Moving to Orange County - where will all our money go?

[Twigglett1]

We're moving to Orange County,CA for a few years and I could really do with planning our finances when we're out there.

We'll have an income of £210k per year for a family of 4. I'm genuinely worried that won't be enough out there which is ridiculous

So far I think we'll spend per month

Healthcare $400
Rent $6500
School $1500 (if it's private)
Food $700
2 cars $600
Utilities $600

How far off the mark am I?

Your healthcare looks ridiculously low to me.

Cars will be much higher. And don’t forget the maintenance.

What would you say for healthcare? It's being done through my OHs work and from the documentation they've sent this is what it looks to be, but it's interesting you say it's low because my own reading suggests it is too. I think we need to recheck with his work.

Kids' activities, especially as they are in private school, are likely to be significant.

Healthcare $400

Is this just your portion of the premiums?
What about co-pays and deductible?

2 cars $600

Car insurance will be eyewateringly expensive, especially in the first couple of years when you're considered 'new' drivers. Do you have cash to buy outright, or will you need to lease or borrow? Again, being new to the country, you won't get the top/advertised rates for finance. What about cost of maintenance, depreciation? And gas is no longer cheap, and in California you'll be driving a lot!

Will any of your kids turn 15 whilst you're there? They'll want to drive like their mates... Look up the cost of insuring teenagers... 😱

Food $700

Not enough. What about eating out, which you'll probably want to do at least occasionally.

Finally........ Have you budgeted for trips back home to visit family and friends. If this is a temporary move, you may want to maintain connections. What will you do with your house? Rent it out (can be a hassle) or sell ( what if property prices rise significantly while you're away).

Will either of your kids be going to University while you're in the US? If so, you'll need to save either for college in the US which can go as high as $80,000 per year (although most people don't need to pay that much) or if your kids want to go to university in the UK, they'll have lost their home student status so you'll need to pay international student fees.
We pay approx $500 per month towards our health insurance (family of 3) but we also save $1000 a month into a health savings account to cover any deductible or uncovered healthcare costs.
We also pay $2500 per month for private school for one child and extra curriculars are expensive. My DS's soccer costs $350 a month plus travel costs!

Gas, car insurance, and food will be expensive. Your health insurance cost is probably right if it's through work. However, that won't include copays, prescriptions, etc.

Healthcare is far too low. We have excellent insurance and spend more than that just on prescriptions each month for our 3 person family.

you need to budget your portion of the employer provided health insurance, plus copays for visits typically $25-$35 just to walk in the door, plus prescriptions, plus the copays for any tests or procedures that you ended up needing. If you have any kind of serious illness or accident, you may end up hitting your out of pocket maximum for the year. You should ask what that is. There will be an individual and a family value. It typically doesn’t include medication.

dental and vision expenses will also be separate.

In order to calculate your healthcare cost you need to know what your copay/ deductible is. $400 is very low if that's your employee portion of your healthcare coverage, so that suggests there will be a fairly significant copay/ deductible on top - mine costs about that and deductible is 3k a year (before insurance kicks in and pays anything) and copay after I hit that 3k is still 20% of the total. Dental and vision are not included (my dental is 150 per month and has a separate copay, vision is about 50). Ask if there is an FSA plan you can use to save money pre-tax for healthcare costs.

700 for food is very low unless you want to live on cheap, processed food. If you like decent quality meat and fresh fruit and veg I'd allow 1k.

What is your car cost intended to cover? Are you leasing/ buying? 1 vehicle or 2? Have you checked out approx insurance prices?

Tax. Mine was a flat 20%. Have you factored that in?

Dental, if it isn’t included in your health plan, likewise presciptions and optical if that applies. For example, my son’s epi pen was €80 in Ireland per prescription and expired every 6 months, nursery refused to let him attend without one even after he grew out of the allergy. That Rx would have cost more in the US and they’re equally scared of being sued so it would have been necessary. My insurance didn’t cover it.

Dentistry was cheaper for me in the US than as a private patient in the UK though.

Also building maintenance costs and tenant insurance may be needed.

Oh, and your car registration. I just hired long-term, but I believe you pay for the plates and have to renew them every couple of years.

Food is more expensive out there for a lot of things. As an example, a basic £2 ready meal in the UK is about $3.99 in the US. Vegan food also costs. And fresh produce. Conversely, eating out was often cheaper than I found it the UK, with more variety of eateries.

You're probably close with $600 a month for utilities, we payed $400 a month to run the a/c this summer and another $150 for the water (I'm not in California so it could be more expensive there than my State)
We also pay close to $600 a month for cell phones, cable, internet and streaming services, obviously you can pick and choose which of those you want but it's generally much more expensive than the UK.

If you're in OC I don't see why you'd go for private school; there's plenty of good public schools. Agreed on healthcare; your share of the premium may be low but it's not free after that. See if there is an FSA (a savings account that's taken out pretax).

