money, money, money. always funny.......

[janejoeben]

Morning all. I have a question for the guys and gals who have arrived in the US already... Realistically, how much money do you NEED to have when you arrive for starting phone line, deposits etc... How long till you got your first pay packet. Also, can you give me an idea what the monthly take home is??? So many questions, I know. We are selling our house, but due to too many years of 'have it now' lifestyle, once we pay off the debts, we wont have loads of equity to take with us. Will also have profit from selling car and household contents. Not sure if that will be enough or if we will need to consider selling one of the children on ebay!! Any info would be great! XX:uhoh3:

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Realistically bring as much money as you can. Deposits are required for utilities but will depend on area I will give you a rough guide

Water=no deposit

Gas=$180

electricity$200

TV,phone etc=$200

Driving licence $10

Cell phones with verizon $400 per phone, but if you wait 6 months then nil

Car at least a deposit of$5000

Car insurance ? $200 up front.

You get paid every 2 weeks average for 36 hours $1200 after take outs.

Hope this helps

[english_nurse]

one way to get around the cell phone deposit is to have your present phone put onto pay as you go, if its compatible with the usa this may be an option, especially if you dont use it loads. dont forget to get it unblocked though before you leave.

with regards to pay, is that after your health insurance deduction madwife?

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

one way to get around the cell phone deposit is to have your present phone put onto pay as you go, if its compatible with the usa this may be an option, especially if you dont use it loads. dont forget to get it unblocked though before you leave.

with regards to pay, is that after your health insurance deduction madwife?

Yes but I only had 1 child on my medical insurance with work.

Dont forget to take the short term disability it is only $17 every two weeks and pays out $550 if you are off sick.

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

2 years ago we bought a pay as you go phone in the US and kept it topped up initial had to do it every 3 months and I used it when I was over on visits but this will give us a phone to use as soon as we land

[english_nurse]

that was a good idea!

someone told me that you can buy simcards in wallmart

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

that was a good idea!

someone told me that you can buy simcards in wallmart

don't know about that, just paid $99 for phone virgin and activated it came with sim card

[english_nurse]

don't know about that, just paid $99 for phone virgin and activated it came with sim card

sounds like a bargain to me lol

[Fiona59]

Hey at least you can take money with you. Back in the '60s when my parents immigrated there were still currency restrictions, something like 50pounds could be taken each, the rest had to follow later...

[geordiegirl2]

Realistically bring as much money as you can. Deposits are required for utilities but will depend on area I will give you a rough guide

Water=no deposit

Gas=$180

electricity$200

TV,phone etc=$200

Driving licence $10

Cell phones with verizon $400 per phone, but if you wait 6 months then nil

Car at least a deposit of$5000

Car insurance ? $200 up front.

You get paid every 2 weeks average for 36 hours $1200 after take outs.

Hope this helps

I agree bring as much as you can if for no other reason than that it will be stressful enough without worrying about money too.

Ithink our deposits were fairly similar, returned after a year with interest, we bought pay as you go cell phones when we first arrived then got t mobile ones 5 months later with no deposit, we now 2 yrs later all have a t mobile family plan( 2 adults 2 kids)

We had already bought a car through Autosource but had to pay about $2000 in taxes and licence plate i think,

I don't think we paid car insurance up front but set up a monthly direct debit.

My OH bought a truck but just put $1000 down, it wasn't particularly expensive though.

I like Madwive brought home approx $1200-1300 after deductions for

health insurance $550 per month and i also took out the insurance against not working for a significant time.

The first year we were here when we did our taxes we got a lovely tax rebate as between us we hadn't earned that much, so its worth keeping that in mind too.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

You can buy cell phones in walmart for less than $40 and they have a $10 credit on them-then you put $100 in credit on them and the calls cost less, plus you can phone home on them. They are great.

[janejoeben]

thanks for all that info. did anyone get internet set up straight away or did you wait till more settled? my 10 year old son is keen to be able to chat to everyone online!