Hi Guys, I'm new to this forum so I'm sorry if any of these have already been answered…

My situation is rather different but exciting! Myself and my wife are moving to the Allentown, PA for 4 to 6 months then were moving to anywhere on the western side to live. During the 4 to 6 months the company I am working for will pay for our accommodation so I wanted to know if anyone knew any good places in or around Allentown?

When we move over to the western side we looked at a few different states such as CA, AZ and OR. Ideally we want somewhere that's hot, with an airport where I can get to most locations within the US and someone that is reasonable on income tax as we will be only on one salary ($60,000 - $65,000) for the first few months until my wife finds employment. Does anyone have any good suggestions that we could look at?

Does anyone have a check-list of things we need to-do before we leave the UK?

Last question :-) …. We have a cocker spaniel and want to bring him with us, were thinking of letting him stay at one of our parents until we move to the west coast so he only needs to move once. Does anyone know what's the best airline to move him on and what’s involved? I’ve found the pet passport site that has some information on it but not much for the US.

Any info on any of the questions would be fantastic!

Thanks in advance.

If your primary criteria are "hot, with an airport", then you want to be in Phoenix, but you should be aware, there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing. Last summer temperatures there hit 115°F (=46°C)!

I can't help on the where to live piece.

I can help on the animal piece - http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Bringing_Pets

You could move to California certainly and at least be within and hour or so from some great beaches. One limiting factor will be your relatively low salary though.
Look at Palmdale and Lancaster, North of Los Angeles.

If you don't care much for the seaside then Arizona or even Las Vegas...but yes, very hot which means $$$ for air conditioning.

Oregon, different kettle of fish but someone will be along to advise. (In fact do a search...there's a thread on moving to Oregon lying about.)

Go for around, because Allentown itself is a dump. You'll also need a couple of cars as it'll be pretty tough living with just one car.

The area has been asked about last summer though, so might have luck finding that thread and seeing the suggested neighbouring towns.

Wiki here also has a list of things to consider doing before and during a move.

If you mean a place that doesn't have a state income tax, then not California.

In most cases making a decision based only on one tax is going to lead to some bad decisions and possibly some nasty shocks, because states with low/ no income taxes will "get you" with property taxes and/ or sales tax.

If you have relatively low income you will often be better off looking at a state WITH income tax because much of your income may be below the income tax threshold, so higher paid people will be paying the taxes, not (so much) you.

Typically housing is your highest single expense, and worrying about that more than taxes, would make the most sense. I could increase my salary substantially by relocating to New York, but my income net of all taxes and housing costs (incl mortgage, insurance and utilities) would likely be LESS than my current net income.

Moving checklist

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/List_o...n_about_Moving

Thanks for all the help!

The reason I have been looking at tax's is because I have know idea how much income I'll have left after tax. Like in the UK it's easy to work out a rough amount that I can work from by just deducting 20%. If I know roughly how much we would have then that would be the deciding factor on where we relocate. Is there a rough % that I could use?

Take off @ 30%

This calculator says $6,300 combined state and federal income tax on $60,000, married filing jointly with no dependants. Medicare and SS will take a chunk, so about 15% should cover it.

Yikes, forgot it was on 60K only.

Yeah, I'm used to working on 20%-25%, but so much of $60k is exempt or taxed at low rates; only a small part will hit the federal 25% bracket.