Why did I move to Munich, Germany?
After almost 29 years of being in India, I made a decision to move out and start a new journey in a different country altogether. Why did I choose to do so is what I wanted to document for any of you who might be in a similar boat. While there are a lot of things in my home country I would be missing out, the biggest one would be missing my people ie. friends, family and all other acquaintances. Initially, I had super focused reasons to do so but I wanted to absolutely make sure of all the advantages I would have for moving out. So I literally took some notes for a week of listing down all the pros of moving out, especially to Munich since I had few other options in the EU. I even documented all the things I would be missing out on, but that would not be a focus for this particular blog. It was a very calculated and strategic choice involving both the brain and heart. Below are some of the reasons.
Disclaimer: This article is in no way meant to demean my home country. I love India for a whole lot of reasons. But then again I would love to take absolute control of my life and would like to make choices that align with that. I would like to be concrete and try to present facts with references to the best of my knowledge and hope you keep an open mind and not be biased. I believe in India’s growth story and truly wish and believe it comes to a point where this blog does not make sense anymore.
Travel, Hikes, Photography:
Ever since 2017, when I took that first trip with friends, I have been in love with places and travel photography. When they say travel is therapeutic, it is absolutely true. This is the super-focused reason I was talking about before. There are a number of points here.
I was lucky to go on some international trips from India pre-pandemic. But it was super expensive considering flights, visa fees and a relatively weaker currency. Since I am a full-time Software Engineer, there is a limit to how many vacation days I could have as well. Also, any international travel like from India to the EU eats up a lot of travel time. With that, I would be limited to the number of trips I could make in a year. So with my calculations, I found out it would be better if I just move out to the EU and travel during weekends considering superb connectivity, better currency power and no need for getting Visa multiple times. On Employment Visa, travel across 27 countries is allowed in the EU. This is one of the reasons I chose to come to Germany. With Blue Card Visa, I would have access to travelling 27 countries. In spite of having a couple of other options, I chose Munich for a number of reasons including Travel. Munich is in the heart of the EU giving access to 6–7 countries in the immediate vicinity of just hours away all known for their absolute beauty like Switzerland, France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Czechia etc. Located near the alps gives me access to some beautiful places, and hikes which not only are great for my soul but also give me wonderful opportunities to jump deeper into travel and landscape photography. There is also an added advantage for photographers to get to see and capture the different variety of environments and colours through different seasons ranging from Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.
The temperature range in Munich in general apart from winters would be around -5 C (winters)to 25 C (summers), which is a pretty sweet spot for me.
I am even into portrait photography and back in Bangalore I loved to do that during weekends but it was getting notoriously difficult to find open places to shoot for a number of reasons not limited to some random people/guards etc coming up to say that photography is not allowed, for no apparent reason and no signboards. Sometimes people getting creepy and not minding their own business was even worse. Some of the public parks where a lot of creative photographers were happy to shoot, were also closed off to photography in recent years killing anyone’s wish to enter this creative line or even continue. For me, it was getting extremely annoying. The biggest joke was when people mentioned “You can take pictures with the mobile phone but cannot use the camera”. I mean what is up with that. Here in Germany that is not the case. There are so many beautiful locations to shoot from ranging from public parks and neighbourhoods and people mind their own business. Also in Munich, areas and neighbourhoods are super clean which does not give me the additional headache of thinking hard about framing or making edits while post-processing. Also, the model-photographer community is super strong.
Primary Career and Work-life Balance
I have been working as a Software Engineer and have had the opportunity to work with a few companies for over 6 years in India. Apart from that, I have a lot of friends and colleagues who work in different companies and have also switched some. Gathering all the experiences and opinions, I have generally found the office culture a bit busy and intrusive sometimes and cuts across personal time as well on some occasions, which is not taken very seriously. Of course, it is a function of how one should be able to assess and take work based on capacity. But I have seen, heard and been a part where people who worked late hours or weekends. The office is not supposed to be your life, period! For some really urgent situations yes it is doable but not a lot of time. Not everything can be treated as urgent. There are a lot of subconscious things in play here which I can talk about in a bit of detail which may or may not be related. In India, there is a huge population and thus a huge employable workforce, which means more competition that not only makes you an easily replaceable asset but also gives employers a lot of scope to negotiate down the salaries. Some things are also very inherent in the culture i.e. the culture of competitiveness from childhood which even carries up to the workforce. Here lies the difference between the companies in the EU in a very general sense. People value personal time a lot and you can even see that reflected in a lot of areas. For example, in Germany, you can rarely find any shops to be open on Sundays because people value off time. Also in workplaces, it's considered a bit rude to approach folks during post office hours or weekends unless it's super urgent and this super urgent situation is very well defined and not a grey area. It also comes from the progressive urban policies put in place. This flexibility in the EU gives you time and space to develop other aspects of life like hobbies, giving time to your close ones etc.
