Bernard Meyer moved from the U.S. to Lithuania.
Bernard Meyer
When he was 27 years previous, Bernard Meyer moved from the U.S. to Lithuania: the world’s happiest nation for younger folks. After over a decade in northeastern Europe, he says incomes much less cash is definitely worth the sacrifice for a a lot better high quality of life.
Meyer, a senior communications and inventive director at advertising and marketing automation platform Omnisend, settled in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius in 2012 after graduating in 2008 — on the time of the Nice Recession.
“I had an possibility to return to working at Starbucks after I graduated school or there was another choice for me simply to take my diploma and educate English overseas,” the 39-year-old advised CNBC Make It.
Meyer initially took an English educating job in Mongolia in 2009. Then his brother, who was visiting a buddy in Vilnius, invited him to affix them. Meyer ended up staying in Vilnius for a variety of months and met his Lithuanian girlfriend, who’s now his spouse.
What he present in Vilnius was a world other than his life within the U.S.
“The factor that I see right here is simply that it is a slower tempo of life, nevertheless it’s not a foul gradual,” Meyer defined. “In comparison with the U.S., individuals are not so targeted on hustling or all the time pushing themselves to earn extra or to speak about politics on a regular basis.”
After finishing a educating contract in Taiwan, he moved again to Vilnius completely and nonetheless lives there together with his spouse and two daughters.
The world’s happiest nation for folks beneath 30
Many younger staff relocate to Lithuania for its stunning pure surroundings and enticing work-life stability. Lithuania not too long ago positioned No. 1 because the world’s happiest nation for folks beneath 30 years previous on the World Happiness Report 2024. It ranked because the No. 19 happiest nation on the earth total.
“Ten years in the past, I might have mentioned that is very complicated,” Meyer mentioned, commenting on the rating. “They’d this horrible idiom saying that Lithuanians are happiest when their neighbor’s home is burning.”
On the time, the nation was struggling to emerge from a monetary disaster that hit Lithuania and its neighbors significantly arduous.
Now, although, issues are very totally different, and it is change into an ideal place for younger folks to dwell, in accordance with Meyer. The nation has launched a number of schemes to draw expert overseas staff together with brief visa processing instances and an arrival allowance of three,788 euros ($4,170) for foreigners employed beneath a everlasting contract for sure high-value-added roles.
Meyer outlined three main advantages.
A greater high quality of life
Bernard Meyer lives together with his spouse and two daughters in Lithuania.
Bernard Meyer
Meyer spent his preliminary years in Vilnius working in schooling and educating in non-public faculties earlier than pivoting into the content material advertising and marketing business in 2016.
Regardless of incomes lower than his U.S.-based colleagues, Meyer says he has a great high quality of life and owns each an residence in Vilnius and a summer season home in a close-by city.
The price of dwelling in Lithuania together with hire is round 41% decrease than within the U.S., in accordance with the value of dwelling database Numbeo.
“I feel that whenever you take a look at it in its entirety, whenever you first see the wage variations, you suppose it is extravagant,” Meyer mentioned. However he would not wish to transfer again, not least as a result of he at present has entry to free healthcare and is aware of his household will likely be taken care of in Lithuania.
“You hear so many horror tales in regards to the U.S. the place folks simply surrender and they do not get the therapy they want. They’re scared to get the therapy as a result of in the event that they do then they get a invoice for $25,000 for 5 stitches and an x-ray,” he mentioned.
At one level Meyer had surgical procedure on his knee as a result of he tore his ligament and needed to keep on the hospital for 3 days in Vilnius, however “the invoice was zero” on the finish of all of it. He defined that even when he wants the companies of personal docs, the associated fee is cheap in contrast with the U.S.
“I can’t start to explain how stressed I might be within the U.S., particularly as a result of I’ve children,” he mentioned. “Within the U.S. you will have larger pay, you will have more cash, however you will have excessive stress as nicely as a result of one thing may go unsuitable after which your entire funds and financial savings might be worn out.”
‘Work-life stability’
Vilnius is an “rising tech hub,” Meyer mentioned. The Lithuanian capital is dwelling to over 890 startups and has produced three unicorns thus far, together with Vinted, Nord Safety, and Baltic Classifieds Teams.
A $110 million tech campus measuring 55,000 sq. meters can also be being in-built Vilnius and is predicted to carry 5,000 digital staff — which might make it the most important startup campus in all of Europe.
The burgeoning scene has impressed one thing of a hustle tradition, however Meyer says it is nonetheless vastly totally different from the tradition of labor within the U.S.
“After I first got here right here, one of many issues that I observed was that everybody had kind of a facet hustle, however they weren’t working 9-to-5 after which 5-to-9 on the facet hustle,” he mentioned. “They have been simply engaged on it a little bit bit however having that work-life stability. So, that they had the hustle tradition however not the killing your self tradition, which I feel is nice.”
Meyer added that the put up 9-to-5 work day in Vilnius may be very “relaxed,” with folks usually heading to bars and cafes after work or going for walks and using bikes.
He emphasised that Vilnius is an attractive metropolis the place folks place a excessive worth on connecting with nature. It helps that the town is extraordinarily walkable — making it very totally different from many main U.S. cities.
“So you will have this good change the place they work arduous right here they usually hustle, however inside this time interval. After that, they change off they usually know the right way to change off, and I feel that is what makes them blissful.”
Meyer mentioned Lithuanians have a great sense of work-life stability.
Bernard Meyer
He defined that “one of many largest variations” between the U.S. and Vilnius is the angle in the direction of time without work. “I bear in mind once I was within the U.S., I by no means had a trip and I by no means knew anybody who took trip willingly,” Meyer mentioned.
Now, as a supervisor, he mentioned he by no means asks workers to work on the weekends or holidays.
“One factor I inform them, which I feel may be very European, is that we do not work within the emergency division within the hospital. There’s fires however there’s all the time fires, it does not imply you must surrender your trip.”
Though there’s much less of the “pace and hustle” of Silicon Valley, Meyer mentioned, “the work-life stability that now we have right here makes up for it. It is a worthwhile sacrifice.”
Meyer feels safer in Lithuania
One other issue stopping Meyer from shifting again to the U.S. is the sense of security.
There’s “a persistent atmosphere of violence and racism” within the U.S., Meyer mentioned, whereas in Lithuania, “it sounds harsh, however I truly do not have to fret about my children getting killed in one other college taking pictures or within the mall or on the seaside or wherever else these items are taking place.”
The atmosphere is totally different for him as a Black man. “I really feel like right here typically I overlook that I am not white or that I’m totally different as a result of it isn’t one thing that’s talked about right here,” he added.
“Individuals discover it, after all, nevertheless it would not really feel prefer it’s an integral a part of my place right here in Vilnius,” he mentioned, whereas within the U.S., you simply swim by way of this racial society.”
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