civilservant

What is the wifes line of work? Have you made any projections on what she might be able to make?

That will perhaps make the calculation somewhat different.

petitefrancaise

https://www.greatschools.org/texas/k...Levels%5B%5D=h this site is great for finding good schools which needs to be your starting point. House prices ( rental and buying) are dependant on whether the local schools are good or not. If you plan to stay long-term then choose a good high school area and work back - you really won't want to move your children away from their new friends to get them into good schools. I've put Katy Independant school district in there but you can choose wherever you want.

Then look at the cost of housing - https://www.realtor.com/apartments/7...le-family-home were today's results for houses in the best high school area in Katy.
On top of rental costs :
electricity $200 per month averaged over 12 months if you are pretty frugal with the air con
Water/trash collection $200 ( this is Austin) If you rent a house then you will have to irrigate the garden
renter's insurance $25 per month

In Austin, it is now the norm for new arrivals like you to have to pay 2x monthly rent as a security deposit for a house - due to no credit or rental history. This is a big expense and at best you will have to budget for 1x monthly rent for the deposit.

Moving into a 3 bedroom apartment may be a cheaper option? Less security deposit, electricity and water bills will be lower, most apartments have swimming pools and gyms which is really nice in the summer. Contact smartcity apartment locators, tell them what you'd like and ask for quotes.


Health Insurance - definitely get some idea of how much this will cost and since you have kids find out how much each dr visit will cost you.
Cars- others have spoken about this. Contact https://intlauto.com/home and get some quotes.
Car insurance - go online and get quotes for the car you want. Figures already mentioned are in the right ball park

I found kids' activities to be higher cost here too
JJMB mentioned getting an L1A rather then L1B - probably because it's easier/quicker to get a green card with L1A but this may not be possible depending on what your job is. The immigration lawyers will have chosen the category you are most likely to be approved for but it wouldn't do any harm at all to ask if L1A is a possibility. Ask your employer to sponsor your green card application as soon as possible- with kids it is reasonable for you to want some longer term stability for them.

Salary of $100k... do your homework from above sites. It will be very tight. I would negotiate for more, this would be normal to do here. Glassdoor.com may be able to give you some idea of salary, maybe look at indeed.com too.

PetrifiedExPat

Our water heater just burst (not enough for insurance claim), looking at 2-3k including installation. Waiting for the heating system to give up next, that is the real big expense. Oh and the air con... lol

Oh and the roof... and a dead tree overhanging a public road

Painful weekend for me!

ddsrph

Was that for damage repair plus new water heater? I always install my own but have been lucky with never needing to replace beyond Initial installation. One thing many people don’t know is on electric water heaters there is a replaceable anode rod that is sacrificed during operation to protect tank from being eaten away. They screw into top of tank with a large nut. I replaced one on the tank at my first house. The same water heater was still working after 20 years when we sold the house. You can buy the anodes at electrical supply houses or online.

Pulaski

In all the water heaters I have ever seen/ owned (at least half a dozen or more, several of both gas and electrical heaters, in NC), I have never found a single one with an anode rode. Perhaps more sigificantly, I have never seen a new one for sale that has an anode rod either. The top of the heaters, gas or electric, is invarably a smooth steel surface with two threaded ports to hook up the pipes. I suspect that the availabilty of heaters with anode rods depends on the local market, perhaps linked to the corrosiveness of the water there.

I had a water heater replaced last year that was 27 years old (in my experience water heaters round here typically seem to last 25+ years); it had rusted through at the bottom. A new HE gas heater cost $3k installed, and being high efficiency it allow the plumber to vent it through the garage wall so we could get rid of the ugly stovepipe chimney through the roof. A few months later the roofing contractors who we had hired to replace the entire roof, pulled out the two stove pipe chimneys (the other was the similarly redundant vent for the original gas furnace in the attic, that we had replaced three years earlier with an HE furnace that vented through the attic wall, specifically so that when the time came to replace the roof that the stovepipe chimney could be removed, of course as well as it being more efficient). The roofers then replaced the underlying sheathing boards that had had the holes for the stovepipe chimneys cut through them, so it is like stovepipe chimneys were never even there!

tht

I believe anode roads are only for electric water heaters.. they have them in CT, not sure if it’s water type specific, but Google makes it sound like all standard electric ones do:

https://www.mrrooter.com/about/blog/...how-to-tell-i/

my lake property is on well and got the sulphur smell in the water so I replaced the water heater and at the same time I replaced the anmoderierst for a different type to see if it is better than the stock one that came with it:

Corro-Protec™ Powered Anode Rod for Water Heater, 20-Year Warranty, Eliminates Rotten Egg/Sulfur Smell within 24 hours, Stops Corrosion and Reduces Limescale, Electrical Anode Rod Made of Titanium

PetrifiedExPat

Interesting, never even considered anode rod replacement. I do not think mine has one, can not see anything of the like... Ours uses gas for heat generation as well, possibly plays into it..

Pulaski

No, gas water heaters are not exempt from being protected by an anode rod (further to my post above, I have seen roughly equal number of gas and electric heaters). Per the url you provided, the linked page says "... all standard tank-style water heaters do [have an anode rod] ..."

Re the wording you quoted above, I suspect that the refrence to an "electrical anode rod" is a very poorly worded reference to the anode dissolving due to an electro-chemical effect.

BristolUK

Didn't you just say (in a different thread) that you did very well for your coverage coming "this close" to actually being paid for it?

tht

they are kind of hidden on all the ones I have seen. You have to break off a tab and then dig out the foam insulation to get to the “nut” that you unscrew with the rod attached… the last one a plumber tried to replace for me would not come out, so I replaced the heater. On the new one I put in it is right next to the auto shut off valve if it detects a leak.

old one:


new one:

Pulaski

The context is this thread is that the OP quoted "after tax" income, and questioned my figures .... which therefore means that health insurance is a further cost. ..... Elsewhere I commonly refer to "income after tax and health insurance, which is a de facto tax"; and yes IME in the US "net pay after tax and health insurance premiums" is a higher percentage than "net pay in the UK after tax".

Pulaski

Very interesting, thank you! I shall have to go and take another look at mine.

PetrifiedExPat

I am tempted to attempt this... Since this will be the first 'new' one since we purchased this property, I will likely replace and try and keep that one going

tht

One word of warning, the plumber tried so hard to get mine out he damaged some of the seals on the pipes and they leaked. Not a big deal as the house was not occupied, but meant no water there till I got a new water heater and plumber to redo pipes. I had it all modernized at the same time, wye filter, automatic shutoff valve/leak sensors, pressure thank and a bigger whole house water filter (well water), only thing left to do now will be the well pump.

*** And obviously it needs to be turned off and shut off water to it and open hot taps to take down pressure so you are not sprayed with scalding water…***

tht

It may also depend on the type you have. I have hot water and heating combined in a single GV90+ gas boiler, so hot water tank is only to keep the water hot not heat it directly, there is a loop of hot water through it. I think it’s called an “indirect water heater”.