Also considering different options I chose Personio as my next workplace for a variety of reasons mentioned below :
- It's a B2B product and I wanted to work in a company dealing with B2B stuff. It has startup young energy vibes, evolving tech stack and a focused vision of serving the targeted segment.
- The growth potential of Personio is huge considering the current market penetration percentage and I wanted to be a part of that growth.
- Really loved the entire interview process and was convinced after meeting a lot of cool and talented folks from the company over the interviews.
- While in my interviews Personio already had 60+ nationalities in their team and I was really curious to work in such a diversified band bringing in a lot of perspectives.
- The compensation was very competitive and at par with market standards in terms of base as well as equity. Here I got a surprise as well just before flying, of having a bump of equity refreshment(without even me asking) because of funding they re-evaluated and spread across the benefits over the employees. It really speaks about the fact that they care about employees.
- Apart from the pay, there are a lot of benefits like monthly transport pass subsidy, gym subsidy and food subsidy on their kitchen so you basically can save a lot.
- I was swayed away by the consistency across their websites, emails and presentations, which looks really professional and gives an impression of well-thought, designed and carefully curated products.
- At the time of writing this, I have gone through 2 weeks of onboarding. Never in my career, I have seen or heard of this much of a structured and smooth process for onboarding new folks which included company, team and engineering onboarding separately.
- Also the best part, they introduced something called Personio flex which allows me to work from anywhere in the EU for 2 weeks at a stretch and this can be done 50% of the time in a year.
There are also proper labour laws defined and followed by Employers which protect Employees.
Healthy Lifestyle
Health is absolute wealth. This is one of those things we are so ignorant about, but it's so important that our lives depend on it. The quality of the air we breathe, the quality of water we drink, and the quality of food we eat should always be a priority but somehow we tend to ignore that.
Talking about air quality, you are smart enough to find the worst-ranked cities in terms of air pollution. But I would just show the difference between Bangalore and Munich below.
Bad air quality over a sustained period of time gives rise to a lot of health issues that we might not think of now but can come and bite us when we grow old. Yes, it is a result of urbanization which must happen but then again regulations and checks must be in place to minimise the impact which I found absent in Bangalore in the last 6 years.
When it comes to water, there are proper water protection policies in place in Germany. So there are proper systems in place because of which you get drinkable water straight out of the tap. While there are laws in India as well but I have never had the opportunity to drink water straight out of the tap anywhere. I always had to take care of installing an aqua guard or an equivalent. Again it's not very clear how the laws and inspections work but as a consumer, I can clearly see the difference.
With regards to Food quality control, again in Germany, you have laws in place. And in general, you can see the quality when you go ahead and buy groceries. They are definitely at a different level in a good sense than what I used to buy back in Bangalore which is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in India. On this point as well am not very clear on the implementation of the seriousness of the laws but differences are visible as a consumer.
Another underrated point would be noise pollution. There is something called the Ruhezeit i.e. quiet time in Germany. Basically, one rule mentions you might end up paying a hefty fine or even end up in court if you make noise on Sunday. Noise pollution is a big issue in many cities back in India with no such policies in place.
There are proper garbage segregation rules and citizens are more responsible for not littering around, municipalities and public services are a lot more efficient and on that note, Munich is a very clean and well-maintained city.
Proper policies like these make it easier for citizens to focus on other aspects and live better and healthier life.
