zlacker

Yep that's definitely true. Just comes down to what's important to you. You can fall hard and fast in the states but that's a lot less likely to happen in Germany.

The 4k extra take home is more significant if you move to a LCOL place once you have acquired your fortune, not if you stay in the States. I would argue things like FIRE or Lean-FIRE are only slightly easier to achieve in the US than in Germany because of the comparably HCOL.