Groceries you need to learn to shop, and with the pound so low against the dollar, everything will seem expensive. Prices have really spiked lately and I am in a cheaper area than CA. Unless you live on beans and rice you'll spend over $1K a month and expect it to be a bit higher when you first come and are stocking up. CA has high gas (petrol) prices, so budget for that.

I think your utilities are very low. Our basic electric/gas was about that. But cable, internet and cell phones are almost the same again ( for the whole family)
Food also seems very low.
( although we are in the Midwest and maybe things are cheaper where you are?)

Even renters insurance is surprisingly expensive.

Median HH income in OC is $94k. That will be gross. You'll manage.

jeez no wonder Walter White turned to meth! Seems like you need so much just to tread water there.

Private school for 2 kids at least $2k a month, at least
Food - budget $1200-1600 just for groceries and household , not eating out
A small SUV like a Ford Escape will be at least $450 a month. Then insurance will be probably $300 a month. So budget $1200 for cars. Petrol is expensive in California - we spend probably 150 a week in gas and we are in a cheap state.
Utilities - my electric is $400 a month for a 2600 sq ft house in summer, water 150 and gas 25 so 600 a month and again, I don't like in California
Hope that helps .

Healthcare at $400 is way too low. That might be your premium but you need to know your deductible and max OOPs. We pay $400 a month for the premium and there are 2 of us. That’s for vision and dental too. On top of that we have $3k a year max OOP.

$600 utilities? You may get away with less than that since you won’t even have electricity several hours a day with these brown-outs that are coming to California :)

$700 groceries is way too low. Good food is a lot more expensive here. Bad food is cheaper than the UK. We spend around $1200 a month for 2 of us and 3 dogs although our dogs only eat home-cooked food. No canned food for our spoiled pooches!

Car insurance. When I first moved here I was paying almost $300 a month as I was considered a new driver (even though I had been driving for 25 years in the UK). I’m down to less than $100 a month now. But it’s taken many years.

True but that includes US citizens who not only have access to various safety nets but also have a good family support network close by. For example, if OP needs a babysitter for a night she’ll have to pay someone. Someone who has family members on hand will often not need to pay someone. Also people who are already here don’t have the same start-up costs or the penalties of being new to the country (no credit history, seen as a “new driver” for insurance purposes, etc) and so the OP will be paying much higher prices for insurances, cell phone plans, auto financing, store credit, etc. You can’t use the averages or medians for a new resident.

Food will be far more, we were spending nearly that 15 years ago! (When we moved back to the U.K. our bill halved)

The cars will vary - we found decent insurance then who took into account overseas no claims but I bought the car outright second hand. Eating out is far more expensive than here. Kids activities are eye watering expensive (4x the U.K. when I lived there). Utilities may be cheaper - it was much cheaper than the U.K. where I lived but we didn't need air conditioning. You declare your taxes as a household rather than individually so your taxes will be lower than the U.K. with a single income

At $210k OP's household will be between 80th & 95th percentile income. I guess I can't know whether 80th percentile is too low income when moving countries.

When I moved country I initially earned (in new country) about 20th percentile, that changed to ~50th percentile after 2 months. Which was plenty for my needs. But I didn't have dependents, fair enough.

This might help re health insurance costs. khn.org/news/article/medical-debt-avoid-how-to/

You would be nuts to send your children to private school unless the company is paying a large chunk of the fees.

Orange County has well funded, excellent public schools. You need to research and identify a public school and then find somewhere to live that is within that school's catchment (district). You will need the help of a real estate agent to figure this out.

That being said, you will be fine on $210k. Does your company offer a relocation package that includes guidance on dealing with the DMV, banking, maybe a company car, Costco membership, and somewhere to stay temporarily while looking for somewhere more permanent?

Shop around for good deals on phones, internet, and insurance.
Explore supermarkets and figure out where you can shop cheapest. Don't look down your nose at grocery shopping in Walmart. Sometimes nationwide supermarkets are more expensive and carry less regional and local items than smaller local chains or ethnic supermarkets. Explore Hispanic, Asian, and Italian supermarkets.
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OP we lived in US (not California) on a similar salary and we didn't pay anything monthly for health insurance at all. We did have co-pays and prescription costs though.

$1200-1400 a month for groceries was fine for our family of 4 with 2 teens, and we eat a lot of meat, but that will have gone up slightly recently. Our car insurance with no teens on it was $850 a year. Petrol is much cheaper but you'll likely drive a lot. The private school DC attended wasn't crazy expensive but plenty will be - see if there are any good charter schools in your area as a compromise.

California may have extra state taxes you should look into.

We had a similar income in the Bay Area and it seriously wasn't enough. I know OC isn't as pricy as the Bay Area, but all my pre-arrival calculations were way out. We spent more on kids' activities, food, and healthcare than I had anticipated.