lezzfrancis

Thanks Pulaski and kodokan for the detailed replies. We've decided that we'll make the move. See you all on the other side .

mommapudding

As above- that'll be plenty.
I'd advise you to read up on, and check health coverage, does it include vision and dental? What's your co-pay etc

There is a different local forum that you'll be able to find which deals endlessly with which neighborhood, which triangle town which... etc etc that you might find useful, I have. (Mods - am I allowed to post a link?)
We're also living here, under similar circumstances, IT brought my husband out to work in RTP when our daughter was 7. We now have greencards, and will probably become citizens. Check whether the company will fund greencards as part of your negotiation. You may not want to go that route, but doesn't hurt to know...
Standard of living is much better for us, but they work everyone very hard, vacation time can be much less. Everyone has an invisible sword over their head of healthcare and retirement which keeps them keen.
Good luck.

Pulaski

You're welcome.

kodokan

Excellent! Glad to have helped. You may or may not be pleased you came in hindsight, but it'll have almost nothing to do with financial reasons on that salary, you'll be fine.

lezzfrancis

@mommapudding: That's a good point for comparison. I am still getting used to all the jargons in the health benefit plan but here's the summary. $500 Annual deductible and $2500 Annual out of pocket maximum for the whole family. No deductibles on regular dental procedures like filling and extraction. Vision is a separate plan. Al together the premium is about $275 for the whole family for medical+dental+vision. Does this sound reasonable?

kodokan

That's good coverage if those premiums are monthly. Just double check that they're not per pay period, which will almost certainly be bi-weekly.

For comparison, our current health/ dental/ vision cover is around $190 a month, with deductible/ max out of pocket of... um... $1k and $2.5k, maybe? Just signed up last week, so it's still all a bit new! This is for a high deductible plan, the employer also puts $1k into a HSA for us. Whereas hubby's precious company was about $600 a month for a policy with deductible/ OOP of $3k/ $6k. So it can really vary.

The good thing is that those premiums come out before taxes so-called 'above the line' deductions.