Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

We have, as of yesterday, arrived in the land of Teen Relationships. Sort of. My son took us through his 8th grade yearbook last night, pointing out all his friends from his various classes, AND the girls on whom they have crushes. With some gentle prodding (which he clearly wanted us to do, in a 'aw, alright then' fashion), he revealed the girl on whom he has a crush.

'Crush' is all very sweet, I think - listening to a 14 yr old boy talk about 'he has a crush on her', and 'that's his crush' is adorably 1950s, and nicer than 'he fancies her'.

'Having a crush' appears to mean 'looking at from afar, and telling your friends that's the one you like'. I'm not sure he's even spoken to this girl!

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

:D

Slightly better than my daughter's phase of saying "DAY-AM!" on seeing attractive men ;)

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

We took my daughter and her friend shopping at the weekend. On the way, we drove past a group of boys outside the local Starbucks. There was lots of giggling from the back seat, some ducking down and one of the boys was described as being "hot" :eek:

My daughter is going through the phase of either wanting to snuggle with me on the sofa clutching a couple of "Beanie Babies" and watching a Pixar film to trying to sneak out the house wearing eyeliner that would give Chrissie Hynde a run for her money. I kid you not, liquid black eyeliner is all the rage at her school at the moment.

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

Cos we never did that :lol:

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

So I wasn't completely off base then! :rolleyes:

Like Sally R, it is only proper that we have a discussion of different view points. There is no point in us all behaving like a herd of sheep saying the same things and agreeing with each other. I do have a particular beef with moving 14-18 year olds between countries, and I didn't mean to attack you personally, you just happened to be the foil to day that sparked my counter-post. :o

It is my general view that people really seem to need to go overboard to explain how "easy" it was and was a "great experience for their children" being removed from schools in one country and placed in a different school system in another country. Can it be made to work? Sure. Is it as easy as people want to make it out to be? Personally, I doubt it, and I suspect that it is difficult and stressful for far more people (parents and children) than for whom it is easy and a positive experience. :unsure:

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

Politically conservative, largely suburban. (There is no "city center" to speak of.) Most of the newer development is in the southern part of the county, which has very wide and fast boulevards and cookie-cutter architecture.

You can expect to need to drive to get to everything, so two cars will probably be a must, even if only one of you is working.

Some parts are quite affluent, others areas are fairly poor. For the sake of the kids, you'll want to live in one of the better areas such as Irvine, so that you don't need to pay for private schooling.

Contrary to some of the comments, there will be enough 80-90+ degree days to warrant having air conditioning for anything that isn't immediately on the coast.

Make sure that the job provides good healthcare for everyone. Obamacare has reduced the cost of private healthcare for many, but it still isn't cheap.

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

This, I think, is a very fair point. We've moved our kids merrily around during their primary, pre-teen years, but always said that it would have to stop come secondary education; that we'd have to pick a system, and stick with it (barring circumstances beyond our control).

I don't think it's completely undoable, but it's certainly something with quite a lot of scope to go wrong, unless you plan well AND are very lucky about your child's personality and the circumstances in which they find themself. And of course once you have more than one kid, moving during their secondary education is sometimes unavoidable, unless the parent whose job drives the moves is willing/ able to put their career on hold for a decade or more. It's a balance, across the whole family.

I don't think moving back to the UK at 15 is a showstopper, as long as the whole family recognises it could well mean adding an educational year along the way. The ones I found REALLY bonkers were the posts on my previous expat existence boards, from families blithely planning to move 15 year olds to Switzerland and place them in local language schooling...

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

:blink:

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

We triiiiiied to talk them out of it - this is a country where it's not just a matter of having learnt different stuff, not being able to make friends, etc, but in which kids are streamed by then for uni/ vocational training. You're completely shutting down their life opportunities with your family move :(

Unfortunately, there's this (totally false) perception of 'oh, kids, they're great with languages and will pick it all up by osmosis and be fluent in 6 month'; this is what non-foreign language speaking parents think when they hear their kid pull off a full sentence with a nice accent. I, however, spoke fluent French, and can absolutely swear that not one kid was fluent in my understanding of the word* in under 3 years.

This is probably why I don't get too over-excited about someone moving their teen between the US and UK; it seems a reasonable ask compared to my previous expat circles!

*They could chat merrily about school and join in playground games, but lacked vocabulary for many other concepts that their peers were conversant in simply from hearing the adults around them at home speak, and they were still making the sort of errors that English learning toddlers make where they over-apply a rule, the equivalent of saying 'I runned' or 'I swimmed'. To a non-French speaker, it no doubt sounded amazing, but to me it was French at the level of kids several years younger. I'm sure it all irons out in time, but a 15 year old doesn't have that sort of time...

(Sorry, massively off-topic! But just goes to show that moving a teen to the UK from here really isn't the end of the world, comparatively.)

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

But is it doable on this salary? We've already got the company to go up quite a bit - they won't move on $120k but I think there is certainly room for improvement once the new office is up and running and established but that could be a year or so down the line.

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

Depends what your lifestyle aspirations are. Sure you can live on that, and it will probably be raised next year. Maybe you can use savings for kids' activities, that's something that seems to cost a lot, and you'll want them to fit in well and settle.

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

One of the reasons that I thought that 120k may be problematical is that there was this thread recently: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=834101

If you have a budget for all your costs, we can give it the once over to see if anything has been missed or under estimated. Again, if you don't mind sharing the details, did you get a relocation allowance or any costs covered by the company? If you have savings, all well and good, but it's a good idea to understand the amount of money that be eaten up just settling in.

As Sally has said above, I guess it is all down to the type of lifestyle you want to lead. I'll admit that I don't know how much property rentals go for in LA/Orange County, but was assuming around the 4k mark for a suitable sized home. I was also guessing that up you may need to lease two cars? Like I say, I'm really taking a stab in the dark here.

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

I was really shocked at the price and whole set-up of these, and how commercial the whole thing is. My daughter does karate; the deal was a trial class to see if she liked it, then I had to sign her up and commit to pay for 6 months, then the next step up was to commit and pay for 2 years. It costs a little over a $100 a month, over that time.

I do see that it's a different set up here, and that we're getting a helpfully wide schedule of classes over different days, given in a bespoke martial arts gym, rather than once-a-week on a Tuesday in the village hall by a single volunteer who might simply decide to stop one week. It just seemed bonkers for an 8 yr old!

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

Where in OC are you thinking, or rather wheres the office going to be? Its not large by county standards but its still a pain in the arse to drive anywhere.

Oh, and anyone who says you don't use the AC in OC wasn't here last week. We pay $200-300/month all in for electricity and trash collection in one bill (plus something else which I've forgotten) and we're in Anaheim Hills. If you're closer to the beach then you could get away without it.

Re: Moving to Orange County CA... we think
 

As Sally said it depends on how you live. That's the salary I was on and we found that every penny every month was spent. There was no spare for 401k, saving for flights back or saving for holidays. So it's living, but didn't match our level of disposable income "comfort" we had in the UK.
I can't say whether that's the same for you as everyone is different. I will happily list my main expenses to see if they match your budget estimates if that helps though.