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If you are really looking at this life changing experience, i'd suggest taking a look at expat rankings for additional data points such as Mercer's 2021 Cost of Living city ranking (1). They are a good starting point, but you should also look at taxes, community, language barrier, safety and security, among many other important aspects that are not in the description

https://www.mercer.com/our-thinking/career/cost-of-living.ht...

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This list really goes against my lived experience - I don’t understand how one can consider Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, nor Singapore more expensive than New York or San Francisco - it’s crazy in this list those ones haven’t even cracked the top 10.

I think it’s referring to a really specific kind of lifestyle - you’re trying to live in a luxury American-sized home in the exact center of a central business district, and eat nothing but fois gras and steaks all day everyday. Maybe then Shanghai or even Tokyo is imaginably more expensive than NYC, but what I’ve found is that you can still get meals under $1-2 in Shanghai and apartments for less than $400/mo in Tokyo - really doubt you can pull that off in SF.

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