What is Reddit's opinion of Expatistan?

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$1500 is thrice the median yearly income in my country. I guess the audience is particular

EDIT: Since everyone's asking, the country is Nepal. $1.25 goes a long way. Just lived like a king the last 3 months for $1000. $500 may seem low, but it goes a long way to a comfortable life. $30000/year is a good life here in a beautiful country with servants, drivers, laundry maids. The purchasing power adjusted PPP is not that bad. And people love foreigners, yet it's not saturated like Paris.

EDIT 2: A lot of people PMing me for prices. This is a good link updated as of Jan'15 for very premium prices! Note, for example:

• Basic dinner out for two in neighborhood pub ₨ 1,536

• 2 tickets to the movies ₨ 573

• 2 tickets to the theater (BEST available seats) ₨ 1,055

$1~101 Nepali rupees

EDIT 3: Some pics: Anton Jankovoy

I'm currently living in Kazakhstan. I do a little bit of part time consulting as a web developer. I only need to work a couple of days per month to afford a pretty nice apartment, groceries, internet, etc. Emergency care (ambulances) is free, going to a doctor is cheap and very good. I've experienced better care here, than I did in the US. The personal tax rate is a flat 10% for residents. Here's some more info about the cost of living.

You can definitely feel the difference between here and San Francisco, where we used to spend $3,200 / mo on a 1BR apartment.

Of course, it's not all positive. Here's a couple of the downsides, which you'll probably experience in other foreign countries. No english movies in theaters, so I have to wait a couple of months before I can see Interstellar and the Hobbit. Drivers are pretty crazy. Infrastructure is lacking - roads, sidewalks and buildings are generally in pretty bad shape. Seasons are brutal (down to -40F in winter, up to 104F in summer.) The government and police force are pretty corrupt, but you don't have to deal with them too often. Also, I'm from New Zealand, so I miss our beaches and forests.

But for someone who doesn't drive or go out too much, it's not too bad. It also makes it easy to save up and do a lot of travelling.

Why is this being upvoted?

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/los-angeles/doha

Doha is about the same as living in Los Angeles. Does everyone just assume that country in the middle east = cheap?

Pretty accurate. The Big Mac combo is $11 AUD which is $8.45 USD. That's 34-minutes of work to get a Big Mac combo meal.

Compare that to New Orleans, where it is about $7 USD with a minimum wage of $7.25. That's 58-minutes of work to get the same meal.

So, you know, you tell me.

> A coté de ça, je découvre des histoires horribles du système de santé, le manque de médecins, les temps d'attentes pour un rendez-vous qui peuvent s’étirer jusqu’à des mois.

C'est assez semblable aux système américain à ce niveau. Les plus longues attentes sont pour les greffes d'organes par manque de donneurs.

> J'ai même eu des entretiens où le recruteur m'a conseillé de rester aux Etats-Unis. Un recruteur m'a dit que le Québec est le tiers-monde.

Le produit intérieur brut est un peu inférieur au Colorado (249 milliards pour le Québec, 280 milliards pour le Colorado).

> Quel est le salaire minimum pour soutenir une famille de quatre à Québec sans vivre comme des pauvres? Devrais-je abandonner mon rêve?

Moins qu'aux États-Unis. Tu n'as pas à compter l'assurance santé hors de prix que tu paies présentement, et l'hébergement est moins cher.

Tu peux aller sur ce site entrer deux villes où tu veux comparer le coût de la vie : http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living

Entre la ville où tu veux déménager en premier.

The Big Mac combo is $11 AUD which is $8.45 USD. That's 34-minutes of work to get a Big Mac combo meal.

Compare that to New Orleans, where it is about $7 USD with a minimum wage of $7.25. That's 58-minutes of work to get the same meal.

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/sydney

1 liter (1 qt.) of whole fat milk is AUS$1.27. Which means a gallon of milk in Australia is AUS$5.08.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=Australia

Consumer Prices in Australia are only 27.12% higher than in United States even though their minimum wage is in the ballpark of 185% higher in USD.

You should probably actually look up numbers before you call people fucktards.

Different places have different costs of living and thus goods and services are priced differently.

EDIT: For example...

Chicago, USA is about 20% cheaper than Sydney, Australia.

Chicago, USA is about 81% more expensive than Jakarta, Indonesia.

Sydney, Australia is is 127% more expensive than Jakarta, Indonesia.

So, yeah, differences in pricing.

When moving cities you also need to adjust for cost of living, so that would be a 30k cut on top of the fact your salary would be further reduced by the higher CoL. This site says that London is 83% more expensive than Milwaukee, WI.

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/milwaukee/london

This says 85%

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/calculator.jsp?sourceCityId=3449&name_sourceCityId=&destCityId=6512&name_destCityId=&money=1000&displayCurrency=USD

1,000.00$ in Milwaukee, WI, United States in average has same local purchasing power as 1,851.59$ in London, United Kingdom (assuming you pay rent in both cities).

Engineers who make over 100k (cost-of-living adjusted from Chicago, IL, USA to your local city), what do you do?

• Cost of living adjustment calculator (US)

• Cost of living adjustment calculator (World)

I'm an American who lives in New Zealand, from California and living in Auckland. I would say if you're in your young twenties and want a city with an active nightlife, you should actually live in Wellington. It has way more of a "city" feel than Auckland (which kind of feels more like a collection of suburbs). Also, yes NZ is expensive, but it's doable if you have a job, since minimum wage isn't too terrible (better than pretty much anywhere in the US). You can also check out http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living if you're curious about specifics of prices. You can look at jobs and housing on http://www.trademe.co.nz/ as well. If you're really living in the most expensive place in the US, New York, New Zealand will seem pretty cheap. Anyway, as others say check out the sidebars as well.

Holy shit, $220. I honestly don't love training that much to pay that amount every month.

