sherbert

Totally agree. I also wish people who live nowhere near the area that a person will be moving to will refrain from commenting as well because your experience of life small town Texas with your five kids is completely irrelevant to a young couple moving to NY...which is why I have nothing to add about NYC because I have no experience of living there.

However, the OP MUST heed the warnings that 55k for two people is very low for *any* of the big US cities and the health insurance issue must be addressed. If the company is not going to provide health insurance, I would not set foot in the US. You simply cannot imagine the costs for medical care, even if you are insured, and it is not an exaggeration to say that a trip to the dentist or the the emergency room ('casualty') can cost you thousands of dollars.

I'm assuming the OP is young and wants an adventure and I say go for it - most people will never get the chance to work in the US and we're not all wanting to move to the US permanently (some just want a notch on their CV), neither are we all top level career persons on massive salaries and it would be good if the regular blah-blah-blah-ers could remember that.

But OP, please, please make sure you have health insurance included and have a big chunk of money readily available for all your deposits (rent, utilities etc). You will need to outlay a huge amount in the first few months.

BenK91

Just to put it into perspective as you're whining that people are being unrealistic. I lived in Denver (a pretty expensive place to live, but significantly cheaper than NYC!) and these were my monthly costs:

Rent: $1460
Utilities: $300
Renters Insurance (you'll be required to have this): $14
Cell Phone: (two lines) $140
Groceries (two people): $250
2x Car Payments (optional I know): $410
Car Insurance: $110

I'm sure I've missed other things, but just the *basics* to live with were over $2600 a month. That's not including Federal and State taxes, health insurance and other personal deductions (401k, stock plan, again optional but you'd be silly not to). I make over six figures, but I was also supporting my wife through college while she didn't bring in an income and again, I'm sure I've forgotten plenty of things in that monthly list.

You'd be stupid to move to NYC on $55k. Seriously.

retzie

I had already been in the US for 5+ years at that point and had a green card. However, it was my first attempt to switch out of academia, so I did feel like I was on the back foot.

Mind you, all that is by the by. My employer lied about my base hours and had illegally classed half their employees as 'exempt' to get out of paying overtime. So I was working anywhere from 5 to 20 hours more than I'd agreed to in a week, with no additional pay (or comp time). So it wasn't the salary itself that was the problem...

Well, your Denver budget is a good $400 above my NYC one (including rent and replacing car costs with subway tickets). But whatever. There is no one, universal perspective; we all have our own concept of budget and necessities. I don't post on the vast majority of NYC threads, because I clearly have nothing to offer incoming executives who just want to recreate their peaceful suburban life in a 30 minute commute of Manhattan.

We really don't have a lot to go on in the OP's case, but I think MMcD has made the most relevant point so far: not only is the currency conversion an issue, but the fact that OP needs to consider what losing her own salary would mean even if they stayed in London. She can think of NYC on $55K being at least as crap as that...

talkto_menow

Please take this advise from someone who lives in NYC for the last 28 years.

55k annual salary is very low. It is very unlikely that you would be able to rent apartment in Manhattan for anything less 3.4k per month. I see rental prices in other boroughs in the range of 2k - 2.5k for one bedroom apartment. I would look for some studio. That would probably be closer to 1.5k per month. You need one more income. Until then, you should bring some savings.

I suggest looking for rentals in Queens and some parts of Brooklyn. It is very likely that you would have to commute 1 hour to Manhattan. One of the neighborhoods I recommend is Ridgewood. It is on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. Also Woodhaven would be more affordable.

H Bomb

Do you actually want to move to NYC and experience living here? Would you see it as a potential long term move, or 5 years or less.

$55k is low for 2 people, but that is probably a fair salary for a GM of a restaurant (depending on the size). However, $55k is not the equivalent of 45k GBP in the UK - the weak pound really is skewing things. We moved at 1.7 and even at that it wasn't a fair comparison. Push for as much as you can get I would definitely recommend making sure they cover all relocation expenses and accommodation til you find somewhere longer term if possible (Air bnbs aren't cheap here).

We moved here 5 years ago. We had the crazy high salaries people have previously mentioned, but I gave it up 2 years ago to work in the brewing industry. However, I can really only do this as my wife still has one of those crazy salaries. From a personal point of view, doing something I love for a fraction of the salary I used to get was one of the best things I have ever done - and I can see living a more frugal lifestyle can be much more rewarding and enjoyable.

I know couples who get by on this salary, it's tight and they definitely don't live extravagant lifestyles but it can be done. Expect to live in a studio or small one bed (unless you are happy to share in a house, which can be great and a perfect way to meet people). It feels like all of the service people in NYC live in Astoria (which is where I live). Many places do ask for the 40x, but you can find places that don't have those requirements if you know where to look. However, one important thing is everyone I know on these salaries have no medical coverage (other than Obama care - which I don't know how that works for someone on an E2).

When we moved here I couldn't see how anyone could get by paying less that $4000/month rent and earning hundreds of thousands, but having spent more time here I can definitely see that is possible and is what most of the people I now know do.

Expect to wait 6 months for your EAD. What line of work are you in?

Don't be disheartened by all of the previous comments. Moving to NYC is amazing. Feel free to message me with any questions you have.

PS - I am not aware of any choir, but it is NYC, you can find anything and everything here.

PPS - If your husbands restaurant needs beer I know a man who can help you out

notaclue

Wow! We're on 100k between us with one car on finance and a $370k mortgage which is teeny compared to NYC. We are comfortable but no where near able to live in a place like NYC on our salary.

MorsePacific

I moved to NYC two years ago on $120k salary. My girlfriend was on something like ~$40k for six months which allowed us to furnish the apartment, but then lost her job.
We rented in Bayside in Queens - pretty much as far out as you can get before hitting Long Island proper, but still on the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) - we lived 2 blocks from the station and could get into Midtown in ~35 minutes.
We had a very nice 2 bedroom, 1000sqft apartment, but rent + bills to keep ourselves hot and cold ran over $3000 a month, before you talk about food and all the rest of the regular expenses.

I feel like I never really got to "live" New York, because even though we were so close, we were also far away; the psychological distance made it that we didn't often go out in Manhattan, and the financials once my partner stopped working put a cap on that too.

As everyone else has said, $55k is going to be rough. I lived in London for 2 years (and worked multiple years prior) before I moved. In my experience / opinion you can get a lot of "rough around the edges" properties in London in, or within spitting distance, of reasonable areas in London. New York is more a city of extremes. There are nice places in nice locations for a lot of money, or there are ratholes in terrible places for not a lot of money. We looked at a lot of apartments before the move and there didn't seem to be a lot of middle ground, but YMMV.

It depends what you want out of the experience, but in my experience not living closer to Manhattan meant I never fell in love with the city (we've since moved away) and never truly enjoyed the good things it has to offer. It is emphatically not a city you can enjoy long term on a budget (in my opinion).