Taxes and Social Security
Germany is considered one of the strongest countries when it comes to the advantages of paying taxes to avail of the social security the government provides its citizens. Let me show you how, from the perspective of the percentage of salary going towards tax and the corresponding advantages. Here in Germany, my taxes would be around 38–42 % of my wages. You must be thinking that's a lot of money taken away from you. But wait till you have a picture of what comes under these taxes :
- Unemployment Insurance: You will be paid a decent certain percentage of your last salary if you lose your job and would also receive help from the labour office to find you your next job but till then you would be covered. This is one of the reasons for the low unemployment rates in Germany(~<7%) and it's also difficult for your workplace to fire you.
- Pension Insurance: Payments are generally made from age 65, and the maximum payout currently amounts to some 67% of the average net income during the insured’s working life. In India finding a good pension is difficult in the private sector. Basically, you’ll have to save and plan for your retirement.
- Accident Insurance: Payments cover the costs of treatment and recuperation, pensions in the event of invalidity and funeral costs in the event of death. And this insurance not only covers you, but it also covers your kids too. Back in India, I had to pay for monthly insurance called accidental coverage which is similar to this. But the coverage is not that lucrative.
- Social indemnity: It is for persons whose adverse condition is considered the responsibility of the community, and is paid by the state. Those covered include disabled war veterans, war widows and orphans, soldiers with service-incurred health problems and the victims of violent crime.
- Statutory health insurance: Contributing to a statutory health insurance scheme also automatically qualifies you for sickness benefits (Krankengeld) and maternity benefits (Mutterschaftsgeld). It also covers you in the event of needing care due to old age, accident or illness. Back in India, I had Health Insurance from my employer but in many cases, people have to buy their own health insurance.
Apart from all these benefits, there are also benefits like child benefits, maternity benefits and parental benefits which are again amazing if you are raising a family here. In brief in the above cases either you would be receiving an additional allowance or your tax percentage would be lowered to offset those income losses while catering to the needs. So basically all these are covered under the 38–42 % tax I would be paying here. And a point to note, if you are a part of the social security system paying taxes you are entitled to all these benefits no matter what percentage you are paying. Back in India with my wages, I was paying around ~42 % tax considering Income tax, taxes on goods and services etc but there was literally zero advantage I was getting over that. I was buying my own insurance. I had to strategize and keep saving for my own retirement. And I have heard people spending loads of money for their children's education even after paying those hefty taxes. This was one of my most strategic reason and this is also one of the most fundamental reasons brain drain happens in a country, with India being no exception. If there are literally zero advantages to paying taxes why would a smart person continue doing that when he is getting better opportunities elsewhere just like people migrate to different cities for “better opportunities”.
Infrastructure
Munich airport is ranked 6th in the world with connectivity to around 200 countries. Public transport in Munich is super comfortable and convenient with underground subways, buses and trams. There is awesome connectivity across German cities via fast trains and buses too. You can get a monthly pass for zone M(which covers most of Munich except the outskirts) and can literally travel in any of those ways any no of times in a month. For me, that pass is super subsidised by my employer which is a sweet bonus point for me. These transport means would almost always run on time. Roads and Railway networks and cleanliness are of extremely good standards if I compare it to Bangalore.
Apart from transport if you pick up anything that comes under infrastructure development like telecommunications, Sewage, Water Supply, Energy, Public Health, Agriculture, Education infra, Govt infra, Law and Order etc, in every aspect Munich or Germany is far superior to India’s any city. Of course, India is making progress in this aspect but the pace is slow and is not regulated properly and I’m not sure if that’s something I would be able to see in my lifetime on this level. And again better infrastructure improves the quality of life of citizens.
Push towards future tech is faster and better in developed countries like Germany take EV adoption or the Green Energy push for example.
Finance and Investment Opportunities
Since I am into personal finance and Investments, this was one of the major considerations. Euro has a higher currency power in contrast to Rupees and the current systems in India are a little complex for Investments in global companies like the ones in the US. It's getting better over time but still, it is not that simple and not long ago it wasn’t even possible for a normal retail investor like us, making us miss those growth opportunities with awesome companies which are technologically way ahead in the game and thus have a lot of future potentials. Also, you can make a simple comparison of investing in the Indian index(Nifty 50) vs investing in the US index(S&P) for let's say ~15 years, the average CAGR is the same(12–15%) but because of the Rupee weakening over time, returns of US index will be more than the Indian Index.
