Earn less, relax more: An American who moved to Lithuania describes life in the world’s happiest country for young people

When he was 27 years old, Bernard Meyer moved from the U.S. to Lithuania: the world's happiest country for young people.

After over a decade in the northeastern Europe country, he says earning less money is worth the sacrifice for a much better quality of life.

Meyer, a senior communications and creative director at marketing automation platform Omnisend, settled in Lithuania's capital Vilnius in 2012 after graduating in 2008 — at the time of the Great Recession.

"I had an option to go back to working at Starbucks after I graduated college or there was another option for me just to take my degree and teach English abroad," the 39-year-old told CNBC Make It in an interview.

Meyer initially took an English teaching job in Mongolia in 2009. Then his brother, who was visiting a friend in Vilnius, invited him to join them.

Meyer ended up staying in Vilnius for a number of months and met his Lithuanian girlfriend, who's now his wife.

What he found in Vilnius was a world apart from his life in the U.S.

"The thing that I see here is just that it's a slower pace of life, but it's not a bad slow," Meyer explained. "Compared to the U.S., people are not so focused on hustling or always pushing themselves to earn more or to talk about politics all the time."

After completing a teaching contract in Taiwan, he moved back to Vilnius permanently and still lives there with his wife and two daughters.

Meyer is not alone in making the move, with many young workers relocating to Lithuania for its beautiful natural scenery and attractive work-life balance.

Lithuania recently ranked No. 1 as the world's happiest country for people under 30 years old, according to the World Happiness Report 2024. It also ranked as the No. 19 happiest country in the world