- electronics, groceries, cars etc are all much cheaper
- lower rent if you compare towns and cities of similar sizes
- world leaders in computing for the past 50 years
Have you been to NZ? Why do you think it's so great? Do you like poorly built, overpriced housing, expensive groceries, lower wages and anti-American sentiment?
Housing prices vary so radically across states and cities in the US. It can be ~5x going from a mid-size midwestern city to San Francisco or NYC for a 1-bedroom apartment, for example.
I think getting paid by an American company but working remotely and living in NZ or Oz might be the holy grail.
That's kind of my point! The arbitrage of working for a company in a US tech hub while living outside of a US tech hub. It could be done living domestically here too, but abroad is more interesting. (However, given the discussion, maybe this is just a case of "the grass is always greener on the other side".)
I am not being clear. Why live in an NZ city of 200,000 when you could live in an American one of the same size and enjoy a lower cost of living, and cheaper rent?
I don't think one can find the same quality of life in a comparable US city for a lower cost of living.
Portland, Oregon might be the closest counterexample that comes to mind, but it is an order of magnitude bigger — population of the greater metropolitan area is 2.4 million.
There is a fair amount of inexpensive housing here but not in areas with the same cultural values. (Perhaps Wellingotn wasn't the best example, but it's in the only NZ city I've been to firsthand.)
Feel free to shoot me an email (in profile) if you'd like to discuss more.
You're not going to find anything near as beautiful in the US for a decent cost of living. I would move to Wellington in a heartbeat if I could. Imagine San Francisco without all the traffic and homelessness.
A bit of that, and a bit of pointing out America is probably a better place to live in than most western countries in terms of career and opportunities.
