Originally Posted by Kevthered (Post 12420927)

Hi All
First time poster here, hopefully I can get some sound advice :fingerscrossed:

My wife has been offered a job through her current company in NYC, possibly starting this Summer. We've been to the US a few times so are really excited at the prospect of living there for a few years or longer. We have 2 kids in tow (4 & 7). Although the job is in NYC, my wife only has to be in the office x2 a week so will be working from home the rest of the time. We're not keen on living in the city due to the kids and expense so we've been looking at commutable areas, mainly along the Connecticut coast and Fairfield county (Darien, Westport, New Cannan, Fairfield etc).
She has been offered a salary of 300k + 30k relocation package. I won't be working :thumbsup:
Now on the face of it this salary sounds fantastic. However from doing a little bit of research (oh here & the WWW) it seems this might not be the case. I know these areas are expensive to live, but I wanted to share my figures to see if I'm in the right ballpark in terms of costs or completely wrong as it's very hard to work out exactly what the costs are and I don't want us to be left short after we make the move.

Take home pay $200,612 PA, $15,431 4 weekly, $7715 bi-weekly
(she would be paid bi-weekly)

Monthly Costs

-House Rent - $7500 (based on 3,4 or 5 bed house - expensive)
-Car Leasing x2 cars -$1000
-Car Insurance x2- $334
-Health Insurance/dental/vision -$875 (based on company scheme, family basic with $4800 max out of pocket)
-renters house/contents Insurance- $500
-Mobile phone - $100
-Pre-school fees/education - $1,833
-Internet - $100
-TV Satellite - $170
- Utilities (gas, water, elect) - $500
- Sewage, trash, snow - $50
- Car fuel - $100
- Clothing - $500
- Food/Groceries -$1,000
- Kids Activities - $400
- Train/Commute - $200 (10 trip ticket to NYC)
- Retirement planning 401k - $1541 )not got a clue about this)
- College savings - $416
- Entertainment, restaurants etc - $500

Total - $18,036 (-$2605). WOW. :ohmy:

I don't know if there is anything else I need to consider or if there is anything glaringly wrong in my estimates? Bonkers I know, but as it is, where we thought the salary is amazing, turns out it might not be the case.
Anyway, I'd appreciate any advice on the above.

Cheers
Kev

Originally Posted by tom169 (Post 12421285)

College saving? Are your kids US citizens?

Originally Posted by Octang Frye (Post 12421295)

What does your wife do?
Restaurants/entertainment sounds way too low.

Be careful in Connecticut. There are a lot of Yankees there that don't take kindly to folk who aren't from around those parts.
Plus Virginians.

Originally Posted by Bob (Post 12421187)

Welcome to BE and good luck!

The renters insurance, sounds a bit high.
Pre-school, sounds a bit low.
Utilities, will depend on age/size of place. Oil heat could easily run you $300-600+ a month, while gas heat could be $100.
You'll spend more on petrol, that's probably a weekly thing.
Snow removal, may or may not be included in the rent, or could run you $10-200 a go, or you could get a shovel for $10 and do it yourself.

No idea of commuting costs down there, but have you factored in cost of parking? Down my way, can be anything from $5 residential rate to $70 a day depending on where you park.

TV/Cable/Internet/Phone package should be around $100-150 a month, certainly for the first couple of years as part of a deal. Mobile phone, anything from $30-100 a line depending on package/usage.

Kids activities, if you do summer camps, they'll be more, if you do things through town rec departments, they'll be less. Lots of libraries have museum/event passes to do things on the cheap. School sports should only start to be getting expensive for the older kid.

Car leasing, could be less, or if going high end, probably more due to no credit history, but you might be able to get a better deal doing it before you arrive. You can buy cheaper.

You'll want to set aside a chunk of your relocation cash aside for the tax man. You'll want to budget $50-600 per utility as a deposit, just in case, due to having no US credit history.

Originally Posted by rpjs (Post 12421271)

Commuting costs from CT on Metro-North are about to increase, again, and will continue to do so (basically CT has run out of money and so is having to cut its subsidies - some Metro-North lines in CT may be cut back to peak-hour only service). Westchester County also has good Metro-North commuter rail into Grand Central. Try looking along the Hudson and Harlem lines. I live on the Hudson line and can get fast peak trains to/from GCT that take about 40 mins.

