[Akinari]

Originally Posted by tiger_handheld

[spoiler]I'm a big believer in "can't make it in the kitchen, GTFO" .... the Mrs. and I also pondered about moving out of vancouver. Her idea, not mine. My biggest challenge:

how do you support aging parents?
Flying back from Tokyo to YVR when your parents are in an emergency is not the greatest.

how do you manage life with kids with no parent/friend support?

These are the 2 mains why I don't practice what I preach for my own life.

Yeah my parents were definitely not the happiest to find out that I was moving halfway around the world but they kind of accepted it. I'm fortunate enough to have a few good friends around the Tokyo area, mostly from school who were either Japanese to begin with, or studied Japanese and were able to find employment there and are now living there long-term.

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

Spoiler!

I normally don't post a lot here or in this level of depth but I will give it a shot. Excuse the typos and grammatical errors if you will.

I'm not going to tell people how to spend their money, or dictate what they do with their money, but what I can tell you is that if you truly believe your friends are unfathomably rich, you need to dig deeper, or look further because I can assure you, there is more than what meets the eye.

I get that it's easy to jump to conclusions that our "friends" who are professionals who don't bat an eye when they dine out, or make a big ticket purchase every now and then. We've all fallen for that. But do we really know what comes in to their bank accounts, is equivalent of what comes out? (i.e. fancy dinners and fancy Instagram vacations etc.) or what sacrifices they've had to make, like pulling in extra hours than most normal people would. Missing out on friends birthdays, family dinners, opportunities to socialize and enjoy life? We don't know that. The idea and concept of those who are unfathomably rich is subjective. For all we know, they could be still living at home, rent free, and expense free. All the income is just discretionary at this point. Of course they can afford to pull out their low-interest AMEX for that fancy dinner.

There are reliable and verified pools of data and statistics that exist on the Internet on income, levels of education, demographics and all. Spend some time to look into it and then decide for yourself if your friends are truly unfathomably rich or not. Some of you folks have made it seem like debt avoidance is a top priority; Again, I'm not going to judge whether what you prioritize is right or wrong, but there is more to life than just debt avoidance. Maybe consider simply spending wisely and not overspend like your typical Asian baby girl who graduated from UBC with an Arts degree flaunting her shit with a $45,000 annual salary. Some people are better (and smarter) at spending their money. If you had an opportunity of buying a $65,000 car at 0% interest over 5 years, would you take advantage of that? Or would you pay up front the entire $65,000 for the sake of avoiding debt? That's for you to decide.

It's evident that some of you folks need to get out and explore the world, and discover life to get a better perspective. I sense that there is some resentment and bitterness towards Vancouver. By no means, is Vancouver a place abundant of jobs and careers. It's a tough market for sure. But if you realize that you've peaked where you are at your place of employment, or in your profession, or line of work, you have to look elsewhere, and that's nobody's responsibility but your own. Had I not left Vancouver several years ago, I wouldn't be where I am today and so called "unfathomably rich." (Shopping at Whole Foods makes you poor, okay?) I would have been stuck in my role forever where I was working, and when I look back at my friends, they are still where they are 5+ years ago. But they are okay with that because they are enjoying their life, making ends meet with their income, and raising their children the way we once grew up. They didn't have to upheave their roots and move elsewhere to chase their financial dreams and careers because that's not who they are, and that's not what they wanted. Turn the tables, they think I am "unfathomably rich." Except they don't know how shitty of a commute I have every day, how many hours I put in at work, and the whole nine yards. It's easy to jump to conclusions, but until you know, you don't know.

tl;dr version
- rich people do put in a lot of hours/make a lot of sacrifices, 100% in agreement with you.
- I'm trying to figure out if I NEED to experience that kind of work-your-socks-off kind of environment
- if money were not object, would people still choose to leave Vancouver?
- where's that happy medium between having 2 hours of work a day, and 2 hours of free time a day?

Spoiler!

Yes that's absolutely the case, I 100% agree. I know my friends who are "unfathomably rich" put in incredible hours, somehow function on little to no sleep, and have no social life. Some of them are already in the C-suite. Obviously as you've put it, the decision is none but our own to make that call, in terms of whether or not working 10hrs a day plus however long it takes to get home via a crowded sweaty train, is worth making that extra however much money you'd make versus having a chill comfortable lifestyle in Vancouver, making maybe half or 3/4 as much as you would in those high stress high strung environments.

I guess what my thought process is trying to decipher is whether, as a young person, it's necessary to throw yourself into those kinds of fire pits to build grit and get a taste of what "real" work is like, to put yourself into the unknown and god forbid that you make a huge life change (i.e. moving to Tokyo/LA/Toronto etc. etc.) and you end up failing anyway because you can't stand the workload. I'd like to think that there's a portion of us Vancouverites who would choose NOT to leave this city (myself included) if money were no object, but from what I'm reading from various people just in this thread alone, is that good money is hard to come by EVEN if you put in the work, and I guess that's what frightens me the most. I hate being complacent with things, I'm very much the "if there's a will there's a way" type of person, especially when it comes to my career, in terms of, if something isn't working out, I'm going to do everything I can to change that. Thus, the mindset I'm in right now, I'm not going to say I'm completely lost, but it's one of uncertainty, where I know other opportunities exist in other cities and I'm all for changing cities, but I'm afraid I'll fall into the deep dark pit of, I work way too much and I have no life and I regret everything and anything. Basically, I'm striving to find that sweet spot where you don't only have 2 hours worth of work sitting in front of a desk for an 8 hour shift, and spending the other 6 hours literally reading through every single piece of news there is to read through online.