Sometimes I find myself salivating over the 300k+ TCs everyone talks about here. I'm trying to figure out whether I'm missing out. I earn 100k in central Europe, 30 vacation days, have a 15 minute commute, work 4 days a week, and pay 1300 p/m for a 800ft city center apartment. As far as I can tell, I can buy most things I want without really thinking about it. The only things out of reach are unnecessary luxuries like watches or fancy cars. Anyone who made the move to the US for TC, are you genuinely happier? Is it just optimising net worth or is your day to day truly better?
260ft? That's like a size of a closet. Did you mean square meters?
I must have calculated wrong. It's 90 square metres.
90 square meters = 969 square feet Not tiny, but not big either.
More money doesn't always mean a better life, especially when everything costs more.
It cost more in the UK
Yeah, the UK life standards have sunken. No longer a good paying area compared to the increased cost of living/lack of services. If you want anything done, you go private. On top of leaving almost half of your earnings in HMRC coffers. Other EU markets are way more appealing (from afar)
US, you gotta do rat race. There is no way to be back once you got into the valley. Sure, you will buy your 2M house, which probably is worse than your home in EU
Keep winning OP 🤞
EU > US. Because, basically, we don’t have societies that can see the emergence of the tech world but our societies are more enjoyable to live in. And tech companies from the US also need to be in Europe. So we benefit from both worlds to a certain extent.
Not equal but i see what you are seeing
Close friends and fam make moving abroad a bigger deal, consider that wherever you are now
I have a friend who lives in Netherlands who makes half as much money but is more happy . Life is stress free , always traveling.
Life is hard in the US lol. Total comp is higher here because you have to pay out the ass for everything to live a comfortable life. Proper healthcare, decent place to live, decent safe neighborhood, good school for your kids, continued education, decent food....it's such a country of haves and have nots. If I were you, I would stay where you are. Come here on vacation, but don't come here to live unless you're very sure. There's a reason why people are trying to get out of here and live in other places lol.
I’m personally very happy with my situation. We make >$300k && have 6 weeks of vacation. We don’t actually have to put in the 5 days of work per week. My work pays for my healthcare. Some Europeans refuse to understand that Europeans and Americans have different values. For example, lots of Europeans aim for a hedonistic lifestyle. The ethos of Silicon Valley is to make the world a better place, even if that means sacrificing your life. America rewards those who are above average. Europe incentivizes those to be below average.
The ethos of silicon valley is to make money. 😂
The ethos in US is to make shareholders happy. That percolates to Europe and, depending on local laws, affects you accordingly. If you are in France/Germany etc with a US company, chances are you are both safe and making more money than your average peers, by doing the exact same job. UK on the other hand provides you the same kind of job insecurity and 2/3 of the same income as the US. You are making more money but once layoffs happen, the UK is the first on the chopping block outside of US
In the US you can earn much more money in tech but quality of life and WLB is definitely lower
But you can also retire early
Assuming you live that long.