Originally Posted by tom169 (Post 12421285)

College saving? Are your kids US citizens?

Originally Posted by Nutmegger (Post 12421288)

As he said he is looking at being in the US for “a few years,” I took that to mean he would be continuing his UK strategy.

Originally Posted by Octang Frye (Post 12421295)

What does your wife do?
Restaurants/entertainment sounds way too low.

Be careful in Connecticut. There are a lot of Yankees there that don't take kindly to folk who aren't from around those parts.
Plus Virginians.

Originally Posted by Nutmegger (Post 12421377)

I gather you have never visited CT.

Originally Posted by Octang Frye (Post 12421423)

There was one in King Arthur's court. A Conntecticut Yanqee.

:huh:

And Hartford, Connecticut is home to fabulous freelance insurance investigator, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

Originally Posted by Ecto17 (Post 12421469)

I think you have a very generous budget and there are areas that look both high and maybe low on your budget but l am sure they will balance out and for me, l think you might have over budgeted but better to be safe then sorry.
Is there any reason you have picked Connecticut? Meant to be great, l only have brief experience of driving through it and remember thinking how pretty it was. The reason l ask is that we moved last summer from the U.K. to NJ and just thought l would suggest alternative locations if you were still at that stage. My husband's job is in NJ, hence our decision to live here but we have been blowed away with how nice it is. Lots of gorgeous commuter towns, fantastic school system and a really lovely place to live. Sadly still very expensive but thought l would mention it.

Originally Posted by kins (Post 12421538)

Wow that's a lot of rent.

If you don't need fancy cars I think you could cut your lease bill. We have a mid-range CR-V, we put down $1900 and pay $300 a month for 15k miles a year.

I'd have thought you could get TV and internet for $150 altogether. We pay $65 for Internet and don't bother with cable - just use netflix, iplayer etc. Friends say DirecTV is a good deal.

If they have natural gas in that area you might spend less on heating. We probably halved our bill by moving from oil to gas but it's not available everywhere.

But yeah, generally life can be expensive in the US, especially if you want to live near a big city and in a good school district.

Originally Posted by Nutmegger (Post 12421038)

Welcome to BE! I'm in Fairfield County, though not in the "Gold Coast" locations you have cited. . .

Yes, those towns are expensive, but they are good places to live with excellent school systems. I'd cross Fairfield off the list, but the others are worth looking at, as is Wilton, a little further in from the coast.

I'm not much of a numbers person, but the only places I could see you being a bit short are on utilities -- in the recent cold snap we've been going through $500-600 worth of oil per month, plus around $130 in electricity -- and trash pickup and snow ploughing (your water will most likely come from your own well). Trash pickup will probably run around $150 a month (though you can buy an annual permit and do the dump run yourself) and ploughing will depend on your driveway. Mine runs me $75 per visit, and a big snowfall will need two visits. You should be able to get a pretty comprehensive TV/Internet/phone package for around your $170 number (different towns have different providers, mine is Spectrum). Your wife may need a Metro North commuter rail pass -- think that's probably around $350 a month (guessing there!) -- or it may work out better to just buy a ticket the two days she goes into the city.

All in all, your wife's excellent salary should give you a good life here. Good luck!

Originally Posted by Kevthered (Post 12421644)

Wow - expensive in the winter months. Didn't think trash would be that much to be honest. Like I said, on the face of it it's an excellent salary, not too sure about being able to have a good life though :eek:

Originally Posted by Bob (Post 12421902)

Depends on the town and if you rent, it might be included in the rent. Some towns do a pick up, so it costs you nothing, some towns use a town bag system, so it costs a few bucks a bag. Some towns don't even do a pick up, so you're left with private collection which depending on size of bin, if you want recycling or not, can run you anything from $35-150 a month, but a couple of smaller bins should be closer to the $50 mark. Or, just do a dump run and get the town dump pass, which can be anything. My town is $10 a year, neighbouring town where we used to live was $360 a year.