I pay $60/month for unlimited muay thai (32 classes a week), Crossfit (29 classes, incl. olympic weightlifting and mobility), MMA (5) and grappling (5) in Copenhagen, Denmark. This is a pretty typical price for students. For non-students it's $80.

According to this site that lists costs of living, Denmark is the fifth most expensive country in the world to live in. This site ranks cities, Copenhagen is ranked 17th.

I think that the GDP per capita figures misrepresents the fact that life in Poland is considerably cheaper than other EU countries. If you check out this site, you see that Warsaw is 65% cheaper than Oslo, 59% cheaper than London, 53% cheaper than Paris & Stockholm, 48% cheaper than Amsterdam, 42% cheaper than Helsinki, 32% cheaper than Berlin & Madrid.

It doesn't help that in our society (not just Vancouver, but North America in general) most opportunities for socialisation come from commercial activities (catching a movie, going out for drinks, grabbing dinner). When I lived in Portland, this wasn't a huge issue. Even my underemployed friends could occasionally go out for drinks or dinner. This is because the cost of living is much lower and on top of that, there are food carts in Portland where you can get a giant bowl of delicious food for $5, and bars that serve $1 beers from time to time. You can run to the liquor store and grab a half-decent 26 for $10-15, or a case of beer for $12-18.

From what I can gather, wages are only marginally higher in Vancouver than Portland for most people I know (university student-aged folks), so there's a huge divide. In Portland, I could grab dinner and a few beers for ~$20. Last time I went out in Vancouver, I ended up blowing $60 without even trying. Considering most of my friends have jobs that pay $10-12/hr, that's some pretty serious cash. Now that I'm going to UBC, fuggetaboutit. No way can I afford to go out only working 2 days/week. As a result, I'm hanging out on reddit instead of with the people who invited me to go out yesterday. I haven't even bought any alcohol in months.

tl;dr: The Rent is too damn high (and pretty much everything else)!

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/johannesburg/new-york-city

You never mentioned which city you're from in South Africa so I just assumed Johannesburg, if you live in a lower cost of living city there the difference will be even more extreme. According to this cost of living calculator living in New York City will be 136% more expensive, which seems accurate to me. I live just outside NYC and a decent 1BR in the outer boroughs runs around $1,200/mo and up. A studio/1BR in Manhattan is going to run you close to $2,000/mo or more. If you're making $53,455 in South Africa I wouldn't move to New York unless you got a job offer around $100,000/yr or more, unless you're ready to cut back on your standard of living.

Have you seen prices in Europe? Just about everything is 50% more expensive (ex. Gas is $6/gallon in Munich). They just don't tip. Other items of note: you have to pay for ketchup at McDonald's, and you have to pay to use public washrooms.

Apparently, yes. Here's the cost of living in Sydney, Australia. Everything seems to be twice as expensive. Makes sense considering their minimum wage is nearly twice as much as ours ($16.87).

I would sympathise, but the transaction is calculated as a percentage of the overall price and given the price of rent is so ridiculous here, this is also correspondingly over exaggerated.

I can guarantee that in most cases across the country, 1 weeks rent + VAT would not work out to around 300 pounds.

You might turn around say that this is somehow the same in other service industries. Let's take waiting tables. Most chain restaurants (like Byron) maintain similar prices across the country, so while tips are normally calculated based on the food price, London waiters and waitresses receive similar nominal values for their tips as their non-Londoner counterparts, but as the cost living is higher, they have to live on similar incomes, with higher outcomes. (37% higher if we compare it to Manchester for example).

But let's say that you work in one of the many service industries that has rising prices to correspond to London prices and managed to stay afloat. Let's compare the workload to the estate agents. In a fixed supply market, the price of a service is more reliant on demand then supply. This means that the higher renting price is not due to an exerted effort by the estate agent, but by the demand of the house. The only reason they get paid more then a non-Londoner counterpart is because more people are willing to buy their service.

TL;DR They're getting higher fees for less work.

So the four states you mention, are those California, South Carolina, Virginia, or New Mexico? I found them here: http://www.expatistan.com/blog/35-What-Every-American-Expat-Should-Know-About-US-Expat-Taxes

Also Paris is at a cost of living index of 218, while Portland is 160 (how long this will last?): http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/index

I remember an apartment I had in downtown Portland with a multinational roach population. Those have all been restored some 20 years later and charge 1200/mo for the same sq footage I was paying 400/mo. I doubt the roaches have died out.

If you're from the US and want to stay there, you just have to get out of the expensive areas and otherwise adjust your lifestyle (roommates, cooking for yourself, no car... all depending on your priorities and prices in your area). Have you read ERE?

Of course, taking advantage of your increased buying power in other parts of the world has a definite appeal. Check out this thread: "I spent 18 months collecting cost of living data in 8 Central American cities over the last 2 years. Spreadsheets downloadable, with summaries."

Google turned up Expatistan but I have no idea how reliable its database is. (Anyone reading this familiar with it?)

Is it? People just have a lower standard of life there, making it cheaper. It is more expensive in Sao Paulo to have the same standard of living. The cost of living isn't cheaper, the quality is.

There's a reason the OP picked that city, Prague is 45% cheaper than New York City. Check out the prices of common goods and compare them to where you live.

Total spent on taxis over the past 12 months: $66

Average taxi fare in NYC: $19

Dates that have gone "very well" over the past 12 months: 3.5?

Use this to figure out what would be a good salary, you will need to do some basic math.

Everything else you asked is easily answered through utilization of the search function in this subreddit and google.

Good luck.

OMG! It's changed so much. Video and audio is a huge part of my business model and it's gotten so good (at least in Rosarito) that I can work outside using the wifi strength of my house.

The wifi is also good in a few cafe's and restaurants in Rosarito.

I am on the east coast taking care of business and partly (I will admit) networking.

