[hocuspocus]

Where in Germany? My company pays around 80k total for lead/principal roles with your experience, in Berlin. And I'm sure you can make quite a bit more in Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, ...

Also, keep in mind, while $250k in the Bay area is indeed more than nice, there are quite a few people making half of that if you don't count the monopoly money in their total comp. In many ways you live a better life with 60k in Germany than with 120k there.

[simon83]

I'm in Stuttgart. My biggest handicap is probably that I never studied anything. As a nerd I totally lost interest in school, and so I started to work rather early instead of studying.

And there is no denying that the quality of life is much better here in Germany than in the US (unless you make shittons of money of course).