Option A: Relocating to Southern Europe (Portugal)
The Income: A low-skill remote role (Content Analysis) with night shifts (PST hours), paying ~1100 EUR. I also have some passive income to supplement this.
The Lifestyle: Living in a studio or small apartmentin in smallish Portuguese town. For around 800 EUR.
The Perspective: The move isn't about a specific career goal or a passport; it’s about the higher life standards, safety, and the stable social environment of Western Europe.
The Trade-off: I would be far from my aging parents. I would be working an unskilled job that doesn't build professional equity, potentially living in studio at 36, which might be isolating during night shifts.
Option B: Staying in my Home Country (Ankara, Turkey)
The Job & Security: A Finance/Accounting role for a SME. I own my apartment here, so I have no housing costs.
The Professional Play: Pursuing a CPA-equivalent certification. This is a 3-year commitment of internships and exams, leading to legal signing authority and the ability to open my own practice later on with adaquate experience and networks.
The Context: Turkey is facing economic instability, high inflation, and politically unsettling.
The Trade-off: While I would be near my parents and building a protected professional title, I would be staying in a high-stress, unpredictable environment.
The Financial Weight:
I have already spent roughly 10k EUR on the relocation process for Option A (visas, consultants, etc.).
The Dilemma:
One path offers a prestigious, recession-proof career in a struggling, unstable country. The other offers a simple, comfortable life with 'okay' standards in a stable country, but with no professional growth.
At 36, is it wiser to invest 3 years in a professional license to root myself, or to take the jump for a better quality of life even if the work is menial?
What would you do?
THANK YOU!
ggm•3h ago
The problem with asking strangers is the lack of investment and consequences to decisions. So if I say Portugal it has zero context to how your emotions will cope with e.g. sudden deterioration of your parents health, or racism, or language issues. If I say turkey it's based on outsider sense of place as a visitor with no exposure to the political risk.
Decision support is part of operations research. A good oversight (obviously they push their own model but they explain a lot of the systems)
https://www.1000minds.com/decision-making/what-is-mcdm-mcda
for context I made the decision to up sticks and move to another economy in my late 20s almost 4 decades ago and have never regretted it but it does carry bitter pills, breaking of links, parental death and related family tensions, emotional turmoil. Nothing is easy, but my path was easier than yours given the same language both points of my migration journey, and a different world economy
Slaboli•2h ago
ggm•2h ago
My weightings definitely changed. One thing to bear in mind is that legalisms in migration often penalise age. It is possible your window to migrate is closing.
Also, your asset in Turkey may be an income stream. AirBnB?
Slaboli•2h ago
I also want to start my own family (by finding someone first lol), so I have lots of conflicting criteria, which makes it difficult to come to a decision. Trying Portugal seems logical at first, but then again I ask myself how many years I would live with such (entry level basic) job opportunities and whether I would regret not being a CPA at age 50, for example. Thank you man!