I long for the beauty of the region. The issue is the networking.

I am of the opinion that if even a core group of 5 or 10 people can come back to the area (and each one of these 5 people bring on board 5 people), we can get good hub going.

It makes so much sense if you are already in southern California and bootstrapping to move down (even for a period). Or do 6 months on either side of the border.

Just go to http://www.expatistan.com and compare SD and TJ prices....

Cost of living comparison between Dublin and Athens http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/dublin/athens-greece

Look through the details in the link to get a better idea.

TOTAL 40% cheaper to live in Athens, but here's the thing 47% less wages.

Yeah there are differences in cost of living but when your weelky wage is a lot lower than your monthly mortgage/rent you are going to have financial trouble.

I don't think you understand real life at all.

If you are not living in New York you are going to feel that pay cut. Tokyo is one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Source

http://blog.gaijinpot.com/gpod-11-cost-living-tokyo/ http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/tokyo

That said - plenty of people do Tokyo and even London, the most expensive city in the world, on median salaries or below the belt. It's about what you prefer and require for a "good" life. If you're willing to share a place, live in a studio, take a longer commute, don't need to always be out drinking, ... there are plenty of places where you can cut the costs and make up the difference.

A chance to live and work abroad is worth its weight in gold and will improve your CV so when you return or move on, you can command a higher salary. It's all about whether you want to take the year or two without substantial savings or altering your life a bit.

Stiwa nailed it, I'll just add a few things:

For cost of living, you will benefit from the UK/US exchange rate, and it would be a good bit cheaper than somewhere like London (for example). Like London or any other city, parts will be far cheaper than others. Location is often more important in Miami than how new a building is. Nice areas like Key Biscayne and Coral Gables will often have very high prices for very old (but in great condition) locations. Here is a cool site for ballpark cost ideas: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living

You should know our public transportation is pretty bad. You will want a car.

I would go a bit further and say find a place to rent out for a month or so and see how you like it then, especially if you are planning to buy a place or make any significant financial moves. Vacationers eating out every day and just having fun will have a different view of the city than those going about daily life here.

Here is a link to US gov's visa services: http://www.uscis.gov/ http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english.html

No, it's not implied that you exclude the US by posting in this subreddit, because there are people here from lots of countries, even those looking to move IN to the US.

Here's a map of internet metrics worldwide: http://www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet/

Now look at this website: http://www.expatistan.com/ You can compare where you live now to somewhere you want to move.

I figure it's easier for you to see for yourself than try to explain that high speed internet comes from good infrastructure which comes from established, wealthy countries which equals high cost of living.

No it's not. The cost of living range in Europe is just as broad as it is in the US so you can't compare one point of either. Three comparisons:

London is 10% more expensive than living in New York

Stockholm, Sweden is about the same as Los Angeles

Madrid, Spain is 18% cheaper than living in Pittsburg.

Electronics happen to be cheaper in the US because a lot of it is made there. Unless you're a gamer and 50% of your income goes to PC parts that difference isn't very relevant to the cost of living.

Let's do that. According to http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/index/europe#price-index-explanation the cost of living in Athens is 24% higher than the cost of living in Warsaw. I'm unsure if this is a good index, but it matches my experience, if you have a better one feel free to put it here.

Now, would I say that someone earning under 150 euros per month would have trouble meeting their daily food needs? Yes, and only if they have their shelter provided for them for a small charge (this is actually the case in Poland as many people are homeowners due to the previous system).

It's just a matter of spinning the statistics - no one cares about Poland because it's been like that here for a long time, while in Greece there is a marked change for worse. For instance according to official statistics the minimum amount that 'secures existence' in Poland is 130 euros per month, a laughable amount. Especially if you consider that in Greece it's 665 euros, with the cost of living only 24% higher!

Adding to that is a terrible job market situation as most young people work with no labor protections and no healthcare on so called 'flexible job agreements'. There's also no minimum wage for such arrangements so a going rate for an unqualified labor is ~8 PLN/h, just short of 2euro/h.

Okay, let's use Oslo's $30 to gauge how much that would be in Canadian dollars in Toronto. I'll assume you meant 30 USD.

We'll use the Big Mac index for Oslo and Toronto. Converting both to USD gives us $6.97 in Toronto and $12.58 in Oslo. The equivalent price to $30 in Oslo is 30/12.58*6.97 = $16.62 USD or $19.07 CAD.

Coincidentally, $16-20 for a ride to Pearson sounds quite reasonable, doesn't it?

OK, so I did a little digging.. there are some problems with this report re: Indonesia..

Here is the actual HSBC report: http://www.hsbc.com/news-and-insight/2014/international-education

Here is how they calculated the data for Indonesia:

> The annual university fees for Mexico and Indonesia are calculated on the fees for the top 10 universities in terms of their QS university ranking (http://www.iu.qs.com/university-rankings). These rankings are calculated based on a range of metrics including academic reputation, employer reputation and faculty student ratio. Annual fees for each university are either sourced from the university website, by phone via their admissions departments or from other credible websites.

So far no problem, but here is how they source their 'living cost per year' data:

> Cost of living is based on the average cost of living in the cities where the universities are located, using data from the Expatistan website, www.expatistan.com.

Expatistan is a crowdsourced data site, and my assumption is that the people who input the data are expats who are working in foreign countries, not studying. So, the comparison is not really apple to apple. In Indonesia, a foreign student does indeed spend more than a local, but I doubt it's as much as 80 juta setahun (6.5jt sebulan). I think 80 juta is an expat worker's expenditure, which is a reasonable number given that our GDP per capita is only like 35 juta. Honestly, for a bank that prides itself as 'global', this report is like, intern level work :(

edit: here is expatistan's numbers for the living cost in Jakarta.. you tell me if this is 'accurate' or not for student living: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/jakarta

Speaking only for the US... it varies greatly by location. I live in the northeast of the US and here it is significantly more expensive than much of the south or midwest.

