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Why I Am Moving to London Even Though My Quality of Life Will Suffer
I choose potential over comfort.
A few days ago, I was sitting in a cafe in Tbilisi and overheard a man sending a voice message. He spoke English with a heavy American accent.
“I’m telling you, man. I made fifty grand per year in pounds when I lived in London. I was spending half of that on rent. Now I live in Tbilisi, and my quality of life is better. Much better.”
It’s true. In Tbilisi, Georgia, you can rent a two-story penthouse with panoramic windows for $1,000. In London, you can barely afford a room for that money. Taxi is as cheap as $1–2 to any part of the city. Cafes and restaurants cost five to ten times more affordable than in London. There’s a 1% tax on all small businesses. No wonder this city became so popular among digital nomads — people from all over Europe are moving here because you get the prices of Bali while still being close to Europe. (Where I live, my neighbours are Lithuanian, German, Russian, Ukrainian, and Dutch.) It makes total sense to live here when you work remotely and make money in dollars, pounds, or euros.
Or does it?
I’ve lived in Tbilisi for nine months. I moved here last summer when I was looking for a place to escape from Russia. Back then, I didn’t care where I was…
