The Almighty Dollar

Did I mention my last post on the $ probably wouldn't be my last? Here's number two in what may be my series on the almighty dollar.

I wanted to do a post on exactly the difference in cost of living here and in the States with all the exact facts and figures, but it's complicated and I'm not a CPA.

But if you ever thought you pay way too much in taxes and there's never enough left over for everything else, you might want to think again.

Belgians (and Americans living in Belgium) pay as much as 50% of their income in income tax.

Yep, half.

Oh, and the cost of living here (according to an official document we now own) is 29% more.

AND throw in that current exchange rate between the Euro and the Dollar at a [insert expletive] 1.5!

AND just because you don't live in the US, you still get to keep coughing up your half of Social Security regardless of whether you'll ever see it when you need it. But who's counting? And thanks Employer for picking up the other half of that.

AND since you're not a citizen of Belgium, but lucky enough to have health insurance back in the States, you certainly want to keep paying your measly portion of that premium. Thanks again Employer for footing waaaay over half that.

Sooooo . . . just to keep it simple, let's say you have a salary of about $50,000 and you live in, say Shreveport.

To enjoy that SAME standard of living (no extras now) you would need to earn about . . .

$82,000. And frankly, most Belgians do not.

Did that surprise you?