The link below is a cost of living index calculator. This should help hopefully.

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living

> whereas Delhi is probably one of the most expensive Indian cities

No it isn't. It's pretty close to average in India. http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/country/india

And India in general has a really low cost of living compared to other countries.

Argentinian with some knowledge about my neighbors: it's not cheap. My country is expensive, and currently Montevideo is 208% more expensive than my city, and 154% than the capital Buenos Aires, all according to this website I use. It also answers how much would you have to pay in Montevideo to "keep the same standard of living."

You can compare it with your own city in the U.S., but if compared with the most asked city (Charlotte, NC), Montevideo is 15% cheaper, so there's that.

So it's software development job, that's specific enough.

> They seem to be hinting at less

Do you mean the company or your friends?

> how low I could go until it would make things difficult

In my opinion anything below 5k net would become a struggle. You might also want to consider sharing a flat instead of renting one all for yourself. With a bit of luck it could be a very positive experience.

Here is a good website that will let you compare costs of living between two cities: http://www.expatistan.com

Maybe not the best comparison (though if we compare capitals it's also 45% cheaper than Washington), but my point is that Prague isn't your typical European city.

• Whole chicken: $3.95 USD
• 10 Eggs: $1.06
• Bottle of domestic wine: $3.95
• Pack of cigarettes (Marlboro): $4.35
• Transit pass (monthly): $29.04
• Lunch for two in a sandwich bar: $3.69

Shit is cheap there.

According to source below, cost of living in NYC vs Kiev is 257% greater, yet median household income is 585% greater - so its still net richer in the US.

Cost of Living Source

Ukraine's national debt to GDP is 158% currently, while in the US its about 90%.

Ukraine next Greece?

I don't want to burst your bubble, but it isn't... It might be one of the most expensive cities in Canada, but it's a ways down the list (#25, according to this: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/index/north-america )

In Seattle, 60k for a new-hire with 1 year of Exp and no formal education. It could take 3-5 years to grow out of the "Jr" role, but that would land you 80-100k...

You do sound like you have a lot of value to offer. But if you're only being hired to write code, don't expect a company to want to pay for your business experience.

As a side note, there are some red flags here:

1. Little Direction in code reviews. I'm a Sr. Engineer w/ 12 years of experience, I still get good feedback in code reviews. Not getting direction in code reviews is not a vote of confidence in you, it's poor process from your co-workers / company.
2. Commit to master. This is an huge red flag for me. This is absolutely an anti-pattern that should be avoided.
3. You never mentioned how well you work with others, but rather how independent you can be. You don't talk about working with designers, QA, product, or anybody... Engineering is not a place for soloists... You can only succeed by working as a team.

If these pieces had come up in an interview, I would pass. Focus on working with your team, and understand what you need to do to make them better. Rather than taking on solo projects that might look good on a resume, focus on how you can help other parts of the company succeed, even if it's just doing some thankless grunt work.

The difference between Jr/Mid/Sr level Engineers isn't what happens when things go well, it's how you're able to respond to things breaking down around you... whether it's inter-personal, infrastructure, or your code. The way you prove your level is to show how you deal with these problems... day in and day out.

Prices at Chipotle went up between 5 and 14 cents for things like sodas at the low end and beef at the high end. Berkeley economists looked into this for oakland minimum wage increases. Also, a cost of living index put fast food prices for a combo meal in SF at around $7 - stats come from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US DOL

Not sure how applicable the information would be to PCVs (guess it depends on your location), but I found this Cost of Living World Map on Expatistan. It's pretty neat.

Vancouver is probably one of our most expensive cities real estate wise (renting or buying), so your accommodations will almost certainly cost you far more than you think. This website claims to give a rundown of the cost of living and I think you can compare it with other locations to give you an idea.

If you are interested in attending university, I highly suggest you check out Wikipedia to do some research on location and programs and then the individual institutional websites to figure out cost.

Student Loans are available to residents, but my experience is that you have to live in the province for a year (not attending school full time) in order to qualify.

> If a gallon of gas costs $0.10.... getting paid $20k/year would be plenty.

A gallon of gas in New Zealand (in Dunedin, which is where Dean is based) costs $8.24 NZD.

So it is the equivalent of $5.39 USD a gallon with a salary of less than $23k USD a year.

You're missing the point. London has become so expensive that only a millionaire could live there. In LA he's not asking for a millionaire lifestyle. In Paris he's not asking for a millionaire lifestyle. Why? An over-inflated financial sector and foreign money parked in the UK. Let's be honest, why on earth would you pay city boy rents if you're not in finance? Answer, you wouldn't, you'd go somewhere else and he has.

Take a look: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/london/los-angeles

Rent is 30% cheaper in LA. The only places more expenses are Zurich and Grand Cayman.

Again, stop talking until you know what you're talking about.

Compare Stockholm to LA.

Stockholm is cheaper.

Upsala and Indianapolis cost about the same.

Oklahoma vs. Helsingborg. Sweden is cheaper.

I could do this all day.

They make more money, cost the same or less, and are WAY more socialist than we are.

Sorry, idiot. Educate yourself.

My opinion, that salary is way too low. The general rule is that you should not move down in career salary when expatriating. Of course there are exceptions, but take a good look at the CPI comparisons: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/minneapolis/singapore?

Try to use this as leverage to at least stay at your current salary level. You will get reamed by housing costs in Singapore. You also need to put down large deposits in order to secure a flat. How much do you have saved up for the relocation?

Wrong.

(and it's not just New York -- San Francisco, DC, and probably a handful of other US cities are all MUCH more expensive than Vancouver)

Swings and roundabouts, it's bastard expensive to live in Switzerland.

