chasesmummy

He currently works in banking but to be honest is not particularly qualified - I am the main earner having completed further education.

Pulaski

I would question the advisability of relocating to the US then, because teachers' pay in the US is, to be blunt, p!$$ poor. Unbelievably low in low cost states/ areas, and if anything, relative to the cost of living, worse in high cost areas.

chasesmummy

I realised this is a few years old, but is this realistic - NEA - 2012-2013 Average Starting Teacher Salaries by State ? As if so its higher than the UK!

Springy6

Having taught in the UK for the last 12 years and on the brink of a move to the US, I've spent some time looking at the Praxis tests. You will need to spend quite a bit of time prepping for these - different terminologies and ideologies make for some interesting answers. Caused a great debate in my staffroom!

scrubbedexpat099

my only recent experiance was I met a special needs teacher a few months back and I thought she could walk into a job anywhere, good references etc, just landed a position before term started but had to go down to the Springs.

Pulaski

I only know NC, but it looks about right. The problem is the relatively high cost of some things even in a low cost state. If your gross income is $3,000/mth, even in a low cost state housing is going to take about $1,000 (you could pay less, but it would be poor housing in a poor part of town), and medical insurance/ out of pocket costs probably $400, utilities probably $250, food and supplies, minumum $800, cell phones and cable $200, car/car payments $250, petrol $200 (you will drive a lot more than in the UK.) ..... Oh, and now we've already spent more than your gross income. And there's still taxes to pay, clothes to buy, car tax and repairs, daycare for your son, if your husband works, ...... So making the move to the US is going to be critically dependent on what job your husband can get.

Back to daycare for your son - $400/ mth in someone's home, (would be $1,000+ in a custom facility with professional staff). If you're both working, you'll need another car $250, another $100 for petrol (you drive together on weekends), clothing for all of you $300/mth (that won't go far), car repairs and service, two cars, $100/mth (assuming nothing major goes wrong). That's $4,250 if I added it up right, and personally I think most of those numbers are on the low side. And there's no budget there for holidays or travel back to the UK.

ETA I forgot car insurance: think $150/mth, at least to start with.

Your husband is going to need to pull in $36k minimum just to balance the budget. ..... $72k for a couple is going to net around $56-$58k, or just under $5k/mth.

Nutmegger

Have you ever lived in the US? If not, it is going to be a big culture shock for all of you. Usually the USC can "take up the slack" because of familiarity with the ways of the US, but if you haven't spent much time here . . . In some ways it will be more difficult for you than for a UK couple moving because of a job opportunity-- because you and your OH won't have the security of a job (and health insurance) awaiting at least one of you.

Fatboyslick

^ Pulaski's thread is spot on

I don't know how many times I ran the numbers before making the move and still doing so.

As I wrote on another thread, there's a perception from UK (at least the people I have ever spoken to) that the US is cheaper than England. It's true for some things, others not, and largely influenced by where you live in the UK and in the US.

My biggest advice is to research the costs

indigogirl1976

I live in the area. We nearly bought a house in safety harbor but settled in Dunedin instead. Dunedin, safety Harbor, Palm harbor and westchase are all lovely areas. Craig's list is great for finding rentals and there are some online Facebook groups that you can post on or look at posts for the occasional rental. North Pinellas garage sale group is one. You can also join my Facebook group The Dunedin Moms Group for any school, daycare, mummy meetup, pediatrician, kids dentist questions or anything kid related in in north pinellas. I also have a friend who is a stay at home mom and she tutors students in the evening through www.wyzant.com. She tutors math and physics but if you have good language skills you might pick up some language tutoring. I think she gets $40per hour. There are some teachers in the Facebook group so if you post a question in there you may get a local teacher to fire some questions off at. Good luck :-)

chasesmummy

Thank you so much for calculating all this! I definitely do need to run some numbers. In all honesty we are used to living with a low total income (at the moment we're surviving on a combined income of £26k while I study & somehow managing) - we don't buy many new clothes (thinking about it, my sons wardrobe is complete up until age 3 from our recent trip to the US & he's only just turning 1!), we don't go out much & enjoy the free things in life as much as we can. We are already spending a ridiculous amount of money on driving at the moment as we live in the countryside (it's costing us around £300 a month just to commute to work in the city). Having said that, of course we need it to balance, & I realise there are extra costs to being in the UK, health insurance for one - I need to do some more research. It may be possible for my husband to transfer with work as he works for a global bank, so that's also something to look into. I currently work for an insurance company with offices in Des Moines, so could feasibly apply to transfer there to allow us to come over with a job in place while I look to teach, but I don't know anything about Des Moines or Iowa at all so not sure how wise that would be.

Bob

Iowa, it's quite pretty, there's some hayfields to break up all the corn fields, not much mind...they don't seem to like having petrol stations as we went through 10 towns before finding one and they consider a single lane 50mph road a highway...also Dubuque, was not entirely shit. Oh and if you like Little House on the Prairie, it's right there in the middle of nowhere

There's my limited experience of the state

AmerLisa

We live outside of Seattle. Both the district I work in and she works in were actively recruiting teachers. Our elementary school hired 5 new teachers this year.

AmerLisa

SPED teachers are always in high demand! And they make more money as well....but they do a lot of extra work to earn it.

Jerseygirl

Amerlisa...are the teachers experienced or newly qualified? I presume it's easier to find work if you have several years experience.

Pulaski

Round here they seem to prefer newly qualified teachers ...... because they are cheaper.

To the OP, I know you didn't come here looking for career advice, but if you can get your (insurance) employer to give you a job you may find better pay and career potential in working for the insurance company than in teaching. ......

Teaching here in many states is a horrible political football, usually over either budget concerns or over performance of the worst performing schools. Part of the issue, as it affects teachers, is that while teachers, as in the UK, are employed and paid by the school district/ county, teachers are also assigned to schools at the whim of the school district (this may not be true in all states). A few years ago in Charlotte, NC, the new director of the school district had the bright idea of trying to improve the performance of the worst schools, of which there are (still ) many, by reassigning all the best teachers to the worst schools! IIRC within two years 30% of the entire teaching staff of the entire school system had quit! Apparently the only person who didn't see this coming was the director of the school district. A couple of years later the director of the school district also resigned, before he was fired, because his plan to improve poor school performance (i) had not worked, at all, and (ii) had resulted in experienced teachers being replaced with less experienced or poor performing teachers desperate for a job.