Не переезжай в Лондон, если не готов к ЭТОМУ

Overview

The video is a personal argument against living in London, delivered by Dilya Fridman after 18 years in the city. Her main thesis is that London can be “unbearable” for many people because the real day-to-day costs (taxes, housing, healthcare access, and comfort) often outweigh the perceived benefits (high salaries and career prospects).

She outlines five key reasons:

1) Money: high taxes and expenses

• Taxes are portrayed as extremely heavy for both:
  • employees (income and dividends effects), and
  • business owners (income/dividends, corporate tax, VAT, plus other mandatory costs).
• Rent is described as the biggest burden. A typical “one-room” apartment can cost around £2,000/month, even for a relatively modest setup in a good area.
• She argues that an average graduate salary—after tax, roughly £2,000/month—often can’t support independent housing, so many people rent rooms or share apartments.
• Child-related benefits are presented as a potential “disincentive” to earn more:
  • Families above about £100,000/year reportedly receive fewer state perks (e.g., free kindergarten hours),
  • while lower earners receive more support,
  • meaning higher-income families may end up with similar take-home outcomes as lower-income families with children.

2) Job search and career building are difficult

• Even with a large job market, she says competition is very high.
• Her advice is to start career preparation and job searching immediately from the first year after/while studying (e.g., volunteering, internships, proactive applications).
• Delaying can lead to long stretches without work, noting that it can take about a year even for strong students.
• Early salaries in high-paying fields may still not cover London’s expenses—for example:
  • finance starting around £60,000/year (about £3,400/month after tax),
  • which she argues is not much given rent costs.

3) Medicine/healthcare is hard to access

She distinguishes between:

• doctor quality, and
• the system’s structure, arguing it can be uncomfortable and poorly suited to people from her home region.

Key issues she highlights include:

• Difficult access outside working hours and limited ability to contact doctors directly (often via a secretary during business hours).
• Home visits described as very expensive—around £350–400 just for the call.
• Specialist appointments taking months unless there is private insurance.
• Her own experience is mixed even with private insurance:
  • sometimes about 2 weeks,
  • other times up to 1.5 months due to booking backlogs.

4) Weather affects wellbeing

• She describes winter as gray and dark, with little sunlight.
• She personally claims that the lack of sun drains her energy severely.
• She also mentions heat: many homes reportedly lack air conditioning, so warm periods can feel like a “sauna.”

5) Day-to-day comfort is expensive—especially with a child

She argues that raising a family abroad can be lonely because family support is far away, making outside help necessary. She describes the costs of that help as extremely high:

• Housekeepers/nannies around £20/hour, and she criticizes the service quality (e.g., cleaning may be insufficient).
• Professional, agency-based nannies:
  • around £55,000–£70,000/year before employer taxes and costs,
  • which she estimates could effectively become about £110,000–£140,000 from the family’s pre-tax perspective.
• She also references the beauty-services market:
  • Russian-language salons exist, but not all meet her expected quality.
  • She cites central London manicure prices around £70, framing them as “luxury,” not basic services.

Overall conclusion

Although she lists these disadvantages, she emphasizes that she still lives in London, implying there are counterbalancing reasons she plans to discuss in a later video.

Presenters / contributors

• Dilya Fridman — speaker/author of the video