I looked up the price of staples in Zurich today; a 0.5L beer is 8 CHF, which is currently the equivalent of $9.32 USD or £6.15. A big mac meal is 14 CHF, which is $16.30 USD or £10.77.

Source: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/zurich

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Singapore&city1=Singapore&country2=United+States&city2=San+Francisco%2C+CA

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/san-francisco/singapore

To drive this point home, Boston gets as expensive as a neighborhood rental average of $3.54 / ft² / mo (so your hypothetical 900ft² apartment would cost ~$3,200 / mo). That's certainly on the high end for the city but something to be aware of.

That's just rent; everything is more expensive. Cost of living is the (often ignored) killer here.

Our cost of living index of 200 puts us at #32 in the world. According to that same index, no city in Texas breaks the top 229 (which bottoms out at an index of 46).

Not saying it's not possible because it certainly is—there are definitely ways to happily live quite reasonably here (and really anywhere, for that matter)—I've just seen many, many people move here with unrealistic expectations which only lead to disappointment or problems.

FYI I just had "expatistan.com" add "Ithaca" to it's "cost of living index". If anyone wants to help flesh out data there, here's the URL:

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/rate/ithaca-new-york

They provide cost of living comparisons for a select set of cities internationally, and it made sense to include Ithaca since Ithaca is so anomalous for the region.

Here's a direct link to the study the article is referring to.

Oslo, Geneva, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Dublin, Munich, London, and a few other Euro cities are all more expensive than Toronto.

Have you checked out the cost of living estimates?

I can't vouch for accuracy but here is one reference:

<strong>Cost of Living Comparison:</strong> London, England :: Santa Monica, California

Here is another reference:

<strong>Cost of Living Comparison:</strong> London :: Los Angeles

As a non-Norwegian I can't say anything about the visa process.

There a few things you really need to consider, there is going to be a heavy language barrier, Spanish not being anywhere near a widely spoken language. English will do well in larger cities.

Cost of living is dramatically higher everywhere in Norway. That is an capitol-to-capitol comparison. Oslo is quite often quoted on most top lists of most expensive places to live. Keep in mind that those areas tend to be above national averages, but it still a subjective indicator.

Since your average cost of living is higher so is the pay. How much?

National average 2011 monthly pay for chef is 27100 kroner (NOK) = $4762 (USD) = 2238373 pesos (CLP). So quite a lot.

I do not know what tax bracket you would fall under. Someone else should fill in on this. But it should not be bad.

Work: there is a clear trend that applies to the restaurant business in Norway (Sweden and Finland as well). The workforce is split into two groups, the steady and the seasonal.

The steady staff are your regulars and for a better part most of the managers. They got long term/fixed contract. You'll find these everywhere.

Then there are the seasonals: Winter time is spent up in the mountain resorts and with the onset of summer they flock down to the coastal areas. Short term contracts; few weeks to a half a year. Brutal tempo and mentally challenging. Mostly young people.

Area of interest for you: Stavanger to Bergen area. It's where the oil industry is concentrated.

My first bit of advice, as far as housing goes, is to check out padmapper. You can filter to your heart's content and it uses Google Maps. Yay Google! Some of my favorite neighborhoods in Minneapolis include, in no particular order: Longfellow, Seward, Whittier, Northeast and Marcy Holmes. All of those are vibrant and entertainment-rich areas. That is, by no means, a comprehensive list, btw.

Anyway. Here is a super handy cost of living site.

As for your weather question, there is no "overall" answer. Winters are normally harsh and snowy. Last winter (2010/11) we had massive blizzards and periods of intense cold (in the negative numbers) all winter long. This winter ('11/12) it was 50 in January and we had barely any snow at all. An almanac would be a more useful guide for specific weather information - you're better off asking for advice on winter gear and where to cool off when it's wicked hot and humid out in the summers (last July it reached something like 117 - not normal, fyi).

Your questions were pretty vague, so if you have more specific questions (like nightlife, local things to do, parking in the city, traffic, restaurants, etc) just ask.

Wowowow the rent is 6.5-6.8 k in London / NYC. That is absolutely nuts... Holy smokes, how much do you make to live there? Here I was thinking SF Bay Area is expensive.. And then there are people saying that India is expensive...

Avg cost of home here is 1 million dollars I think.. I am not sure but I think that is right currently (SF Bay Area).

Edit: Ok I did some research I don't know where the pulled those rent figures out of (7k rent maybe it was a 5 br house or smth)....

This actually seems very accurate to me based on my research:

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/san-francisco/london http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/15/london-rents-homelet-survey-housing-crisis

Avg rent in London hit 1500 pounds ~ 2.2 k usd.

London is 13% more exp than SF but rent here is 15% more.

Eu m-am tot uitat pe site-uri de genu asta si cam peste tot costurile sunt mai ridicate. Poate nu-s reliable site-urile dar am luat ca referinta preturile pe Cluj care mi se par relativ corecte.

If you are looking at specific cities, you can compare cost of living differences with Expatistan

It provides pretty good info on cost of low, medium, and high cost rental apartments, cost of transportation (eg bus tickets, taxis, etc), basic groceries.

If you have a specific city in mind, you can use craigslist or padmapper to browse rental costs.

The biggest items you may need to budget for if your employer doesn't help are medical insurance (can be very expensive), childcare or daycare for children under 5, and car associated expenses if you live in an area with poor transportation options.

I go to Seattle three times a year.

1375? For what? I ask because you can't really find a place that cheap within 45 minutes of San Francisco outside of flat out dangerous neighborhoods that are still 30 minutes away.

I'm not saying "seattle is cheap!"

But see also studies saying San Francisco is 26% more expensive than Seattle.

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/seattle

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?country=United+States&amp;city=Seattle%2C+WA

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?country=United+States&amp;city=San+Francisco%2C+CA

Also, add in income tax.

