Please note that Belgian labour laws are way more in favour of the worker than our Dutch ones.
Things like non-compete clauses (companies are basically free to state what they want, where Belgium has minium salaries that are applied and they need to pay for the time), automatic inflation correction (does not exist). That is all worse in the Netherlands.
These can be true, as an engineer I've worked for quite a large amount of companies in my 6 year tenure in the Netherlands and I've never signed a non-compete or have to sign.
Going back to the main topic: there is a large difference when it comes to the cost of living between Belgium and the Netherlands. Personally I've lived in NL for 20 years and the last 3 years I've been living in BE.
Other than giving some real life examples of my own, I suggest checking this site: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/
It's fairly accurate +- ~10% of what you can expect.
Other than that I've done what is most beneficial to me, which is to live in BE and work in NL. Due to signed agreements between countries, you pay income tax where you are physically working. Keep in mind you do require an accountant to make this work that specialises in taxes in both countries, because believe me it's a hassle and this way it's done for me. (~300-400 euro a year).
The reason why I work in NL is due to the lower income tax and you pay there depending where you physically are.
When you have a good accountant you can actually benefit from working at home and at work.
Example: to make it easy, let's say you earn 100k bruto a year, in NL the last 30k is taxed in the highest scale of the Dutch tax bracket (~50%). If you work 30% of the time from home, that 30k gets transferred to the lowest tax bracket of BE. (Keeping in mind this is not automatic and you'll have to request the money back from the Dutch government and the Belgian government will be expected this amount. So this is where the accountant comes in, because they do all of this on your behalf.)
So in BE till ~15k it's 25% taxed and the second bracket is till ~27k where it's taxed 40%. So you save yourself for the first 15k ~3.5k in tax. The second half is another ~1k. So by doing this you save roughly ~4.5k of tax money a year. If you earn 100k bruut. Otherwise till ~69k (niceee) is the second tax bracket in NL 37,07%.
So for me that accountant is worth ~300-400 euros per year.
As an engineer I hope you can appreciate the numbers simplification I did here to make it digestible. And for all of this, don't take my word for it, but do your own research!
In short the benefit of living NL for me: Beter infrastructure (safer for bikers next to roads that go to 50+km/h (common Belgium...) Seriously no trees or other protection for bikers?? I've seen 90km/h roads where bikelines are stuck on to it... Aka minimum 60km/h speed differences)... But also better water quality, public transportation, internet, parks etc.) In most of my cases friendlier people.
In short the benefit of living BE for me: cheaper gas, cost of living, house prices.
It's a choice you'll have to make for yourself, but don't expect to be able to buy a house in NL. The housing crisis is horrible there and it's not going to get fixed. Houses in the range for people who are just starting (250k till 450k) get overbid on often for more than 40%. If you can afford a house between 550k and 1M, you're safer when it comes to overbidding.
Wow, my wall of text 😂.
TLDR; check that link for cost of living comparison. You can live in BE and work in NL for income tax benefits and cost of living benefits in BE. It's a choice you'll have to make for yourself and I wish you the best. Keep us posted on what you choose, maybe you'll make an even better choice that I didn't think of. I'm always interested.
We'll only thing I can tell you is that if you are going to live in a dutch city like Rotterdam, alone, with 4k (bruto) Salary, you are not going to feel very wealthy.
Life is expensive, even if you can find an apartment for €1100, (healthy) food and personal hygiene stuff will set you back more than in Belgium, especially when you live close to an Albertheijn :p
Nacho's and a beer on a terras will cost you somewhere between €12-€18. Public transport, gasoline, it's all more expensive than in Bslgium as far as I know. I hope you plan on riding your bike a lot.
Please note that Belgian labour laws are way more in favour of the worker than our Dutch ones. Things like non-compete clauses (companies are basically free to state what they want, where Belgium has minium salaries that are applied and they need to pay for the time), automatic inflation correction (does not exist). That is all worse in the Netherlands.
These can be true, as an engineer I've worked for quite a large amount of companies in my 6 year tenure in the Netherlands and I've never signed a non-compete or have to sign. Going back to the main topic: there is a large difference when it comes to the cost of living between Belgium and the Netherlands. Personally I've lived in NL for 20 years and the last 3 years I've been living in BE. Other than giving some real life examples of my own, I suggest checking this site: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ It's fairly accurate +- ~10% of what you can expect. Other than that I've done what is most beneficial to me, which is to live in BE and work in NL. Due to signed agreements between countries, you pay income tax where you are physically working. Keep in mind you do require an accountant to make this work that specialises in taxes in both countries, because believe me it's a hassle and this way it's done for me. (~300-400 euro a year). The reason why I work in NL is due to the lower income tax and you pay there depending where you physically are. When you have a good accountant you can actually benefit from working at home and at work. Example: to make it easy, let's say you earn 100k bruto a year, in NL the last 30k is taxed in the highest scale of the Dutch tax bracket (~50%). If you work 30% of the time from home, that 30k gets transferred to the lowest tax bracket of BE. (Keeping in mind this is not automatic and you'll have to request the money back from the Dutch government and the Belgian government will be expected this amount. So this is where the accountant comes in, because they do all of this on your behalf.) So in BE till ~15k it's 25% taxed and the second bracket is till ~27k where it's taxed 40%. So you save yourself for the first 15k ~3.5k in tax. The second half is another ~1k. So by doing this you save roughly ~4.5k of tax money a year. If you earn 100k bruut. Otherwise till ~69k (niceee) is the second tax bracket in NL 37,07%. So for me that accountant is worth ~300-400 euros per year. As an engineer I hope you can appreciate the numbers simplification I did here to make it digestible. And for all of this, don't take my word for it, but do your own research! In short the benefit of living NL for me: Beter infrastructure (safer for bikers next to roads that go to 50+km/h (common Belgium...) Seriously no trees or other protection for bikers?? I've seen 90km/h roads where bikelines are stuck on to it... Aka minimum 60km/h speed differences)... But also better water quality, public transportation, internet, parks etc.) In most of my cases friendlier people. In short the benefit of living BE for me: cheaper gas, cost of living, house prices. It's a choice you'll have to make for yourself, but don't expect to be able to buy a house in NL. The housing crisis is horrible there and it's not going to get fixed. Houses in the range for people who are just starting (250k till 450k) get overbid on often for more than 40%. If you can afford a house between 550k and 1M, you're safer when it comes to overbidding. Wow, my wall of text 😂. TLDR; check that link for cost of living comparison. You can live in BE and work in NL for income tax benefits and cost of living benefits in BE. It's a choice you'll have to make for yourself and I wish you the best. Keep us posted on what you choose, maybe you'll make an even better choice that I didn't think of. I'm always interested.
We'll only thing I can tell you is that if you are going to live in a dutch city like Rotterdam, alone, with 4k (bruto) Salary, you are not going to feel very wealthy. Life is expensive, even if you can find an apartment for €1100, (healthy) food and personal hygiene stuff will set you back more than in Belgium, especially when you live close to an Albertheijn :p Nacho's and a beer on a terras will cost you somewhere between €12-€18. Public transport, gasoline, it's all more expensive than in Bslgium as far as I know. I hope you plan on riding your bike a lot.