36yo: Career at home vs. Simple life abroad? • Hacker News Board

Re: 36yo: Career at home vs. Simple life abroad?

#41

Post by ativzzz » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 4:18 PM UTC

A different perspective. I'm a first generation immigrant that moved from Russia -> US 30 years ago with my parents.

Some things to consider:

Despite living here for 30 years, my parents don't feel they fit in. Their friends are Russian and the media they consume is in Russian. At the same time, they wouldn't fit in back in Russia either at this point. It's a weird state where you lack a strong cultural association. If you move, highly recommend immersing yourself in local culture, language, and activities.

We moved here because my dad had a good job at an international company (software dev). Our immigrant friends who are doing well are in a similar boat, or have entered higher paying fields like nursing. If you don't plan to climb the financial ladder via upskilling, or aren't in a transferrable career, your material life will be much better in your home country.

Overall, I don't think their quality of life changed much between the two countries. They are educated, white collar workers who would have a similar life anywhere they lived.

Re: 36yo: Career at home vs. Simple life abroad?

#42

Post by android521 » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 7:25 AM UTC

Slaboli wrote: post #4

ggm wrote: post #2

These kinds of multivariate decisions are extremely hard and what decision support systems were designed to work with. Typically you construct a model with all the qualitative questions, and a process which weighs each of them against each other drives something like a weighted centroid outcome. The problem with asking strangers is the lack of investment and consequences to decisions. So if I say Portugal it has zero…

Thank you for the perspective. You’re right that strangers lack the emotional context. I think my paralysis comes from over-optimizing the variables and ignoring the 'bitter pills' you mentioned. I am currently trying to build an MCDM model as you suggested, but I find myself biased toward weighting 'safety' vs 'career stability' differently every day. Did you find that your priorities changed once you actually arriv…

Your comparison is flawed because you are comparing now. what you should do is to analyze what happens 10 years from now in both places.

Re: 36yo: Career at home vs. Simple life abroad?

#43

Post by taneliv » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 1:15 PM UTC

Slaboli wrote: post #9

taneliv wrote: post #7

Do you speak Portuguese? Are you interested in learning it? I don't know how big a role it plays in making connections and friends in Portugal, and how important those are to you. It may be also more difficult to find English (or Turkish!) speakers in smaller towns compared to big cities. How stable is the remote role? Are you more likely to be laid off (or the company to cease operations) than turmoil in Turkey? Obv…

I only speak the basics of Portuguese for now, but I’m open to learning it. I do think language plays a big role in building real connections and friendships, especially outside expat circles. In smaller towns, it’s true that finding English speakers, let alone Turkish speakers lol is extremely hard. The trade-off is that rent is dramatically cheaper. In Lisbon or Porto, even tiny studios are above 1,200 EUR, while i…

Do your financial calculations take into account possible differences between Turkish and Portuguese practicalities? For example: is 1100 euro gross income or after taxes? What kind of unavoidable expenses you will have on top of rent: electricity, water, transportation, Internet/mobile, groceries, insurance and so on?

From my Nordic perspective, your budget will not leave much at all on the table at the end of the month. Groceries are probably more expensive here than in Portugal, but I still get a feeling that making the ends meet could be a real struggle. This kind of setup would be much more (financially) reasonable if you can live together with someone who is also working and then split the rent.

I suppose you took all of this into consideration already. Likewise, if you haven't already, it could be useful to search for some expat forums and ask people's opinions on anything that could be surprising in everyday life.

Either way you decide, iyi şanslar!

Re: 36yo: Career at home vs. Simple life abroad?

#44

Post by tossandthrow » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 9:32 PM UTC

I did the "simple life abroad" some years ago. A couple of years in Portugal. Easy very well paid job.

I moved back finished a second degree and am looking into a more stable career in my home country.

Don't sweat the decision. If you want to checkout Portugal. Do it. Spend a year or whatever, and move back to turkey if you didn't like it.