After 5 years, my Bay Area stint came to an end. Made crazy amount of money, bought a big home in Vancouver, moving there as I got Canadian PR. Some points before I leave as I see lot of people struggle with same questions again and again. This applies everywhere in the world. I have learned that there are 4 most important things in life to achieve happiness and I learnt it first hand. For a truly middle class life with happiness, each of these max out at 25% 1) Family and friends - you need to have at least 5/10 family members, at least 4 to 5 best friends and 4 to 5 local friends whom you meet on weekly basis. 1 life partner who understands you well. 2) Money - You need to make at least 3-4 times of the minimum wage to be happy and leave middle class. After that, money doesn't matter much. 3) Health - you need to have very strong mental health along with physical health with no diseases. you need to be fit enough to lift 40% of your weight. 4) Career/goals/dreams - You need to spend at least 5 to 8 hours on a day doing things that you love. Again, if you achieve something, this score comes down, you need to find new goal. So all you TC freaks, no matter even you are billionaire, you just achieve 25% of true happiness, so all these high TC means nothing after a certain threshold. stop comparing with others and feeling bad. Next time, you want to envy someone, see if they achieve at least 70% of the above list. If you find someone in your life who has achieved 75% (total), be their friend. they are true genius. There is no f**king point earning 1 million but living single lazily with no friends and watching same tv show doing documentation. Again this is no way to demean someone, but if you are lacking something in life, its because you are missing on 1 or more points above. Try to achieve 100% in each of these and every day is a bliss. This is the reason why money doesn't buy happiness cos its only worth 25%. Good news - money whatever you lost can be earned, same with goals, you can have new goals. Bad news - if you lose health and Family/friends, hard to get it back. So concentrate more on health/family. Some extra tips - 1) Yes, Bay Area is extremely bad for dating for an average person, so don kick yourself. Travel to different places and date people from other states, more work but definitely worth it. 2) If you are struggling with Visa like me, make good amount of money in Bay Area and then move to Canada and get citizenship ( 3 years), then you can come back to US. Quick edit - you don't have to come back, I am not coming back. Also, you can move to Texas or other place not Canada 3) Don live in Bay Area with your family, you miss what's living in good community like. Its always better to have beautiful big house with nice people around you even if its cheap. Overall, I enjoyed every bit of Bay Area while I am here. Final words, your goal shouldn't be about making money but living a very quality life no matter where you are. Always aim for that! good luck :))))) Another edit - lot of people asking about money, guys, another reason why I am moving to Vancouver is that even my would-be spouse from India can work :) TC - 220k, 7 YOE, age 30
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wow thats a long post! but yes well thought for sure
Congratz OP, which area in Vancouver will you be moving to? I came from there.
Surrey!
You are living the dream my friend! Congratz again!
Mathuradas from border spotted ;)
Great post! But why Canada?
I have PR since 2 years and it will expire in 3 years, I am Indian and don't like the visa thing here. I also work on my passion projects as part time which I can't do it here.
Similar reasons for me. These are spot on.
Almost thought I was reading LinkedIn for a second
The guy who is moving to France from Vancouver
We're seeing the blossoming of a new Thought Leader, Innovator, Influencer, Life Coach
Congrats. I've been trying to leave this shit hole for years but I'm too greedy. Glad you had the fortitude to follow through.
💯
Point 2 contradicts your happiness philosophy: You say you need to make 3-4 times the minimum wage to be happy (easily achievable in Canada with a tech job). So why will you move back to the Bay Area and look for money again?
OP has contradicted a lot. Quite confusing when someone says you need dozens of friends to be happy. Nope! You just need moderate chunk of good friends to be around but not necessarily like visiting them every day. Moderate chunk could be couple of friends unless you are a attention seeker and alway depends on others to make trivial to important all sort of decisions. 🤦♂️
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You have nailed it! Cool points and I’m on same page as you :)
Hey I read you got Canadian citizenship and then you came back to US. Can you explain how it helped you? What was your plan and moving forward how does that help? I may not be knowing much about the rules so would appreciate if you can help me understand.
I love your post too. Refreshing - thank you :)