Look, I'm not trying to argue that it's not expensive. But you're talking about calling Seattle more expensive than the #2 highest COL according to almost every metric and every website.

You're also calling Seattle hurt by Amazon, Boeing, and Microsoft employees? We have google Facebook craigslist Apple Cisco... And seemingly every other tech company under the sun + the largest start up scene and tech scene in America.

Once again I'm not trying to dismiss your concerns of high COL to wage in general. I'm just saying there's no way it's worse than SF.i have family with a 280k valued house with a big backyard 11 miles from downtown Seattle. Houses with large back yards don't exist in the Bay Area. Hell, houses with small backyards are rare. My families house 11 miles from downtown Seattle at 280-300k in value would go for 800k-1m in the Bay Area. It's nuts man.

Dublin to me doesn't looks like a very affordable city to live in: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/index/europe

Off course depends on what kind of life do you do, what do you mean with 'eat well' and so on.

Are you able to save money each month ? Do you have a car ? Do you have a public transport subscription e.g. not all expatriate like to use a bike considering irish weather ..

The cost of living is not even close, especially in terms of housing.

I'd wager all three are paying about the same on housing, but clearly Europe's are a bit nicer. Only the long-standin brands can afford that, hence why TSM and Dig seem to have the nicer of the houses (Hell, even Liquid had to resort to an apartment complex instead of their own house).

>What do you consider small, in square-footage? And how much are you willing to pay for it?

I know what size Tokyo apartments are. I still like them. I agree that they're not for everyone and they are unbearable unless you keep them tidy. The cost, though, you certainly have a point there. I don't like the rent rates in mid-sized US cities, let alone large cities where space is much more of an issue. Tokyo is apparently cheaper than NYC (source), but I don't think that's saying much. I assume Manhattan's included in that estimate.

>Do you mean bumping, or crowding in general? Trust me, the crowding here is nothing like the crowding anywhere in the US.

I understand that Tokyo is extremely crowded. I'm thinking of riding the subway specifically. However, I was responding to the example that you gave of bumping into someone and not apologizing. It's not rude to not apologize in a situation like that, where you are crowded into a train and touching multiple people constantly just so you can fit. I agree that it's more crowded, but not that Japanese people are rude about it.

Edit: English. Math errors.

Going by this cost of living website, US cities have a wide range in cost index from 140 to 278, whereas Australian cities generally are in the low 200s, and in this one, the US ranges from mid 60s to 100, whereas Australia is mostly in the 90 to 100 range. I would say most of Australia is comparable in cost of living with the more expensive metro areas in the US. In general for all areas I'd estimate it averages to be about 25% more expensive to live in Australia.

Australia's minimum wage is $16.87 per hour.

US minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, with the highest state's minimum wage at $9.47.

So yes, the Australian minimum wage does not match up with the US's in comparison to the cost of living.

Chicago - Jewel Osco

Chicken breast is $1.88 per pound at my local grocery store

You normally get 3-4 chicken breasts per pound. Let's say 3 to be conservative

For $6.79 you can get 3.6 pounds or 10.8 chicken breasts. I would say he's over paying by double since these sales are pretty frequent.

Keep in mind that is on sale.

Average non-sale price for chicken breasts in chicago is $4.62/lb or 1.5 lbs for $6.79 which is in the ballpark of 5 chicken breasts.

Average non-sale price for chicken breasts in Toronto is $5.93/lb or 1.15 lbs for $6.79 which is in the ball park of 4 chicken breasts.

So yes, Toronto is quite a bit more expensive (25% more is nothing to write off) but if your local stores have sales on Chicken breast you should take advantage of that and individually freeze the chicken for later use.

Are you in New York State or New York City? Most of these prices seem in line to low for Manhattan,NYC. Perhaps in the outer parts of the boroughs... maybe.

Except for the deodorant, what the heck guys.

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/new-york-city/tel-aviv

I've found this, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. It's only for Tel Aviv which is probably the most expensive city to live in Israel.

You could have a look at http://www.expatistan.com - it's actually a website made to compare cost of living for expatriates who are changing countries frequently. But they also cover most major US cities, maybe that could be useful for you?

>>I will ask /r/Berlin so we can settle that.

>Btw, I was talking Frankfurt, not Berlin and that is Aldi Sued.

It doesnt matter much if it is Berlin or Frankfurt (Berlin is one of the cheapest city in western Europe.

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/frankfurt-am-main

I highly doubt that food can be 200% more.

Right now we have more than 10 updated sources vs one anectode.

It is a good wage for that kind of job. For jobs where you're paid by the hour the U.S. federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Some states have it set higher, but Texas' isn't one of them. Cost of living varies around the world, but that only offsets wage differences partially. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income

First look at cost of living changes.
According to some of the cost of living calculators i found online, Bangalore is 11% costlier than Pune. Even by the most conservative sources your 22LPA in pune is equivalent to 23.32 to 24.42LPA in Banglore.

Next the hike,
For IT field and 10years+ experience you should have around 15% hike even before considering the offer(personal experience and source). Since you will be getting 20% at your present location it would not be far-fetched to ask for the same. The range you could ask between is 26.81LPA(COL 6%,hike 15%) - 29.30LPA(COL 11%,hike 20%).

Next the Joining Bonus, you have to evaluate this yourself based on the expenses for the move, savings/pension/stocks you might loose etc. The norm is 1-2 times monthly salary. I think you should start negotiating with atlest 1.5 times monthly salary. (remember that you will need 1years rent as deposit, try to get as much as possible out of the bonus).

Next, How badly do you want to make this move. Right now you are loosing money to make the move. Is it required? consider the long term possibilities, other opportunity costs. Will your wife get a better job in Bangalore etc.