From Germany, you can easily invest in stocks listed in the US. One disadvantage here in Germany is that the long-term capital gains tax is higher than in India by 5% which is not that bad.
Also when it comes to Crypto investments, the German govt is super progressive to adapt and put forth regulations and as of now it says :
At a personal level, profits regarding cryptocurrencies are tax-free if the total profit generated from private sales transactions in the calendar year was less than 600 Euros and sales of cryptocurrencies held over a year are tax-exempt in Germany.
As a long-term holder, this is super sweet for me compared to the greedy stance of the Indian govt of taxing Crypto gains but on the other hand not protecting investors with any laws or regulatory bodies like SEBI.
Political Scenario, Bureaucratic process
This is a highly controversial topic and many might disagree with me which I am fine with. I don't have a concrete reference to this section in Germany since I wasn’t tracking but yes was observing India's current political scenario and the moves of some of the parties. This section might be highly biased according to you but I am entitled to my own opinion which you might take with a pinch of salt. Before talking about my biased frustrated observations of the current ruling party(to be honest I don’t have any inclination towards any party, I just want a proper functioning government), I would really urge you to think of why we even have governments in democracies and what are their roles and responsibilities, why are they called public servants yet people putting them on pedestals and treat them as the equivalent of kings/gods.
Almost all political parties drive their campaigns by religious, communal, targeted sections of society's agendas and majorly shaming other parties instead of talking about truly progressive topics which a developing country should talk about. I can list so many events that happened in these 7 years but I believe you must be smart enough to google. Seen and read about so many protests from every section of people right from labourers, doctors, students, unemployed workforce, farmers, press, activists, and journalists to name a few. If so many people are unhappy then there must be something wrong, it's that simple. Not to mention all the poor global rankings. I would agree that there have been developments and changes but I wouldn’t really agree with the pace and ideologies behind the parties and it should not really be about comparing it to the previous governments. Instead should always be a measure of what is expected from a government for a common citizen. Also, I am really annoyed with the fact of no accountability setup for the current state of affairs of the Govt. Ideally, in a democracy Justice /Law and Order, Government and Media/Press should be the 3 pillars and should keep each other in check so none can exercise extreme power and it seems like this framework is slowly weakening.
There are bigger problems to be thought about like Climate change, Renewable Energy, Advanced Healthcare, Biodiversity losses etc and I have never seen a political party talk about it.
Some of the bureaucratic processes are still old, corrupt and painful to navigate. People with money or contacts hold special privileges. If you are an employed individual and you are having your EPF deducted, you’ll know what I am talking about or you must have seen some other instances within family members when it comes to any of the bureaucratic processes.
Consumer Purchases
Consumer access to the latest tech or gadgets in a developed city/country is far easier and faster than in a developing or underdeveloped one. Here there is another point that had caused pain as of late. Consumer Electronics are treated as luxury items in India and are taxed heavily (~18% GST) which is really painful for consumers when they go for buying some good gadgets with their hard-earned money. Taxing this high generally discourages consumerism. For an example check below the difference in prices for Apple iPhone 13 Pro between India and Germany.
This simply shows if you convert, then you’ll see you are paying 25K more in India for the same item(It hurts me to the guts to see this huge difference and this money is going to the Government). And you will find similar differences in all Consumer Electronics and also other “luxury” items.
Miscellaneous
There were a lot of other subconscious items as well which I will cover here.
Munich is very international and houses almost 35–40 % of ex-pats, So it gives a lot of scope to meet different kinds of people and learn about a variety of cultures and perspectives. Also, the literacy rate is higher it has a more liberal and global mindset. Better rights and framework for the protection of those rights. For e.g. EU is very serious about data and privacy laws.
I was kind of in a comfort zone for the last 5 years in Bangalore and this move kind of shakes me up from that. Shifting here makes me more responsible and aware of time since time is valued here(Missing a meeting or appointment by a few minutes can be considered rude). I am responsible for my own household chores.
Another very underrated and ignored point would be about safety and crime rate. Munich is much safer.
These were some of my points while deciding to make the move because I needed to be absolutely sure about it. But as I mentioned before, I truly want our country to reach the state where the point of this blog gets invalidated. But at this point in time nationalism aside I’m seeking what’s best for me and what aligns with my dreams and this move is a step towards that.
