Spencer14

Hi Everyone,

I've been reading the veritable plethora of information on these forums over the last few weeks and decided that it's time to get some of your expert advice.

I have the opportunity to make the move from Singapore to the bay area and have a long list of question so please bear with me. Firstly, a few disclaimers...

1) I have a young family who will be living in the UK for the next year and joining me afterwards (after my wife spent her 1 year maternity with me in Singapore she needs to finish her work contract)
2) I have spent significant time in and around the bay area while traveling for work (9 times in the last year and a half)
3) I will be transferring from Singapore to SSF on an L1 visa
4) My proposed salary is ~130USD plus performance related bonus
5) This move would eventually be permanent as we want our son to grow up loving the outdoors (as we do). As far as we can see, there is no better place than northern California. Not to mention, it's the biotech capital of the world and my prospects would be very good.

OK, now that's out of the way, let's get down to it...

Q1) Can I afford to live and provide a little support to my wife at the same time? A1) I guess almost certainly but I would really appreciate any thoughts on quality of life (I have added my monthly budget below for comments)
Q2) What are the best places to live for a commute to SSF? I'm looking for something that has good amenities but is family friendly. Millbrae, Daly city, Burlingame, San Mateo, Foster city, etc... Any thoughts?
Q3) Any problems (IRS wise) transferring a little money 'home' to the UK on occasion? There's a tax areement between UK and USA so I see (maybe naively) no issue...
Q4) I understand that I won't have a credit history so was wondering what kind of start up lump sum would be required for deposits on utilities, car loan, etc...

I really appreciate your help and am looking forward to the adventure!

Salary (gross) $11K
Income tax (state, fed, FICA) $3.6K
Rent (1/2 bed apartment in nice area) $2.5K
Rental insurance $20
Cell phone $90
Fuel $150
Car maintenance $50
Car loan (something like ford focus) $360
Car insurance $120
General parking (free parking at work) $50
Groceries $400
Utilities $160
Internet $60
Eating out $200
Day-to-day additionals $200
Flights home every 3 months $350
Misc $400
Monthly transfer to UK $1500
Total $10,210
Leaving nice buffer for emergencies and saving a little... Any thoughts would be much appreciated. You guys are the experts

I figure start up costs would be:
Car down payment $4k
Utilities $500
Multiple months rent as deposit $5k

Cheers!

Englishmum

Flights home every 3 months and you have budgeted $350 for it? When you say 'home' do you mean the UK?

We've lived in Singapore on two expat postings....you must be very happy to see how much cheaper it is to have a car in the USA compared to to Singapore lol!

Spencer14

Hi EM,

Thanks for the reply. Ah yes, I probably should have been a little more lead on that point. I figure a return flight from SFO to LON will average ~$1050, hence $350 saved per month to facilitate 4 flights a year...

I'm soooo looking forward to having a car again. I'm sick of the mrt

username.exe

You probably know this already, but Bay Area traffic is horrendous! Good luck with the move, California is a great state to live in and raise kids.
We were in Yosemite a couple of weeks ago and were absolutely blown away by the natural beauty.

md95065

As I am sure that you are aware, the San Francisco area is one of the most horrifically overpriced and unaffordable places that you could choose to live.

Whether this can be made to work or not will depend on what your actual household income is going to be. Your $130k base is definitely not enough to justify relocating your family to the Bay Area. If however, with your bonus, you end up with something more like $180k and if your wife ends up working once she joins you and you can get your combined income comfortably over $200k (preferably $250k) then you should be able to make it work.

Since you will be on your own for the first year you can probably make it work provided that your wife can be mostly self sufficient in the UK. If I were you I would treat the first year as a trial to see if your plan can be made to work - since you will be on your own you can try to minimize your living expenses as much as possible while trying to figure out the best place to rent when your family moves out to join you. What kind of relocation package are you likely to get from your employer - presumably it will cover your relocation to the US, but not moving your family out later (unless you negotiate that into the agreement now).

You keep saying "SSF" that isn't a normal abbreviation out here - do you mean South San Francisco? Perhaps somewhere just off 101 slightly north of the airport?

Commuting by car can be painful - you may want to figure out if there are Caltrain or BART stations close to work and start looking for places to live that are within fairly easy reach of Caltrain / BART stations.

I doubt if $2,500 rent will get you what you want for your family - you might be able to find somewhere for that price that would be good enough for you on your own.

Bob

The lack of US credit, be worth budgeting anything from $50-600 per utility. Might not need to pay it for all of them, but you could well.

There won't be a issue sending money to the UK, but there are IRS filing requirements for having accounts with $10K+ at any time etc.

Car insurance sounds a bit skinny, possibly double that, depending on what you want to drive.

Same for groceries, once you have the family with you, if you want decent, healthy, fresh goods, but seasonal pricing makes a much bigger difference in the US.

Asg123

Yes it's an expensive area, but you can live on less, but for rent yes you should budget more.

Rete

Don't see healthcare costs in there.

Completely paid by employer? What is the deductible and/co-pays? Participation in 401K plan? HSA plan? Both these are taken from your salary before taxes so there is some savings on your part. Cable TV? Some people have mentioned that without a credit history they were asked for six months security deposit on apartment rentals. Usually it is only one month.

penguinsix

Also worth noting that you may need two autos. If you are taking one all day for work your partner may literally be 'stuck' at home with no option for getting to the shop, doctor visits, school runs, etc. Most of the USA is car dependent such that it is quite inconvenient if not downright impossible to do the day-to-day kind of functions without one.

I haven't really looked at SFO area rental prices but $2,500 strikes me as a bit low off the top of my head.

Wintersong

For a 1 bed apartment in one of the cities the OP mentioned, $2.5K is a reasonable estimate of rent.

OP: have you thought about the East Bay? Rents are significantly cheaper. You'd need to be within reasonable distance of a BART station at either end, as you definitely wouldn't want to commute to the city by car, but you'd save a few hundred dollars a month on rent.

shen050

2.5k is on the low side for a nice area. We currently pay around 4k for our 2 bedroom apartment in San Mateo. The peninsula is a fantastic place to live in, but I agree, the east bay is definitely a better option to save money on rent.

vikingsail

As others have said Easy Bay - even then I think 130K does not justify this move imho. If bonus brings it up to 180Kish then maybe. SF gets old very fast - traffic anywhere is a nightmare. 2.5K if your lucky - very lucky in a nice area and be prepared to go 1 bed not 2. This recent article maybe of assistance:
$250K/Year Salary Qualifes For Subsidized Housing Under Palo Alto Plan « CBS San Francisco

Bob

Yeah, I don't think you're going to starve on $130K a year. Plenty of folks survive on much less, but I don't think most people move half way around the world to be broke and/or struggle to enjoy life either.

It's far less fun over here being broke, especially if you've got kids as there are so many more hidden costs associated with schools.

md95065

As I mentioned above, I think that the OP would be well advised to think of his first year in the US as being a trial period during which time he can figure out whether or not he wants to move his family to the US with a view to making the move permanent.

In an ideal situation he would negotiate this with his employer as part of his relocation package - a one year trial period at the end of which both he and the employer get to decide whether or not he should continue to work in the US - if yes, then OP's family get relocated and employer starts the green card process immediately - if no, then OP gets repatriated and still has a job (somewhere). I realize that getting the employer to agree to this might be a bit of a stretch, but in my opinion it would be worth at least trying to get some kind of deal like that.

Wintersong

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