[red-iron-pine]

> and overestimating how high salaries in the US are compared to Canada

As an American STEM worker in Canada: salaries are definitely higher in the US. Not even close in some cases, easily a 40% difference for high-end roles. And while COL is high in SF or NYC, it's just as crazy in Greater Toronto or Vancouver but the salaries have not kept up.

Make no mistake, you can still do pretty well, but I could probably double my salary if I moved back to the big US East Coast city that I'm from.

Long-term I'm not optimistic about the US economy and culture, and my wife wouldn't be a fan, so I'm willing to miss out -- but sometimes it stings knowing what options are out there.

[amrocha]

I feel you, it can be hard knowing that you could be making more money across the border.

However, I don't know if I agree with you about SF and NYC being equivalent to Toronto and Vancouver. They're just not. We complain about rent in Canada, but SF/NYC rent is another level of bullshit. And general expenses are definitely more expensive as well, I know I feel it whenever I travel to the US.

The other thing is that in most US cities you have to pay for a car. That's just not true in Canada. This makes up a huge part of the income gap.

[Dig1t]

>but sometimes it stings knowing what options are out there.

Yeah I made the sacrifice and lived in the Bay, crammed into a hacker house for a few years.

It totally sucks, but working with all those smart people and stashing the money completely changed my life.

Definitely a sacrifice I’d make again