After all this, If you definitely want to change, irrespective of loss, then disregard all advice and make the move.
If you dont want to loose money but inclined towards a move then you should look at 26.81LPA, 2L JB.
If you want move only if you profit from it then look at 29LPA, 3-3.5JB. Anywhere in between then 28LPA,2.5L-3L JB

Let me know if you want some negotiation tips.

Yeah man, Zurich is way too expensive, at least for what I am used to. Anyway, I find this link pretty useful, in case you haven't heard of it, it's kind of a calculator which compares basic living costs from different parts of the world, so you can have an idea of what to expect: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/.

I had the same feeling towards the preliminary instructions given by ETH, especially on the document regarding basic living arrangements for Zurich. It kind of feels like everything is very hard to arrange and not many clear directions are given. I do appreciate feeling a bit more secure about what happens once I move overseas...

Anyway, my emphasis would be the Social, Behavioral and Educational one, as I'm keen on educational and social applications and applied econometrics, but I guess there is a large intersection between all of them.

Yeah, it's really good to find people in the exact same situation - I hadn't actualy thought this was possible before stumbling to your post!

This is informative:

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/london/dublin?

The costs of eating out in Dublin are about the same as in London even though everything else is cheaper. So it is overpriced.

You need to know where to go anywhere in the world but the average restaurant sucks. They don't really do food well in Ireland. I blame the famine for obliterating any culinary culture that may have existed.

Honestly speaking, what irish culinary delights can you name? Irish Stew? Bacon and Cabbage? Boxty? There really isn't much.

Here's a pretty good idea of the cost of living in Tokyo (hint: rent is a lot higher closer to the downtown areas). Also, if you don't know Japanese, you better learn some, and fast, or you're going to have a very hard time finding a job there.

No problem! I dig helping people out with stuff like this.

Yeah, I'm not sure about Wolfram Alpha either, I've only used it a couple times and only to see what it does, not to make a real decision. I found another calculator that purports to use recent crowd-sourced data.

You guys will make it work!

Living in Rio specifically is not cheap, but not as expensive as the US or Europe. Food is cheap, transport is relatively cheap, what drives the cost up is rent, that is extremely expensive.

If you live in Ilha do Governador in an apartment just for you, which is not a bad place to live since it's next to the university, I guess you can expect about USD500~700 of rent.

Ex: http://www.nuroa.com.br/aluguel/property/20001730086020?click_type=0&amp;pos=6&amp;siteStrategyKey=nuroa.com.br&amp;seo_link_id=84530631

You can also live in a shared house and pay less.

As the rest of the expenses: You can eat lunch and dinner at the university of 2 reais each (less than a dollar). And the food is good and plenty.

Taking the bus costs 3.50 reais each way. (about USD 1.50).

And here is the cost of some other things: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/rio-de-janeiro

I still don't like the numbers after factoring that in. According to this, San Francisco is over 100% more expensive to live than here, but somewhere closer to the norm for big cities, like Austin, is 43% more expensive.

According to this, 'average' salaries for 'Java developers' in Austin hover around $100k, which is roughly 100% more than what you could hope to get here going by the top local postings which require 5+ years experience and a degree.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks to me like developers in Austin earn at least 50% more than I would ever here, taking the cost of living into consideration.

This is pretty accurate (YMMV): http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/zurich

Tickets: depends. How far? You usually don't need separate tickets when changing from bus to train etc - (except special touristy (up in the mountains for example) ones)

Glad to help. Another site I came across compares the cost of living between two cities, Expatistan.

For example, if you wanted to move from Chicago to London, you should expect to pay about 57% more, overall.

It breaks down each of those categories further. It was quite interesting looking into.

I've lived in Chicago and most recently Boston, both of which would laugh their asses (arses!) off at the kiwi idea of "winter" here. It snows, like, once or twice a winter in Chch. They have no salt trucks or plows. Climate is very similar to Seattle or Vancouver, but with more sun.

FYI: Wage calculator: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living

Housing is a bit more expensive in Chch, but then again, I was prepared since I had lived in (expensive) Boston. The other problem, aside from cost, is availability. You might be able to afford a place, but finding a place may take a while. We lived in a B&B for a month while we waited for the "right" flat to become available.

Dating: Chch is flooded with rebuild workers and there aren't many female carpenters, pipe layers, and civil engineers ya know? Going to the bars can be a sausage fest. I have a few single female friends who are early 30's and are very selective about men.

>I'm at a point in my life where I feel like I need to get out and see the world.

Pretty much why I ended up in NZ having an adventure. I said, "screw you Boston, I'm outta here," found a job, and moved as far away as humanly possible. :D

I don't think you will have problem with the language, but I found out that math/engineering level in US universities (ETSU) is way lower than in Spain (UMU) or Belgium (VUB). (I studied in the three of them). Be careful (I know ETSU is not the best out there for a Math degree)

The expense of a degree in Spain should be aroung 1000€-4000€ (only classes) per year. I paid 600€/year a few years ago, but fees have been raised. On the other hand, I paid 24.000$ for a year in the ETSU (classes+housing+food), I think it was about 5-6k$ per semester only the tuition.

Housing (in Spains) could be something from 150€ to 400€ / month, food is about 100-200€/month). You could check here some other prices : http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living

• Toronto

• San Diego

^(*keep in mind Toronto is in CAD and San Diego is in USD, but they give you the option of which currency to use.)

I'm used to it. Plus I hate winter, love the sun. And San Diego is one of the few cities in the world with a better zoo.

well.. generally you compare the cost of living between two areas by using a weighted baskets of goods and services, which would try cover what an average person needs to buy.

Comparing the cost of any single one product can cause large distortions if that item is subject to import tariff, state taxes, reduced costs from an abundant local production, etc.

For example, if you trust the numbers on http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp, $38 in Brazil overall take you about as far as $100 in New York.

