[dejv]

Yes, if you can manage to find even some 40k or 50k/year contract it will put you into about 5% of top earner in population in many central/east european countries.

Prices are not as low as you might imagine, but it will give you a very nice life standards. You are not going to be able to afford luxury cars or other luxury items (those costs the same everywhere), but otherwise you would be set.

[Kaizeras]

You will be rich in Eastern Europe but you'll still be considered average/poor in the developed world. Doesn't sound like a huge bargain to me.

[MagnumOpus]

It is a huge bargain, because most of what people really want out of life are positional goods - the nicest house in the neighbourhood, status with the higher-class local women whether for tinder dates or relationships/marriage, cheap local staff to perform services (child care, cleaners, gardeners, drivers, cooks).

You can afford none of these earning $100k in SV, but most of these earning $30k in Bucharest or Minsk.

Of course if you are after material goods, the opposite is true - if you don't care about a nice house but want a new Tesla, a new iDevice every year, Hermes bags and a Cessna instead, then you are better of living in a flatshare or a shoebox in San Fran or the Valley.

[jakubp]

If they are local, they may not want to go abroad. The mindset here is that you begin to accumulate large amount of cash savings early in life (20s-30s), which is a huge boon. This gives you a number of benefits compared to your peers in less hot industries: you can buy an apartment and save on rent long term; you can start your own business; you sleep better not worrying about the future; you can negotiate better work conditions because you are not afraid you'll lose a job.

The fact that you would not have the same position abroad (i.e. your cash savings are large locally but small if you lived in a rich country) is not a loss of any kind, it's just a fact that has no bearing on daily life.

[taway_1212]

Even at the 50k/year contract (and you can get much more), you'll afford a mortgage on a big house, will afford eating out daily etc. You'll be way above average most people in Europe and probably in the US as well.

[dejv]

Your saving rate is going to be higher on 50k/year in easter Europe than 100k SF salary. Just by using this extra money and investing them in various assets might help you get additional income streams that will eventually helps you cross that gap or maybe just retire much earlier.

[ThePawnBreak]

> Your saving rate is going to be higher on 50k/year in eastern Europe than 100k SF salary.

Yeah, except that the going rate for a good junior developer in SV is about $150k (Google, Facebook) and in Romania it's $20k. I recently moved away from Romania because while I could find a job in Western Europe paying more than $100k, there was no way to find something in Romania (or remote) paying even 30% of that. And not for lack of trying.

Also, $300k a year in SV is much more achievable than $100k in Romania or Bulgaria, and with that sort of money you start caring about other stuff than housing (luxury goods, exotic vacations, investments etc.) whose stuff doesn't depend on location.