I'm curious to understand how your guy's quality of life is in the US. I work in London, UK as a VP of Engineering, a mortgage on a 3 bed semi-detached in Zone 5 (about 1 hour outside of London) but my work is actually in another borough also in Zone 5, so my commute is 30m by cycle. Therefore, with a short commute and a "big" house (for UK standards), our situation is not bad. But with low wages and high cost of living, I'm wondering if we'd be better off in the US. For comparison, we live very frugally, no car, no eating out, no nothing. Monthly breakdown: Base: £98k (10 yoe) Shares: £500k, 4 years vesting period, but value is uncertain, could be more like £250k Wife: £29k Monthly expenses (combined, no kids, incl. mortgage): £3.5k Monthly savings: £3.5k While we're sitting pretty compared to others in London, childcare/schooling would eat up our savings if we would have kids, not to mention that our house is still small for US standards and we'll never be able to buy a fully detached one, as they're in the region of at least £1m around here - on the outskirts and low quality. £2m for a decent one within 45m of central. Do you think we'd be better off in the US, say SF? Comp would be better no doubt, but then what about healthcare costs? As you might know, NHS healthcare is free once you paid a shit ton of taxes (I make £4,900 net from £98,000 gross per month). Looking forward to your thoughts!
And £29k a year? Does she work at McDonald’s?
Median salary in London is £34k... £21k across UK. She's a project manager. While £29k is not high, it's not low either and I know several people at my current job that make less (in London!).
I am based in London. I am now starting a new job but I know a lot of people who started with £21K in top firms. Biggest media group (GroupM, Havas etc) pay between £20-30K. Risk Analyst in banking (British, Europeans banks) around £35-£40K. Top advertisement firms start with £20K and Managers (5-6 yoe) get up to £35K. Big4 starts with £25-30K. Lecturers and Senior lecturers at top Universities get around £45-50K. Quants in Banking with a PhD is around £55K for British Banks, £60-£65K for US banks. Data Scientists now can start with £40K.
Move to Seattle. Employer covers healthcare and homes are still way cheaper than the Bay.
How much difference in savings per month would it bring for someone who gets 130k base in bay area?
What about holidays in US? People say they dont have holidays. Consider also the fact you will be away from Europe, where are you from? Your family? Also moving to US is good but where? You live in London, you can travel in central London very easy, big city and a lot of opportunities. Not all the cities and locations in US are actual cities! Can you change everything just to be in the middle of nowhere for a bigger house? I think you should consider the quality of life you want to have..
TBH, I don't use more than 10 days per year anyway. The rest I dot around, have long weekends to get rid of annual leave. My mom lives in mainland Europe but I never visit as it takes 10 hours door to door, due to shit ass infra where she lives. What makes you think you can travel in central London very easily? That's actually my biggest problem with London - it's so huge, getting anywhere takes 1-2 hours. Visiting friends is impossible as everyone lives 10 miles from each other. I do agree on opportunities, as 9 out of 10 great employers will be in London. I certainly wouldn't move to NYC, as I found it a massive pile of shit compared to London. But Seattle, SF or Austin could be nice. Good challenge though, appreciate it.
Aren't savings in Bangalore better than in London as cost of living in London is very high and because salaries for Software Engineers in UK/Europe aren't as high as those being given in US/India?
He is an European guy. I doubt he can get a job in Bangalore easily. Also, most of people from developed world wouldn’t want to live in India for variety of reasons. Heck, even Indians try to get out.
Yeah, just saying.
As someone who has a family riddled with health problems including myself, I can assure you US provides the best medical care if you have a good insurance (which you will have if you work for a tech company). So many options to choose depending on the urgency. Best medical education (debatable but at least super greater than my fairly developed home country). There is a out of pocket maximum - meaning you don’t pay a dime after paying certain amount. The max out of pocket is usually less than $6000 for a family. So thats the max you will pay for medical. Seattle has no state income tax but the pay is similar to bay area. It means you get 10% more than folks in Bay. Weather is worse than Bay but better than UK.
Wow, 6k per year max? That's nothing compared to the taxes and NIC I have to pay in the UK, only to receive somewhat decent healthcare at some point (still waiting for an MRI - have been waiting for 4 months now).
4.5k at Microsoft and the company gives 2.5k to you for medical expense so you really pay up to 2k. You wouldn’t wait that much either. You wait only if you want to see a popular doctor.
There are very few countries that pay much more to software engineers in the world - US, Eastern Europe, India and perhaps China (smaller degree). It means you are valued more at these places. US is the only developed nation. No brainer.
I dont know about India and China (those have other issues) but Eastern Europe definitely doesn't pay more than London, and if OP is British they will have a hard time adjusting to -25°c winters and +35c summers
Oh yeah of course. I meant relatively more (compared to other professions in the same area).
Like others have said, of you have a job in the us health care is fine. Many companies contribute to HSAs as well so if you don't actually get sick much you can start building tax free savings for late in life. I would maybe add in Boston and DC to your destination list, coming from Europe they might be more similar and they have pretty decent tech scenes (Boston for instance has large Google, Amazon and Facebook offices, and from what I hear at least Facebook pays the same as they do in the bay), not to mention they're only a 6-hour flight from Europe instead of 10 from the West coast. They're also very diverse cities with a lot more going on than tech and they're kind of melting pots for cultures from all over the world. I think no matter what you're looking for there's something in the US that would be worth the move. You just got to decide what you want to optimize for. There's also always the option of moving here, being a rockstar on a team, then moving back to wherever you want as a remote employee and keep the same pay.
How about places like Austin, Dallas, Atlanta? What are the Tech scenes and comp like?
I've heard Austin is good, I think I've seen in a few places it's ranked the highest when you combine salary and cost of living. No idea really about the other two other than how hot they are in the summer.
You would definitely have a much more comfortable life in the US. That said, it's a much different lifestyle than London. I'd use some of that European PTO to visit a few different places and imagine life here.
If you're not a US citizen (with an automatic right to work in the USA) or a spouse of a US citizen, you might be much better off to join a big US tech firm in one of their London offices and work there for a year in a senior position where you're a manager of lots of people, projects and budgets, and then come to the USA on an L1A multinational manager visa. Your employer will be able to get you (and your spouse) a visa relatively quickly, and when you're here, you'll qualify for a faster (EB1C) green card process if you and your spouse decide to stay and your employer offers to support a green card application. As others have said, visit some places in the USA first. You won't simulate real life here but it'll be a lot more realistic than just thinking about it from your vantage point in the UK.
Leetcode Daniel, Leetcode! & move from London, it’s dogshit
London is an amazing city.
I beg to differ...