With the minimum wage in Brazil being apparently R$2.48 an hour, or about 1.11 USD, compare to the minimum wage in New York of 8 USD, that should mean roughly that NY minimum wage workers have 2.7 times the buying power of Brazilian minimum wage workers.

Still, to answer your specific questions, 140 hours at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 means $1015 before taxes, or very roughly $880 net of taxes in a state with no income tax. So that'd translate to:

• 1.7 Xbox One + kinect (assuming $500 per unit), or
  
• 248.66 Gallons of gasoline (using US average of 3.539 on 7/28), or
• 486 Coke 2 liters (using $1.81 per unit)

All of which have a significantly higher ratio than 2.7 (in part because the cost of living in New York is significantly higher than the cost of living the US on average, and in part because those are likely not the bulk of the goods fund in a cost of living index basket.)

Welcome back to the states. I'll be just a few miles from you.

OB's in McDonough makes some good ribs. I'd recommend them.
For cheap eats, Papi's in Stockbridge makes some outstanding Cuban food and has decent jerk chicken as well.

You'll definitely need a car.

>I’ve gotten by with nothing but a GED

If you're looking for a business degree, you might also consider evening courses. Better chance to network, plus a better name on the degree. http://business.mercer.edu/bba-atlanta/

Cost of living? http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/paris/atlanta?

Yeah, judging by the cost of living index on Expatistan, Australia is one of the most expensive countries to live in. As for Melbourne, it has a walk score of 57 on walkscore.com, which isn't much better than where I live right now (not that walkscore.com is super accurate but it's better than nothing).

If you are trying to gauge the cost of living, there are several sites that give comparisons across a range of products and services - picking on one thing in isolation isn't ever going to make sense -

www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries.jsp

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living

I'm from Brazil. IDK how he lives with just $135 per month.He is probably counting other time of sources of money to live. Like, in Brazil the employer must pay the employee food and this money you can't just save because it is only for food. Also, there are other costs for living (gas, electricity,...), but maybe due they are sharing they can . Just to enlighten about the cost of living, I think these two websites are pretty accurate idea about that:

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/sao-paulo/new-york-city

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?country=Brazil&amp;city=Sao+Paulo&amp;displayCurrency=USD

This site has decent cost of living comparisons, though just by country, not city. There's one that does cities, but I forget what it's called.

edit: found the city one

The mean temperature in Gothenburg will be 5 C in April which is 41 F. The best time to come is from June to August. May might work as spring has hopefully arrived by then.

France and Italy are cheaper for a tourist compared to Sweden. For example: Dinner out for two in Italian restaurant with wine and dessert will cost about $84 in Paris compared to about $135 in Stockholm. Alcohol is taxed very high here, so just be warned. Our salaries are higher but that does not help you...

Interesting, thanks for answering. Especially the part about learning it in school.

Do you know this from living there yourself, knowing someone who live there, knowing someone who know someone etc.?

Abu Dhabi isn't that expensive. It's the 51st most expensive city in the world on this list.

Since New York is the closest analog in the States, here is Paris v. New York.

E.T.A.: Wait, you're French (" ?"). Never mind. It's more expensive than Lille, I know that.

I would think the new job would bump you up to a higher salary to accommodate the cost of living, just like if you moved from NY to Geneva or something. Like people always say, know how much you're worth. If they ask for your previous salary, you can always mention what it would translate to in the new city.

This site might help: http://www.expatistan.com/

Based on your comments on having lived as a foreigner in Australia on a tight budget, you'll do fine on a S$2.8k salary in Singapore.

Only two points to add to the previous comments:

1. You'll also be paying next to nothing in terms of taxes - around S$500-600 per year against a S$2.8k monthly salary

2. In the past, you'd be granted a PR quite easily, and gain a decent amount of benefits (healthcare, CPF, etc), but Singapore has made the bar quite high nowadays, so you should make you lifestyle budgeting based on holding a working-pass rather than a PR.

You can compare costs of living at this pretty nifty site Expatistan.com

As a side note, you sound genuine, but it can come off a bit insensitive to ask if $2.8k is sufficient in Singapore given that in some cases, entire families live off this amount from one breadwinner.

You could check sites like this to get an idea. I just put in random cities for the US and Pakistan, adjust as appropriate.

It's not perfect simply because you will encounter additional cost in most areas of Pakistan if you want to maintain the same life you have in the US, but it can help with getting an idea.

Edit: I get paid Rs. 12,000 and I'm happy about it for now, but I have offshore income sources and live on my workplace property for free.

More specifically, the price of a BigMac in Switzerland is CHF 12.21 (source), which at the current USD to CHF rate makes an American worker spend USD 16.15 in order to pay for it.

Basically, what you should get out of this article, is that the Swiss Franc is a stable and strong currency, while the US Dollar is... well, pretty much fucked (as is the Euro, on a lesser scale).

Easiest to use expat calculators like Numbeo or Expatistan to compare cost of living basket.

If you're going as a junior level hire then a degree from a brand-name US university will help you land more lucrative jobs. Otherwise your CV will matter way more.

San Francisco is in general 24% more expensive than Philadelphia. Besides, I wasn't saying that I was rich, but that a lot of people have considered me rich. I am definitely more well off than most people.

You moved somewhere where it's at least half the cost to own and operate a car, but that's not in your comparison...or at least you consider it a negative. You'd rather commute or bike, but you moved into a suburb of Atlanta (a nice one too), where that isn't as practical.

More data points for others interested: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/atlanta/copenhagen

Milano is the city I've spent the least amount of time in, but to me it was a lot of high end level things going on. I've found the US to be cheaper in nearly every regard, plus lower taxes and way higher earning potential. But I completely understand the notion to live in Europe. I think Prague and Budapest are nearly on the same level (says 4% cheaper in Budapest: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/prague/budapest)
I think you can't go wrong with either city, although I'd likely choose Prague