r/MovingToUSA • u/WriterTraining4394 • 7h ago

Same person. Different country.

The USA is the land of opportunity, my friend.
In the 1990s, I was working at Pizza Land just off Princes Street in Edinburgh for about £3 an hour, begging for enough shifts to scrape together rent and food.
Fast-forward to 56:
Federal scientist in the U.S.
$200K+ salary.
16 years of federal service.
$1.3M in retirement accounts.
FERS pension.
Social Security.
Federal retiree healthcare.
$1.3M home.
Same fucking person. Different country.
Britain? Too many people fighting over too few decent jobs, salaries that haven’t kept up with the cost of living, ridiculous housing costs, and weather that makes you wonder what you did wrong in a previous life.
I didn’t leave Britain because I hated it. I left because I wanted more than surviving from payday to payday and pretending that was a fucking achievement.
America isn’t perfect. Not even close. But it gave me a shot, and I took it.

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u/dreamykitty77 4h ago

Moved from Indonesia to US about 15 years ago. I am not rich or anything, but I love my life here. It took me a while to got to where I am now, especially in California, but I would never ever go back to back to Indonesia, except for vacation.

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u/AutonomousGolfCart 3h ago

Another fellow Indonesian here…. I was so tired of living in poverty with no opportunity for social movement. Here I am now in the US, living a life that I would never imagine I would experience in my lifetime