A 67,000-Euro salary still feels like failure

A 25-year-old in the Netherlands earns 67,000 Euros a year in tech sales, yet says rent, food, and bills leave them unable to afford holidays, travel, or even certain basics. In response, a personal finance columnist points to one specific truth: the measure o

When she moved to Europe, she pictured a life with space in it—holiday weekends, dates, a little room to spend. Instead, a year and a half later, her calendar stays anchored at home.

She is 25 and lives in the Netherlands. For 15 years, she says, she worked and saved to leave her home country and start over. Now she is in the life she once chased: she works in tech sales. an industry she says pays well even in a junior position. and she earns 67. 000 Euros a year. But after rent, food, and bills, “there’s not much left,” she writes.

Her frustration isn’t just financial—it’s emotional. She watches people her age go on holidays. spend money on drinks. ski in the winter. and party in Ibiza during the summer. “I feel worthless. ” she writes. adding that the effort to get here “means nothing” because she still “can’t afford a holiday or to travel anywhere.” The result. she says. is a feeling like forward motion that’s been erased: she moved forward three steps. only for the world to take 10 steps backward.

She links money to the parts of life she wants to live now: being young, meeting women her age, going on dates, and buying clothes without fear. She says she can’t even afford to replace a one piece of clothing if it gets ruined.

In the reply, the tone shifts from accounting to perspective. The columnist tells a story meant to counter the comparisons that are tightening the writer’s sense of failure. In 2002, the writer’s brother-in-law emigrated from Bulgaria to the United States at 21 years old. He had “no money” and a college degree that “most American businesses didn’t recognize.”.

That first period. the columnist says. was unglamorous compared with American peers who had just graduated and were spending their first corporate paychecks on vacations and bars. The brother-in-law’s lifestyle was frugal because of his lack of funds, but it also reflected goals. “He used his grit and brains to start over in a new country. ” the columnist writes. and “twenty-odd years later. he’s now the most successful person I know.”.

To make the point concrete, the columnist lists where that path led: in 2022, he went on a bucket-list hunting trip on a Canadian island, visited his father in Bulgaria, took his kids to Disney World, and whisked his sister away for a romantic tour of Italy and Spain.

The message to the Netherlands-based writer is direct. The columnist says the best indicator of how far someone will go isn’t where they’ve landed—it’s how far they’ve already come. The writer moved to a new country. something many people never do. and she is working in a position with “plenty of room for career advancement.”.

The reply also challenges the comparison she’s been caught in. The writer said she sees other people her age “wasting money on drinks. ” and the columnist reads that word—“wasting”—as a sign she isn’t much of a drinker. In the columnist’s framing. other people may view drinking as a worthy trade-off. which means the real problem isn’t their spending. It’s the trap of treating someone else’s choices as a scoreboard for her own.

The proposed fix is not about spending more; it’s about budgeting with purpose. “Analyze your own financial priorities and align them with your spending habits. ” the columnist advises. and then get “extremely specific” about what matters most financially. The columnist suggests building the budget around those priorities using sinking funds: if travel matters more than clothes. eating out. or nightlife. create a separate sinking fund for holidays and automatically transfer money into it every payday. even if it’s only €100 at a time.

The same approach, the columnist says, can be applied to other goals that matter to the writer—dating, buying new clothes, or taking time off work. Saving becomes easier when the money has a clear purpose, not just a vague promise.

There’s also a set of practical moves aimed at making goals attainable on a tight budget: get roommates to share rent if possible; buy clothes at thrift stores; stay at hostels when traveling; and track airfare and train fare to book at the lowest prices.

The reply then turns to cutting expenses that don’t improve life. The columnist encourages an honest look at current spending and identifying expenses that aren’t actually improving the writer’s life. citing examples like food delivery. subscriptions. expensive grocery stores. and constant small convenience purchases that “add up” quickly.

The columnist acknowledges how hard it can be to cut small expenses when everyone else seems to be able to afford more—such as “food delivery and a month in Greece.” But the reminder is that what others appear to spend may not reflect the whole reality. The columnist says they may have family money or a credit card balance that would make the writer’s head “spin.” How they spend their money. the columnist argues. has “nothing to do with you.” What matters is how the writer continues building from the hard work it took to reach where she is and reach the life she wants.

The ending is meant to bring the writer back to the long view without dismissing her current exhaustion. The columnist says it can be hard, that weariness is real, and that the writer shouldn’t give up now. “You are doing an incredible job,” the columnist writes, adding: “Your story is inspiring. You’ve come so far so quickly,” and expressing hope for how high she can climb.

The writer’s original question closes with a simple ache: she moved for a better life, but says she still feels worthless—because her new life hasn’t made room for the experiences she thought would be waiting.

The reply doesn’t deny the pain of falling short. It instead tries to reframe the numbers and the timing so the writer can see progress as something earned, not something immediately rewarded.

Netherlands tech sales 67 000 Euros cost of living budgeting travel savings sinking fund immigration personal finance