Anyone ever left the US (as a citizen)?
Thinking of leaving because: - Homes are just too expensive, even with $220k TC I can’t afford to buy anywhere besides a dingy suburb 40 minutes outside of DFW or Austin. - Every major city feels unsafe. There are homeless and crazies in every major downtown area. NY, SF, LA, SEA, I’ve been to all of them, desperately trying to find a nice and safe place to live. The places that are insulated and safe (like Playa Vista) are like $5k/1 bedroom because they are so rare. - Healthcare costs. I went in for a routine checkup with Google insurance and ended up paying $400 because my doctor thought I had “high cholesterol” and wanted to do a scan at some 3rd party pay for referral scanning place. My self employed parents don’t have health insurance because their premiums would be $600/month for the lowest, high deductible plan. I have a partner that is awaiting a $150k+ medical bill after having an emergency while they were in between jobs (and did not do COBRA), and this might prevent us from being married. - My girlfriend(soon wife) has ambitions of doing medical school and the entire process is a cluster***. We’ll have to live in Kansas or any random place she gets accepted and probably end up paying $300-400k. Overall, despite being a “high earner,” my lifestyle and QOL is not actually that of a high earner. In fact, due to the general state of crime and homelessness, high rents, high healthcare costs, high costs of education, I barely feel middle class. I have no agency to do almost any of the things I want to do. My effective CA tax rate is nearly 40% btw, so I am paying EU/Australia taxes while personally having nothing to show for it, except for the fact that the homeless drug addicts around me have a better health insurance plan than I do. I don’t think my QOL would drop that much if I was earning €80k in EU. I would probably be able to live in a nicer place with less crime/homeless and, while maybe not buy real estate, at least rent an apartment at less than $3,000. I thought by studying and getting good grades and studying hard for a good job I would be able to live comfortably, buy a good home, lead a decent life. WTF is this?
Americana real estate is reasonable vs salaries compared to rest of English speaking world. Look at prices and salaries in Toronto, London, Melbourne, etc. and you’ll see they have it much worse The only point you might come out ahead on is healthcare costs but comes at the cost of huge wait times so whether it’s a win or not is really situational
I’d argue that the “price is right” for those markets. Those places are much safer and have higher HDIs than any major US city. I wasn’t considering cities that expensive. I’ve been to and really loved Lisbon/Paris, but ofc visiting is different than living. I was surprised at how cheap apartments are in these cities, it’s impossible to find apartments that nice and cheap in any major US city, much less find comparable cities in US.
U def should go and stay a bit longer if you talk about Paris and Lisbon in the same sentence when discussing a move. Day and night...
Where would you go? Have you been out of the US before? Most of the world is significantly more difficult to live in. Europe isn’t going to be better. Unless you have very close ties to another country and speak their language I’m really not sure how this would work. Move to the Midwest or south. With your TC you can easily afford a house. Places like Indianapolis, Bentonville, KC are all very nice and affordable
Cope
While I have a remote job right now, thanks to US employment laws I can be fired at basically anytime, and end up in a situation where I can’t find a local non remote or remote job to end up paying my mortgage. Which makes buying incredibly risky in any places that do not have a market for SWEs. I speak Portuguese/some French. I’ve stayed in the EU for a few weeks at a time and really loved it, but again, a few weeks is very different from permanently living there.
You want to be around 400k to live what would be termed as a middle class life, in a HCOL area today. I don't have anything else to say, agree with most of your assertions. My parents and extended family are quite well off in a (non-india) South Asian country, and sometimes I wonder if I should just move back and open some sort of trekking lodge.
Nepal?
Working at G, suggest you give Zurich a try
It's nearly impossible to move to Zurich. My staff engineer friend tried for 2 yrs and then left Google to go back to his EU home country
You should look into other cities. The USA is bigger than NYC, LA, SF, and SEA. For example, Las Vegas has affordable housing, little crime, and few homeless. The same is true for smaller cities like Madison, Wisconsin. Education usually pays for itself in the long run, especially medicine and STEM. But the healthcare situation is a mess regardless of where in the USA you are.
^^^
On top of it, your kids won't have a future as they will not learn real skills except pronouns. Further, the system will get them to hate you too... This is not a problem for 0.1%, as with all levers of power, the 0.1% can still successfully run USA. It's all consolidated.
I moved to Belarus in 2013 to be with a girl, became self-employed contractor, paid only 3% tax on all revenue under the simplified tax scheme, bought a new 3-room flat in the capital for $80,000. There are no homeless here - they are arrested immediately.
So there *are* homeless, they’re just in jail.
Forcibly housed, not on the street
You're right, $220k is not enough to buy or rent in top tier neighborhoods in hCOL cities. It's adequate to live almost anywhere else. DFW median home price is $422k, close to national median. Plenty of people buy homes with much less income. Interest rates and prices are relatively high vs recent history. Either adjust expectations or keep saving. If you are only willing to live in top tier neighborhoods of the most competitive cities in the world, yes, you'll have to work hard for at least a few more years... Otherwise, enjoy Europe.
yes, many people, look it up.
The tax implications of leaving are shit too - one of the only countries in the world to keep taxing you when you no longer live here. Immigration is difficult, but it sounds like G should make it easier if you can find a transfer
Aren’t you only obliged to pay taxes after like the first $100k or some high threshold like that? I have 2 citizenships with potentially another citizenship due to having an EU ancestor. I may just consider renouncing US citizenship if i can get that 3rd one.
I'd keep US citizenship. Taxes are for anything above 100-120k (changes fr time to time). And in most of EU you won't get 100k annual salary. I'd go for a longer visit f I were you. I was shocked last time I visited, lots of changes and social problems that didn't exist years back.