If you want to emigrate, then you have to be willing to take a lifestyle downgrade - imho. Otherwise, you're just not committed to the idea.
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Overseas opportunities - IT
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^^vampire^^
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Fixed it for you.
HavocXphere
Honorary Master
Not necessarily. I mean salaries are also significantly higher in places with higher cost of living.
When I moved overseas I also took a significant lifestyle downgrade initially (owned house to rented flat, dining out far less, one car, etc.), despite the 2x income increase in absolute terms, but the real question was the long term outlook. After just a few years, I was earning enough to exceed the best possible life style I could have hoped for in SA, and after nearly another 10, I'm not even in the ballpark anymore.
I'm not saying that you couldn't get lucky and get a better job overseas. I'm saying that if you're not willing to struggle to emigrate, then you're not really committed to emigration.
Edit: That said, ~R500k in local terms isn't struggling in my books, even if it came with some "downgrades".
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cerebus
Honorary Master
What does that mean, committed to emigration? The reason people emigrate is to get a better standard of living. From my investigations, going to the US would bring an immediate step up on living standard from every conceivable angle.
etienne_marais
Honorary Master
It means that you want to get out of this country, even if it means losing out on other things.
Most people throughout history emigrated with the promise that life might be better on the other side, not that the grass is guaranteed to be greener as soon as they arrive. Only going over if you get a better job is sure-fire way to never get there.
Even if it means taking a junior position?
cerebus
Honorary Master
A lot of emigrates don't want to leave this country, they mainly want a better life.
Yeah those are called refugees and pilgrims. Today's South Africans who leave are highly educated and heading out for better opportunities.
Why would I have to do that?
You don't have to do anything.
broken1
Expert Member
Which recruiter?
When you move over to a wealthier country it is very unlikely that you will get you paid an SoL comparable wage right off the bat, because things like property are disproportionately higher. When I left SA, my salary was nearly 2x in absolute terms, however in SA my earnings were in the top ~1% of developers, but when I went to Silicon Valley, i was probably at the 70-th percentile mark or so. There was no way they were going to pay me close to the top 1% straight away, given my prior income, and where SA's top 1% ranks comparatively, so the property prices were so sky high that I immediately took a hit in terms of how I was living - this is the situation that just about everyone faces when they move: e.g. just because you have 3 permant staff and a 5 bedroom house in Mumbai, doesn't mean you're going to get that in New York.
cerebus
Honorary Master
I certainly don't have a 5 bedroom Mumbai house, we scrape by. And I can say without hesitation that a 2x salary increase in USA would substantial improve our standard of life. Even comparing the cost of housing for instance, here a r1.5mil house might cost you say r14k/month on 9.25%; a much nicer home in Texas would cost $190k which might work out at $1300/month on 3.8%. The cost difference is offset significantly by lower interest rates and salary. Unless of course you view your income as a percentage of incomes where you've dropped from 1% to 70th%, or unless you live in an extremely hcol area like NY or SF.
Houston is one of the cheaper areas in the US, my point diminishes in those cases - but then of course, you're stuck in Houston 
. Also, be careful of that arithmetic - don't just compare $1300 to R14k. High interest loans are based on high inflation and are front loaded and back light in terms of value, meaning that 15 years from the start, R14k in SA will be enough to buy a good bottle of wine (ie a tiny fraction of your salary), while $3k in Texas, will still be a fair chunk of change.
. Also, be careful of that arithmetic - don't just compare $1300 to R14k. High interest loans are based on high inflation and are front loaded and back light in terms of value, meaning that 15 years from the start, R14k in SA will be enough to buy a good bottle of wine (ie a tiny fraction of your salary), while $3k in Texas, will still be a fair chunk of change.
cerebus
Honorary Master
Houston is one of the cheaper areas in the US, my point diminishes in those cases - but then of course, you're stuck in Houston
The long term view isn't really what we're talking about here. The point is, one can go directly to a better standard of living. In the long term, as you said, your potential income in the first world can also well exceed the point where that $1500 bond is difficult to pay off, which offsets the front loading inflation effect in SA.
(I'm looking more at Austin which I'm quite fond of).
That is actually why I mentioned the 1st and 70th percentile bit - it told me that the potential was there. Back when I arrived, if I got 2x my salary (the exchange rate was much lower then) for Houston, there wouldn't be much head room for increases. Over here, if you do "ok" at your job, your yearly increase will be 0-2% once you've plateaued, and people are fine with that since prices don't tick up continuously. Plateuing is something that exists, but is hidden in SA due to inflation.
Anyway, point being that even in what ostensibly looks like a cheaper area, allowing you to buy a nice house up front, the low interest acts as a double edge sword, meaning that the costs of your property don't diminish over time like they do in SA, and for the same reason, your income is likely to grow much slower (unless you're being underpaid to start with, then it will grow quickly and then converge). This means that many would buy a much cheaper house than one they could "afford", because it eats into savings and any future budgets for a long long time.
Austin is a great city. Many of my colleagues have worked in Silicon Valley, and then moved to Austin once they had driven up their salaries high enough (very few companies expect new hires or transfers to take much of a cut, if at all for moving to a cheaper area). Living on $150-200k in Austin is amazing, while in SV it only affords a middle class lifestyle.
cerebus
Honorary Master
Yea I lived in Austin 10 years ago and Houston when I was a teenager so those are places I'm familiar with. I'm more looking at jumping salaries by contracting; I'm not now at a point where I'm convergent with the income I could get so there's quite a bit of headway I hope. Thanks for the info on this though, it's very useful to consider the options. We're also considering working there till we're financially independent, and then moving back here.
L
Leonidas
Guest
But what's to say you wouldn't have had a similar upgrade in lifestyle after a few years + 10 here in South Africa.
You seem to be a pretty smart guy. I'm sure you would have found a way to be successful here in South Africa as well.
cerebus
Honorary Master
He gave the impression that he had reached the 1% of IT salaries here. I'm sure he wasn't begging for bread, but it still wouldn't compare what he would have gotten at SV. For me, I'm quite content with a middle class lifestyle and even lower than that in some respects.
I doubt that I would, since I don't even know anyone who has had even close to comparable success (as an employee at least) in SA. Perhaps if I had to have started a business or something, but I don't really enjoy the activities of running a business. My expectation is that if I stayed I would probably have landed up working remotely for an overseas company at a couple $100k per year by now, which would be pretty good for SA living, but far from what is achievable in the right environment.