Here, here Sergio (or is it hear, hear? lol, never known...)
With all the comparisons between Spain and Argentina I will state what the facts are between my husband who lives in BA and his brother who lives in Barcelona. They earn the same salary. They are 31 and 33 respectively.
Barcelona Brother-in-law:
Accountant at Ernst & Young
Husband:
Professional Engineer, currently Alliance Manager for Argentina, next month starts as Alliance Mgr for Latin America at Flowserve (at which point salary will be 100 euros more a month than what his brother earns)
Brother-in-law: Lives in "exclusive" neighbourhood. 1 bedroom apartment (sq footage unknown), no garage, high floor, balcony with views. Doesn't own a car, travels (flies generally) for pleasure 2 weekends out of the month to other places in Europe, plus 3-4 weeks of longer holiday a year (depending on banked hours, 3 weeks is minimum). Eats out 3-4 times a week.
Husband: Lives in "exclusive" neighbourhood. 1 bedroom apartment (54 sq m, duplex) with garage space, balcony on street one block from the polo field. Owns a car but doesn't use it much since he travels for work 2 - 3 weeks of the month -- ie 50-75% of time he is not in town (we do not consider this a bonus, apart from the canjea of airmiles), travels for pleasure outside of Argentina once every 12-18 months, travels for the weekend within Argentina once every 4-6 months, usually to the coast where the family has an apartment and we don't pay for stay... Eats out 1-3x a week (breakfast once or twice and dinner on the weekend). When away he's on the company bill obviously, so that reduces a lot of costs, but it also reduces a lot of life's pleasures.
Brother has been in Spain for 3 years. Neither brother is a gastador. Rent of the brothers, exactly the same. Savings of the brothers, exactly the same. Difference is brother in Spain appears to be having a much better time! travelling for pleasure and travelling for work are two very different things. The North American counterpart to my husband makes 4x his salary for the same position.
There's no point in telling us about health insurance and universities etc because 1) unless you're planning on bringing an 18 year old with you, you're not going to be taking advantage of that so it doesn't figure into your plan, and 2) we all already know health insurance in the USA is a rip off, but here they increase your premium by 17% every quarter, so you'll soon be bitching about that too. Vehicles here are more expensive, NAFTA (gas) is more expensive, so the half-price on parking isn't making as much of a difference as you think.
Anyway the general conclusion, as ALWAYS, is DON'T come here because you think it's cheap, or cheaper, than the USA or Spain -- you will regret it. Come here because you like it.
With all the comparisons between Spain and Argentina I will state what the facts are between my husband who lives in BA and his brother who lives in Barcelona. They earn the same salary. They are 31 and 33 respectively.
Barcelona Brother-in-law:
Accountant at Ernst & Young
Husband:
Professional Engineer, currently Alliance Manager for Argentina, next month starts as Alliance Mgr for Latin America at Flowserve (at which point salary will be 100 euros more a month than what his brother earns)
Brother-in-law: Lives in "exclusive" neighbourhood. 1 bedroom apartment (sq footage unknown), no garage, high floor, balcony with views. Doesn't own a car, travels (flies generally) for pleasure 2 weekends out of the month to other places in Europe, plus 3-4 weeks of longer holiday a year (depending on banked hours, 3 weeks is minimum). Eats out 3-4 times a week.
Husband: Lives in "exclusive" neighbourhood. 1 bedroom apartment (54 sq m, duplex) with garage space, balcony on street one block from the polo field. Owns a car but doesn't use it much since he travels for work 2 - 3 weeks of the month -- ie 50-75% of time he is not in town (we do not consider this a bonus, apart from the canjea of airmiles), travels for pleasure outside of Argentina once every 12-18 months, travels for the weekend within Argentina once every 4-6 months, usually to the coast where the family has an apartment and we don't pay for stay... Eats out 1-3x a week (breakfast once or twice and dinner on the weekend). When away he's on the company bill obviously, so that reduces a lot of costs, but it also reduces a lot of life's pleasures.
Brother has been in Spain for 3 years. Neither brother is a gastador. Rent of the brothers, exactly the same. Savings of the brothers, exactly the same. Difference is brother in Spain appears to be having a much better time! travelling for pleasure and travelling for work are two very different things. The North American counterpart to my husband makes 4x his salary for the same position.
There's no point in telling us about health insurance and universities etc because 1) unless you're planning on bringing an 18 year old with you, you're not going to be taking advantage of that so it doesn't figure into your plan, and 2) we all already know health insurance in the USA is a rip off, but here they increase your premium by 17% every quarter, so you'll soon be bitching about that too. Vehicles here are more expensive, NAFTA (gas) is more expensive, so the half-price on parking isn't making as much of a difference as you think.
Anyway the general conclusion, as ALWAYS, is DON'T come here because you think it's cheap, or cheaper, than the USA or Spain -- you will regret it. Come here because you like it.
