I'm not sure how you can't afford a house in London with your jobs; maybe you're not as highly paid as you think, maybe you need to save / invest more, maybe yo

I'm not sure how you can't afford a house in London with your jobs; maybe you're not as highly paid as you think, maybe you need to save / invest more, maybe your standards for housing are above what you can find in London (truly horrendous overpriced properties). That said, as a fellow Londoner who is about to leave for sunnier places, I think you can find a better balance in terms of location and compensation. If you can't work remote for less in your field, learn some coding and spend a couple of years in some medium sized company / startup in London. Not Google, find a place you enjoy working for: most likely you won't have to grind leetcode to pass an interview, you'll get more flexibility, less stress - and you'll get way less money. I've seen (capable and very smart) people switch jobs, do a bootcamp and earn 80k£ per year 2 years after the bootcamp. Likewise, I've seen people with 15 years experience making 40k£ (and being less effective than the 80k£ person). Once you have some experience in London as a developer you should be able to land a fully remote gig and then you can work from wherever you prefer. In terms of motivation, I think I will never be satisfied working for someone else, hence why I decided to run my own business (after both contracting and full time positions). You get to solve a wider array of problems (from accounting, to coding, to whatever is needed), there is no politics, promotions or performance involved. If you do a good job and solve problems for someone else, you get more money, else, you starve. Spend some time thinking if entrepreneurship is something for you. In case it is, set yourself small goals. Start by thinking where you want to live, how much money would you need, etc. Maybe use your existing savings from the high paid job to purchase a property (surely cheaper than London) and have lower expenses (bills, food, entertainment). In regards to your partner - life is all about choices and it's too short to waste. Some people care a lot about their career. Some people see it as a rat race. If you strongly care about living somewhere else and your partner can't find a compromise, maybe it wasn't destiny. I lost a 5 years old relationship because our goals weren't compatible, with me dreaming of running my own business from the beach and her dreaming a safe, high paying government job in her native country. Best of luck!