin,  drug dealer ,or even an permanent transatlantic airbus 380 pilot outside corona times or build products with your own patents , then that 140 is usually a Senior Director Level. At that level your formal university profession as lawyer, doctor,  engineer has to match you social skills that is not limited to the simplest form as line manager but also cajoling hardball experts with soft skills or matrix organisation that have different goals than yours. In addition, you have to be politically astute and multilingual in an international Organisation ( english alone is not sufficient and maybe even more a hindrance nowadays after the bad taste that Brexit left in continental europe).


Maybe a word on cultural differences. In India it is usual to “decorate” your abilities and there are agencies that specializes India to validate your capabilities as independent agency for HR. 
In Europe, due to a different culture, one would usually assume that a person knows the personal risks of mismatching skills. In addition you have to provide contactable references on appropriate level that underwrites your capabilities even after contract signature. They intensively followup on this. Especially on higher levels if you were not duly diligent, after failing your grace period, it can happen that you are let go and have to reimburse benefits received or charged on willful misconstrual.   This is different than the handling of entry level managers where you are nicely thanked and let go after the usual 3 months.

In contrast in India, this mismatch would be the failing of the external agency and they carry the costs.  Be absolutely sure that you have absolute capability finesse of what you stated in you application form. Alternatively, it is is an American Corporate they usually pay 30% more, because they expext you to will have > 50% less holiday time than the standard leave and 1 day weekends on that level, they have a sharper edge and will drop you max a sms with a lawyer letter in the post if they feel that they don’t get bang for their buck. Else if you are confident and capable you can have as many house hold staff as you money allows as long as you pay them at least the minimum wage of ca. 10€ per hour. I would really like to hear from you again 3 months after you have started in Munich.
Tip : At least try ***not*** to move all your belongings and your family until the grace period is finished . That first three months guy is anyway not the friendliest beast after a stressy day.

Management differences - staff cannot be assumed to stay up until the boss leave after a days work, in EU staff limit the exception on working extra hours if the boss pushes for deliverable - different working culture than US,UK, Asia, India, Aftica)

Ps An engineer on that level is usually god- level : that knows most variants of cloud on three levels, telecomms+ media+ business domains+ Social media  nlp skills + migrating skills of older technologies, business builder. There are maybe 5 of them in the whole Europe. You must be a real technological celebrity

JohannesM wrote:

I would really like to hear from you again 3 months after you have started in Munich.
Tip : At least try ***not*** to move all your belongings and your family until the grace period is finished .

Excellent advice - except that the usual probation period in Germany is 6 months, not 3.

Yep .  3 months is enough for the honeymoon to be over. Or to know if u R the right guy 4 the job

People here commenting about 140k Euros being too high or talking about passing probation ( LMFAO)  or that it may be a fraud offer.

Don’t worry, you will pass the probation.

Lol, have you guys ever been to India or understand the lifestyle his salary gives in India.

The salary that he is earning in India - He can literally have 2 maids, 1 driver , 2-3 bhk rent in one of the best areas of India, go out for food and drink 3 times a week to the fanciest places, order takeout food daily, send his kids to private school, go for vacations 3-4 times a year and will still easily save ~40/50% of his post tax salary.

Now you may understand why he is hesitant at 140k and asking this question.

Will you have a similar lifestyle in Germany- No freaking way. You will live in a smaller apartment and if you like drive a relatively fancier car.
But life would be better in other aspects which are very difficult to quantify. It will takes 3-4 months getting used to. I would have taken it just for the experience of a different country and culture.

P.S You will still save more than 30lacs/ year that  you are saving in India. ( not including pension).

Hi
Yes from what I heard so far, 140 k is a very decent salary . You should also ask for the proper breakup as how much will be your gross and what's the bonus component.Also employer contribution for medical ,car maintenance and pension.
The cost of living is really high in Munich so ifmore and more components are tax free than it will help you to save more

Yes, you are right.. With almost 44% tax rate the take-home was really not meeting expectations. With component restructuring this was settled to a decent one..

seeker2021 wrote:

With component restructuring this was settled to a decent one..

Could you explain this further?
For future readers in a similar situation, it would be good to know what they can try to negotiate for.

Madrid_1992 wrote:

People here commenting about 140k Euros being too high or talking about passing probation ( LMFAO)  or that it may be a fraud offer.

Don’t worry, you will pass the probation.

Lol, have you guys ever been to India or understand the lifestyle his salary gives in India.

The salary that he is earning in India - He can literally have 2 maids, 1 driver , 2-3 bhk rent in one of the best areas of India, go out for food and drink 3 times a week to the fanciest places, order takeout food daily, send his kids to private school, go for vacations 3-4 times a year and will still easily save ~40/50% of his post tax salary.

Now you may understand why he is hesitant at 140k and asking this question.

Will you have a similar lifestyle in Germany- No freaking way. You will live in a smaller apartment and if you like drive a relatively fancier car.
But life would be better in other aspects which are very difficult to quantify. It will takes 3-4 months getting used to. I would have taken it just for the experience of a different country and culture.

P.S You will still save more than 30lacs/ year that  you are saving in India. ( not including pension).

It is senseless to make a statement that one will pass a probation period and not to worry. What should this be based on?

And yes; I have been to India multiple times and know about the life styles.  But the question was about a salary level in Germany - and it is very high. An employer here will give a competitive wage and conditions in India are rightfully  irrelevant to them. An Indian needs to decide for themselves. If one's priority is having servants then stay in India. But quality of live in Germany beats India on many many factors. It's no coincidence that so many well educated Indians leave.

Varun gupta14 wrote:

Hi
Yes from what I heard so far, 140 k is a very decent salary . You should also ask for the proper breakup as how much will be your gross and what's the bonus component.Also employer contribution for medical ,car maintenance and pension.
The cost of living is really high in Munich so ifmore and more components are tax free than it will help you to save more

I don't think there is any tax rate difference between salary and bonuses in Germany. The employer is also required by law to pay half of the health insurance - so this is standardized.

Hi Tom,

The car allowance and other components if part of gross salary will be considered in tax calculation so if any of the components can be tax free than your tax will reduce. I know this cause i have the similar case and all my components are in gross and taxable

Hi @Tomin

The reasoning  I based is on companies have to wait a lot more to get an external candidate from third world country. Hiring of a mid-senior candidate takes 3-4 months ( ~ five to six months during COVID). Ideally, you would want to wait and not make a judgment of a candidate for  six months performance at job when it took you that much time to bring him/her onboard.

But you are absolutely right that it is not a guarantee by any stretch.