Optimal Employment

If you're disciplined about it, English teaching in Japan / Korea is also a decent option, depending on whether you end up with better deals. (Humming a few bars: JET salaries in this prefecture are $45k per year post-tax, rents are subsidized in this town to $80 a month, and the Japanese equivalent of the social security tax which your employer is paying ~10% of your salary to is 100% yours when you leave.)<p>That said: generic non-JET English teachers have it kind of rough (worse salaries and conditions), people's enjoyment of their time is all over the map (depends on who you are and where you end up), and English teaching is notorious for having few forward paths out of it.

Here's the thing though. You're <i>way</i> better off earning your money in a place with a high cost of living.<p>There are lots of things that cost the same regardless of where you buy them. New cars, flat screen TVs, plane tickets to Thailand (and 6-month winter climbing trips to Thailand), and pretty much <i>everything</i> else besides housing all cost the same everywhere.<p>With that in mind, your best bet is to find a job in LA/SF/NYC then dig in and find the absolute cheapest way to live while you're there. My personal angle was to take short (3-6 month) contracts in LA and find cheap rooms for rent while there. You can save up a ton of money in a short time, then head back to whatever low cost place you prefer to call home.<p>So to modify the author's idea, instead of setting up shop in Oz full time, go work in LA for half the year. Using his numbers you'll save the same as you would working an entire year in Australia. Then go back to Australia and spend the other half of the year doing whatever you want.<p>End result: you spend the same, save the same, and get an extra 6 months off work with which to improve your surfing.<p>Sorted.

I love the idea of bars in the Australian outback coming to be staffed exclusively by rationalist aspies.

Alternate data point:<p>I make 90k a year.<p>+$5,000 net income (after taxes, healthcare, and 6% contribution to my 401k)<p>-$1,400 for rent (pertty high)<p>- $400 for food<p>- $120 for car insurance<p>- $200 for gas<p>- $200 for internet, TV, and cell phone<p>- $200 for electricity<p>That leaves me with $2500 a month that is discretionary. That's $30,000 a year. I save $2000 a month.I play with the remaining $500.<p>Give me an extra $10k and get me to the $100k number and it would be pure discretionary for me.<p>I live in CT, so it isn't <i>that</i> cheap. There are certainly places in this country with lower rent. And moving to NYC probably would only up my rent to $2,000 which wouldn't really change the numbers becasue I'd dump the car insurance and gas. (No car payments because I paid cash for my car 2 years ago).

Interesting, and I think people should definitely consider "off the beaten track" opportunities like this more.<p>But for most of us here... it doesn't account for the fact that you're <i>working as a bartender.</i> I don't know about everyone else, but I want to enjoy and be fulfilled by my work. When I'm building awesome software I loose track of the workday... slinging rum for 8 hours a day sounds like some terrible purgatory.<p>And from anecdotal evidence, I don't think there's nearly so many great income arbitrage opportunities in the high tech sector.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what if I <i>want</i> to work as a software engineer?<p>Spending the rest of life as a bartender or receptionist doesn't seem like a good prospect, regardless of pay.<p>And if I ever have the chance to go back to work as a software engineer, the years working as a bartender or receptionist won't help.<p>Or maybe I just don't like money that much.

I highly advocate people going to work or travel abroad for a year or two, but it's important to note that this article is specifically recommending going to work in the Australian Outback. I've been to Australia and it's a lovely place with lovely people, but living deep in the Outback also means relative isolation, dust, and probably more boredom than you're expecting. You'll be at the mercy of the mix of long-term travelers in your location at that particular time, which might be good or bad.<p>Some folks (like myself) much prefer living in a bigger city with access to music, art, cuisine, culture, green space, and limitless people.<p>Though that's not to say you can't enjoy living in the Outback--lots of people choose to live there and love it--but just be aware of what you're getting in to. There's a reason one place pays so much more than the other!

I like the article for the added perspective of going elsewhere. But, like recent anti-tax blog posts I have trouble believing a $6-figure salary is that bad. No way you only have 4k of disposable income. How is that calculated? Even in NYC you do not need to spend 30k a year on housing like his percentages would suggests. People should stop trying to describe the plight of the 6-figure earner.

I can buy most of these points, but it seems to ignore that people have subjective preferences for some cultural environments over others, so the Q/A answer citing Australia's education and secularity doesn't necessarily answer that question. Presumably not every intelligent person will subjectively find Australia's culture versus the US's culture either a win for Australia or a tossup; some may prefer American culture. Some people may also place utility on things like "living in my home country, where I don't feel like a foreigner"; though of course other people may consider living in another country to be an inherently positive experience.<p>I'm currently an American living in Denmark, so clearly I don't think it's impossible for the utility functions to work out that way. =] But it's not just a matter of weighing the income, the expenses, the commute times, etc.; living in Copenhagen is subjectively fairly different from living in, say, Boston or Los Angeles, and I could imagine some people putting very large positive or negative utility scores on that difference.

