I’ve been offered a transfer from London to NYC, and have been offered a salary of $220k. My wife is going to take a year out of work to care for our infant daughter, so this money will be our full income as a family.
The American system confuses me hugely. Following most calculators, it sounds like we will have roughly $11k a month. If we assume $4k a month on rent somewhere roughly 45-60 mins from Broadway, is $6-7k enough for a family to live on, including stuff like healthcare for the entire family through work?
This might be a silly question, but will we have a comfortable/good time in NYC or NJ on this salary? Will my wife be able to afford to take my daughter out for stuff like swimming lessons and baby classes, and will we have enough to afford stuff like flights home to see family in the UK? I’ve spoke to a few people at work, and we’ve had ranges from “wtf half a mil is lots!” to “wtf you’ll be limited to NJ and won’t be able to take vacations”, so it would be good to get more perspectives.
These other commenters are wiiild. The median household income in Manhattan is $100k.
You will 100% be in the top income earners in the city.
Also, the 33% for housing rule doesn’t make a lot of sense at your income level. Unless you have a serious cocaine habit, you will have no problem living off $5k with your family after expenses. Prices for food are markedly lower than most of Europe and there’s not VAT on things like clothes or groceries.
Granted, housing is expensive, but when you subtract the average annual cost of car ownership (roughly $15k post tax, $22k pre tax, according to the IRS), it’s really not a terrible deal.
Throw in $35 balcony seats to the Metropolitan opera and a couple family museum memberships and you will have no shortage of world class cultural events to attend for cheap.
If you take taxis everywhere, eat takeout frequently, and send your kids to private school, you will quickly burn through that money, but I lived off $12k while working in restaurants as a single young person. I didn’t starve, I paid my rent, and I did alright.