Jason C wrote:
In many countries doctors can work privately in addition to their govt paid work and hence earn more money. Is that possible in Germany?
Yes it is. But the demand for private healthcare is low. The public health insurance cover is very broad, covering nearly every kind of therapy. And patients on public healthcare can freely choose their doctors, unlike in the UK. You don’t even have to go to a GP first, you can go straight to a specialist of your choice. Waiting times are slightly higher for non-private patients (This usually gets exaggerated in the media) but otherwise you get the same quality of care.
Also, your prices are fixed by regulation. If you think you are a great doctor and very good at your work you can’t just demand a higher pay than other colleagues.
Admittedly, I am still in the early stages of my career (in the UK system I’d roughly be called a “specialty registrar”) so my pay will increase over time. Doctors with a well running practice with a healthy mix of private and public insured patients can make several 100k€ a year…before taxes and cost for staff and equipment. Free time does remain scarce as you move up the career ladder though.
I frequently hear people complain that they don’t have enough time to do things – fly for instance. In my experience if you want to, you can always create the time. Life is about prioritisation. If you are running a business as an entrepreneur then your time is devoted to the business. Flying is a secondary pleasure that you yearn for as a release from the business day to day pressures. I get my flying kick by combining business and pleasure by flying to European business meetings as often as possible. Happy days!
I would say that the perspective on money is completely different for owners and renters. Renters have an annual budget to spend the best they can.
Time is the limit of what you can do with the money available ie long trips or many small flights. The timeframe of a trip is always set before the trip happens and all our plans are vulnerable to weather (differently. But being able to change the timeframe just before or during the trip is a huge bonus, because it gives you the ability to work the weather for your objective, rather than just enduring it.
My strategy is to decide a timeframe and stay free regarding the destination (easier said than done).
That opens a new discussion to trip strategy, GA utility, attractivity to non-pilot passengers …
@pilot-h
I saw that book a few years ago. There’s also a lot out there about „financial independence“ – the goal is to be free from work and living on passive income.
I’m skeptical. It seems our current system is working partly based on the principle that many are hustling, enduring a job only because the (illusion of a) top of the pyramid is out there, to finally „make it“ and be financially safe and have money and freedom. I don’t buy into it, for that money alone is not a good stimulation. Most people who are successful kept going to realize an idea, and money was not the main motivation.
The reality is for a large part of the working population in my country flying privately (especially touring) is not possible. It is simply too expensive in relation to salaries.
My immediate friends are all in good jobs (doctor, lawyer, controller at large multinational) and none of them consider doing a ppl. Not because they’re not interested, it’s just too much money to justify their pleasure against their families overall expenses.
Typical couple:
He/Lawyer, She/Doctor, two kids, combined family income guesstimate 7000€.
Let’s say she does a ppl and flys 2 hours a week thereafter in a DA40. That’s 500€ a week (2000€ per month). Yes, it would be possible to fly 2 hours in a Katana for half that price but that gets old quickly.
That’s a 3-4 day vacation money wise for the entire family in italy/croatia in a nice appartment – just for comparison.
I have another acquaintance who is a senior tax advisor and has his own firm. It took him a few years to get the PPL and he only flies in a DV20 very few hours a year.
Time constraints and location play a role there.
In my case I am very happy with my salary, but unhappy with too much time away from home (not enough autonomy over when I’m where) and missing my young kid. I will soon reduce hours/salary and spend more time at home. Since I thoroughly enjoy flying GA I am evaluating options that will allow this without hurting too much financially.
I agree with Peter’s comment. I’m not “wealthy”, but I’m “well off”. Certainly within the top 10% income bracket in Sweden. My wife is even higher, which helps. :-) (Although she has some reasonably expensive hobbies of her own.) It also helps if you can get someone else to pay for your flights. In my case I only pay for about half my flying out of my own pocket. The other half is business trips, flights with the Voluntary Air Corps or flights on behalf of my club (e.g. ferry flights and EASA “introductory flights”).
But most people in Sweden could afford flying if they wanted to. The big expense is getting the license but this should be seen as an investment. With the cost of a license being about 3% of the average cost of a house in Sweden or 5% of the average cost of a three-room condo it is clear that most people could afford that investment. Time, on the other hand….
When I started flying I was a Ph.D. student with a reasonably well paid job as research assistant at my university, was single and lived in a cheap student accommodation. Being an academic meant that I had lots of control over my time.
This all ended when I got kids. I tried to keep up, but with two kids and a house it wasn’t feasible anymore – neither time- nor moneywise – so I let my license lapse and went to find other ways to spend my free time.
With two grown children who had moved out, the remaining one in his upper teens, and now being associate professor, I found myself with both time and money again and took up my license and IR after 17 years.
Airborne_Again wrote:
The other half is business trips
JohnR wrote:
I get my flying kick by combining business and pleasure by flying to European business meetings as often as possible.
I know that others here fly for their business trips as well, however this requires quite a special employer or very wealthy customers. For example, I had to fly Zurich – Nürnberg for business, a trip that costs 150 EUR with an airliner. The same trip flown by me would have been in the range of 4 to 8 times that, depending on airplane. There is no chance to cover even half of that by the “normal” businesses (in this case the company in question has an annual revenue of a couple of billions and would still not pay anything more than the airline cost). So people who can cover (some of) the costs from their job should be considered an exception, not the rule.
Vladimir wrote:
I know that others here fly for their business trips as well, however this requires quite a special employer or very wealthy customers.
I agree. I and my wife have a consultancy on the side which can pay for business trips. But anyone who is self-employed should be able to do the same. I’ve tried with my university but they rejected the idea out of principle. (Flying is not good for the environment.) When I started flying in the 80s it was explicitly permitted for government employees in Sweden to use “own or rented aircraft” for business trips. Times change…
Airborne_Again wrote:
But anyone who is self-employed should be able to do the same.
Being self-employed means a lot of money in some cases but in others (e.g. startups) it means having a more interesting and fulfilling job at the cost of earning (sometimes much) less than if normally employed.
Vladimir wrote:
Being self-employed means a lot of money in some cases but in others (e.g. startups) it means having a more interesting and fulfilling job at the cost of earning (sometimes much) less than if normally employed.
On the other hand travel costs are deductible by the company which makes a great deal of difference compared to paying out of your own pocket.
Airborne_Again wrote:
On the other hand travel costs are deductible by the company
Not in Switzerland / Germany. Sometimes car travels are not accepted as expenses if train is cheaper and a customer of mine in Germany had to justify having employees in Switzerland who have to travel to Germany 2-3 times a year which made them “too expensive”. Tax authorities here are not at all that accommodating.