You can keep your job bartending in the outback.<p>I live in the expensive-to-live-in Boston area. I have an hour commute each way. Sometimes I stay late nights. And on days like today the option is either burn vacation time or telecommute because for my own safety's sake there's no way in hell I'm taking the T and the bus in this blizzard.<p>But... (and this is the clincher) <i>I program robot submarines for a living</i>. I'm a significant contributor to the code that navigates and controls AUVs around the world -- Australia included. In short, I get paid to do something <i>awesome</i>. If I were still stuck in the webdev ghetto or doing enterprisey bullshit for banks, I'd be on the first plane outta Logan as soon as the snow clears. But the sheer ass-kickingness of my job -- and the doors of opportunity this experience will give me later -- keep me firmly anchored.<p>And I think that's entirely rational.

Working abroad always appeared to me as something hard at the very beginning, especially for a Russian, especially in tired of immigrants Australia. I don't know, maybe it's all biases from my family members and friends.<p>I'm 19 yo (minus one week), not so bad programmer (a lead developer of a small outsourcing firm with some "CTO" responsibilities for 2.5 years). All my attempts to find a job abroad (in USA especially) and leave the country left me thinking what I should save up some reasonable amount of money and be ready to show something impressive in my portfolio (or get a degree, which I can't even afford now whilst having no desire for spending four or five years doing something useless in cheap and easy college):<p>1. I've often been asked to be interviewed in person - its more than 500$ for a one-way ticket, plus some money for bed and breakfast, plus getting a visa isn't cheap and simple adventure. Okay, 20000$/yr is a "wow!" salary in Sankt-Petersburg for 18-25 year olds, do your math<p>2. I've been told that employers abroad don't like to hire foreigners because there're too much responsibility required by the law<p>3. And [as I've been told, I've read and I believe] due to these problems it's too simple to end up being a "janitor" developer in some heartless corporation just because visa doesn't allow to just walk out looking for a better job, and neither do living expenses.<p>I only applied for developer jobs, though. Maybe bartenders have more luck.<p>I don't know if it's really because of some division of the world or due to my narrow-mindedness and cowardice.

As noted in the comments, the major problem is that he compares the "rational" strategy of moving to the Australian outback with the "default" strategy of having a US job and spending the statistical average on housing, food, etc. But if you're assuming a highly rational person, the second strategy has loads of room for optimization: you don't need a McMansion, a new car every 5 years, or to engage in status games of conspicuous consumption with your neighbors. With a relatively small amount of planning and discipline, it's easy to save lots of money earning $100k/year in the US.

Most young people with 100,000$ a year jobs are not in it for the 100,000. They're in it because it leads (if they are successful enough) to a 250,000$ job in a decade or two.

US$16500/y transporation costs? What are you doing, buying a new car every year?<p>Also, "Companies pay professionals more based on their abilities and their age as opposed to their actual years of experience"? Who would want to work for a company like that? Would it even be legal?<p>Ignoring more subjective points, like the appeal of living in the outback vs. a city or of having a "no responsibilities" job.

Has anyone here had experience working in Australia (or as an expat in another developed country) as an actual software developer?<p>I do enjoy what I do but I'd love to be able to see a different part of the world while I do it.

Trades are booming in Australia. I've been traveling in Australia since January. I meet loads of tradesmen from places in Europe who come down here because the wages are high and there is a lot of work. My sister's husband is a builder, and his friend are electricians, and they do as well or better than any salaried programmer in Silicon Valley or New York. The electrician in particular makes about double what I did, and I was making well over $100K a year.<p>Regarding being a bartender in the Northern Territory: The advice in the article is pretty good if you are in the USA and under 30 and don't have any prospects in the USA. The wages are pretty good for most types of seasonal service work.<p>One downside the article doesn't mention, is that I think you can only do this visa once. Thus, it's not really a long term career plan.

There is a reason why people endure higher costs of living to be in locations of higher population density. I'd also like to see the same cost benefit analysis over a 5-10 year window. I guess the alternative US scenario mightn't be much better.

Bartending: a part-time job that provides the lazy with easy access to alcohol and a stable social life where the only requirement is to have passable looks and the ability to show up, stay awake and not steal (too much). It looks like fun, but it's a very dangerous occupation if you're thinking of actually doing something with your life post-booze dalliance.<p>The fact that someone would promote dropping out to live in the outback serving beer to a bunch of tourists is insane. To back it up with tax-reimbursement math is ludicrous. Working as a slave for more than one tourist season should dispel any rational thinker of the notion that they're better off scraping by on minimum wages than working at a real job. To be successful in the real world, you need to acquire domain experience, competent skills and build lasting relationships with people who also work in your industry, not to mention developing your talents in order to have access to higher-paying/rewarding employment. All of them take time and none can be done while you're picking your nose at a tiki bar in Florida, Thailand or Australia.<p>Don't kid yourself. Work is hard and there are no easy way about it.

Something is wrong about the author's numbers here.<p>The Consumer Expenditure Survey the author cites says the 25-34 year old that spends 37.1% of their salary on housing is only making $58,946 per year, NOT $100,000 per year.<p>Whether intentional or not, the survey is being misrepresented to the benefit of the author's argument.

I'm ethnically Chinese. The thought of going go the outback to serve beer to a bunch of racist Australians (I think someone in this thread described it as "tired of immigration" LOL) for a pittance is about as appealing to me as slicing my face off with a cheese grater.<p>Ans as far as teaching English in Asia goes ... this must be a SWPL thing because to me it just sounds like a giant waste of time.<p>I'll stay in California and work at my six figure tech job. Thanks.