Living Costs
 

I'm trying to find out some real living costs to work out salary requirements. Nothing really seems to include stuff like car insurance, internet access the things you would include in your outgoing in the UK. Has anyone found a good site or has a good idea of the various outgoing and costs?
Thanks

Re: Living Costs
 

Where in the US? There are a number of past threads on here, plus the wiki. Search and wiki on the top bar.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-5...ackage-838164/

Re: Living Costs
 

thanks for this. I'm slowly going through the relocation package piece and will soon start to be talking to my firm about it.

What I'm really trying to find out though is a true cost of living. For example mobile costs, internet, tv, state taxes, avg insurance costs all the smaller things that mount up when you put them together. My wife wont be woring to start off with so I need to know my minimum salary requirement.

Re: Living Costs
 

The things you mention vary widely by state and by location within the state. State taxes are easy to determine, your intended state either has state income tax or it doesn't. Some cities and counties also have additional income tax (for instance, if you moved to NY state there is a state income tax. If you lived in the cities of NYC or Yonkers, there is an additional state tax). Each state has its own sales tax regime too, sometimes different by county or town etc.

The really big tax variable is property taxes. Depending where you own a house, your property taxes might be $1,000 a year or $20,000 a year. Or more. But property taxes are payable by owners, not renters.

As you probably already figured out, all the above variables are easily discovered by a Google search.

Re: Living Costs
 

If you could tell us where you are moving to we can be of more help. My electric bill for a 4 bed home in Houston will be wildly different from someone in a 1 bed apartment in Ohio.

city-data.com usually has threads with some of this information for the state and city you are looking at.

Re: Living Costs
 

great thanks both. We will be living in the Alpharetta/Johns Creek area of Georgia.

Re: Living Costs
 

You plus one in a small apartment, or you plus non-working spouse who will be home all day (needing AC) with seven kids in a 4,000 sqft house? One car, two cars? .... 4x4, Prius, or minivan?

The more you can tell us about your life, needs, and expectations, the more complete and useful the info yet get is likely to be. :)

Re: Living Costs
 

Sorry new to all of this, details would help!

2 adults 2 children (12 and 8)
We will be renting to start off with
Looking for 4 a bed at least 2 bathrooms and definitely AC
My wife will be at home initially and will hopefully start work after 6-9 months
We'll need a car (decent family size)
Mobile phones for 3
Usual internet and TV!
I think my salary will be around the 85k mark.

Re: Living Costs
 

Some things will be the same ball parks for everything and there are threads on that.

Basic ball parks:
Budget $1K per 6 month for insurance
$100 per month for phone/cable/internet
$45-100 a month for mobile phone
Budget $50-600 per utility for deposit as a one off.

Rental/taxes will depend on location. city-data as mention, but there's glassdoor and salary.com for reference to what others get paid in the area.

You'll want two cars.

Health insurance, just ask HR, then study the details for out of costs.