Self-employed American living in Poland? Is it possible?

You mean the American dream is a thing of the past?

My monthly spodzelnia fee is 147pln pm for 40 sq m flat & my orange contract for cell,wifi & cable is 127 pln a month=274pln a month + 40/60 pln a month for electric and yearly property taxes around 360 pln,so almost 100$ a month for flat to live.Ye, its in hardcore centre in a old 25 floor skyscraper in Warsaw with a Porter.I bought it in 2000 for 137k pln and paid 20k pln for remont.I remember those days it costed me less then 50 pln a month to have the flat so I use to boast about having a flat in centre of Warsaw for around 10$ a month.Not bad as I come to Poland 5 to 7 times a year to crash and wife does too for cpl weeks in Warsaw.


I always said it never was,Poles lived in really bad conditions,worked 12 hr/7 days came to Poland and multiplied there dollar and bragged.There was more money in Poland to be made then what is there now.I know so many business people(Including Vietnamese,Turkish,Indians,Armenians) who made millions($) those days.I still see so many opportunities in Poland but I am too old and lazy to work hard:)

@OP:I always had a gut feeling that you must have done some math,I think you are in your 20s or in your 40s???

In the classic sense in which the saying "American Dream" was developed and popularized in 1931, yes. While I personally lived the dream and was very lucky in business, it is not that way for most people. Poland, in my professional opinion, offers much greater opportunity for success because it is still a developing market. Where as USA is largely developed and the entrepreneurial spirit may be alive but cost prohibitive for most. By Polish standards, making 100K USD per year makes you a very wealthy person, and US standards you are middle class. If you know how to make money, Poland offers significant opportunity as well as tax advantages.

Good luck with that pipe dream.
The average pay range for a Freelance Writer (in the U.S.A.) varies modestly (up to $43,500), which suggests there may be fewer opportunities for advancement based on skill level.


Oh the dreams are still possible if you want to sell your soul to the loss of independence, privacy, freedoms and live in a police state to do it.

I can't even get telephone service or cable t.v. without supplying my social security number and bank account number for direct withdrawl.
Same for health insurance or Medicare or Medicaid.
All you have to do is type in some ones name on your computer and all their PERSONAL information is available to John Q. Public from their net worth, your spouses name, your children's names, divorces with dates, your credit score, your most recent address, your arrest records, driving record, birthdate, known relatives.......well you get my point.

The millennials have all been slowly desensitized to these loss of freedoms and basic rights and they are now considered the "Norm".
The American Millennials can't wait for a cashless society so they can get their chip put under their skin to buy and sell.
(Mark of the Beast)
Independence Criminalized !
That's why retirees are leaving America in droves.
We love our Country but hate our government.
Hope that helped answer your question Ziemowit.

Yes,100k usd a year now is becoming popular in Warsaw at least and 100k in USA depends where.In big cities that will be lower middle class like NYC etc.Some small business people are making 500k(usd) and plenty of them there(in Poland)

And Yes again Poland has more opportunities and less people competing to make it up there.I feel good that the govt is giving away money so opportunity to rise gets easier:) for the smart ones.

@Cargo pants
147 zł of czynsz per month in the centre of Warsaw is incredibly cheap. Even for a small flat. It's actually much cheaper than in small towns.

I guess that's an exception rather than a rule.

My building and 2 similar ones are run by same spodzelnia on Chemilna.Zgoda & Swietokrzyska and look alike same building structure.First 2 floors are commercially rented and advertisments and telephone/internet antenna revenue on the roof keeps the costs low.I am sure plenty of those building around in centrum.

Perhaps they're really good at business as the czynsz is really low. It's actually about 100 zl lower than one for a smaller flat where I live. Kawalerkas here start with roughly 250-280 zł per month.

You had some luck with it I guess.

Nope,its called planning before buying.Last year spodzelnia of one of my rental places increased 600pln a month on Ul KEN.I(my rep) went around to other retail owners(some declined) and we filed a suit and the result was reduction of our raise and attorney fee reimbursed.I also appeal my property taxes on every property,even though they are so low and usually they dont increase it even its 50 pln a year.

That is amazing . Flats in my home town of that seize are around 600-700 pln. And we are just little town.
Even if we assume you are not just pulling our leg it's stupid to assume the OP will struck the same, one in a million, deal.

There are almost 220 flats in each of the 3 buildings,always someone is selling.660 flats right in those 3 buildings OP can always look for one.New buildings are costing 8 to 20 pln a sq m in spodzelnia fee alone.LOL on Zlota 44 last time i heard spodzelnia fee was 65pln a sq ft per month,but again that is where Robert Lewandowski lives on the top floor.I want to buy there but the fee a month scares me.

I looked on-line and prices for the flats in 2016 were 28K pln per metre. You have to pay a monthly fee which maybe 65pln per metre, on a 40m2 flat this is 2,6K pln.

I would assume the prices have now gone up to 35K pln per metre when buying and 70pln per metre for monthly fee.

Guess what?You are assuming wrong.Zlota 44 decreased there prices in 2019 to 22k a sq m furnished and my offer just to see there counter offer was 15k furnished,I would never buy anyway with such a high cynsz.They still invited me for further negotiations but I was just killing time.The prestige thingy is new yet in Poland and fading away rapidly,people are finally facing the reality.Then again there are the elites and the rich.

Managements in Poland are worse then municipalities of townships in USA.I usually dont pay more then MAXIMUM of 8/9 pln a sq m until its top class location and very high potential.

It is a big white elephant - from my hotel in Warsaw I can see only about a quarter of the flats are in use and it's been like that for several years.

As a place to live it makes no sense - if you have kids then there is no garden. If you are single then you could live in the Marriott or Intercontinental for about 25 years for the same price but have all your meals and get your room cleaned.

So true.Inside is elegant but too pricey for the money they ask.I think also 75% is still not sold in last 6/8 years or so.

Do you also see the huge Coca Cola sign on top of the building?lol I will wave at you from there jutro.Like every year all restaurants are booked for tonight? 400Pln and above everywhere too?

Yes, I used to live in Boise Idaho and we had "inversions." They were obviously not as bad as the photo you showed....and that would bother me a tiny bit...but it's now 2020 and hopefully the Polish government will do something to mitigate the worst of the worst.

@cms neuf

I have an uncle who moved to Tennessee and he said "don't even think about it, you won't fit in here." I like middle America...but anywhere I go I will stick out a bit.


This is exactly what I had in mind. Screw the historical sites for the time being...I was planning on renting an Air BNB and then pretending I just moved there---meaning wake up 5am, work until 12noon, go grocery shopping for dinner, come back and market. Then on Fridays I would pretend to go out and try to meet some friends.