As an expat who used to work in California and now works in the Netherlands, tax wise it's about the same. With the 30% ruling + a lower overall income I've actually been able to offload a lot of stock and diversify into real estate without being over taxed. So ymmv
>>GaryNu+(OP)
I've been able to leverage our FAANG bucks into a lot more real estate over here in 3 years. To get the same amount of property in the bay it would have taken me more than 10 years even making FAANG money.