An indie hacker wants to migrate to the united states with his family, help!
Hello Indies friends, I am an entrepreneur from Argentina who, together with my wife and two children (Emilia 6 years old and Agustín 4 years old), are planning to move to the US in the middle of next year.
My wife is a frontend programmer and she already works for a company in San Fracisco (although she is still working as a contractor from a local company).
I run my startup gorillasite.tech where we design and program websites with our Headless CMS.
We believe that the US can change our lives for the better and we have job opportunities to get a permanent work visa.
The concrete question: what approximate family income should we have to live "normally" in the US?
Taking into account average values of rent, food, health, primary education, among other expenses.
Can it be around 2500 to 3000 USD / month?
As a preference, we really liked Miami because of the mixture of Spanish and English, however, I would like to read your opinions that surely you will know the rest of the places better.
Thank you very much for your help.
Hi Jorje, it really depends on where you live. I live in Maine where we do think cost of living is reasonable. I think you need to budget for at least $4000 net for living costs. We spend approx $1600 month on renting a small fully furnished house family of 3, groceries $250/week, gas and heating oil - $200 month, $100/month - electricity, $80/month for spectrum broadband, running costs of car is $100/month.
Annual expenses - Cost of vehicle insurance $800/year and car registration is around $250 per year. We paid $6000 for a second hand car but ended up spending another $2k on repairs. In hindsight I would recommend leasing a vehicle especially if you plan on staying for more than 2 years.
Healthcare is a big expense and a headache to navigate. Cost of health insurance is age dependent. We’re British citizens and go through Insubuy - which I think offers the best deals which are also visa-specific - we spend $3000/year. But If you’re over 50 expect to pay another $1000 - health insurance is payable up front and the one we have has $500 deductible per person per year.
Going to the dentist costs on average $250 per visit to have a check up and teeth clean. Here, you also are advised to register with a primary health care provider - like your family doctor and that is approx $250 per person.
Good news - Public education is free! Our son goes to the local school. I hope this helps.
We love living in Maine, people are super friendly, schools near the coast are excellent and there is virtually no crime. And if you love the outdoors, it’s great for skiing and hiking, fishing etc. Unfortunately I don’t know anything about Florida, but maybe someone else does?
@May_Ireland Thank you very much for your answer and all the details. Your comments were very useful!
We were Googling about Maine and my wife liked the idea of the place, we also watched videos and it looks really beautiful for a calm and comfortable lifestyle.
No worries. Maine is exactly that! Keep in mind the winters do get cold, around -18 degrees Celsius. But we love skiing and seeing snow on the beach is uniquely beautiful! We do really enjoy it here.
I live in Southwest Florida, around 2 1/2 hours west of Miami. Cost of living is less and we have better beach sand than Miami. If you can do remote work and commute to your Miami job, it's possible to live comfortably and not pay the Miami "tax".
Thank you very much for your recommendation, we had not seen Estero, FL and I liked it too.
I was looking at Zillow.com for some good condos for rent that are around 1500 usd / month.
Any other contribution about life there will be very useful.
Greetings from South America!
We're more on the quiet side during the off-season / summer months. IMO it's better here for families than Miami but opportunities are better in Miami overall. There seems to always be an opportunity for software engineers. I suggest joining the SWFL coders group & their Slack channel: https://www.swflcoders.com/
DM me if you want to know more particulars on the area.
Thank you very much, I will join the group and we will continue to analyze the area. My wife is already working as a frontend programmer in a company in San Francisco, CA and I want to take my Startup to open an LLC in FL.
We will see how everything continues, thanks again for your support!