Of course we can invest in the foreign stocks but probably it requires to pay additional tax or sth like this. We have similar stock index to S&P 500, it is called WIG20. It is based on stocks of the biggest 20 companies in Poland. ROI from this is not so promising, look at the chart. It is completely not stable and definitely not growing constantly — looking by the big time window.
Inflation in Poland is also very unstable but in average a little bit smaller than yours. Our national bank publishes different kind of rates (deposit, reference etc.) every year. They put some borders to rates that banks can offer for investment accounts etc. Anyway those rates are like 1–2 % per year.
Risk is always a risk and it also took you possibility to have an access to the money in any moment.
Yeah, I’ve heard about “car’s culture” in US so many times. Hahah… you probably can only shift to cheaper vehicles like electric ones or LPG’s.
Interesting fact is that in Poland after communist era, lots of people bought cars and think that they are richer when they do have a car. Having car is like a determinant of the status, hahaha… Probably because it was in the days of communist. Only people that were managers or directors had cars.