I'm American and my hasband is from Greece we decided to move back to USA . My hasband has a good payed job and I have part time job, his salary is 1600$ and mine 400$ monthly, our rent here is 600$ monthly and our food expences are 450$. The base sallary in Greece is for 10-12 hours work per day and without having the right to have any break at all is 600-700$ monthly. Obvously we can not afford to buy a house witch will cost us 200.000 $ or a new car costing 15.000$ or having any children considering that the goverment does not help at all. Our dream will be to buy an appartment , having 1 or2 children and managing all familly costs by a full time job for my hasband and a part time job for me. How high sould be each of our salaries to live an ordinary life without having wories how to pay at the and of the month: electricity,heat,food? By the way our last electricity bill was ( for four months 1450$ !!!!!!! ) and we rent an 900 square feet appartment. My relatives in Sacramento told me that rent will cost us 1400$ monthly , food expenses 800$ ,car expenses 300$. By earnig 5000$-6000$ a month it will be ok for a start. Our expectations are really low and all these years we have leared to spend very little in everything, no new cloths, no restaurants,no new shoes allmost NO!! in everything I would say. So knowing that people in USA spent a lot of money generaly in shoping they tend to have higher stadards than ours in what is basic cost of living. What do you think? The gas price here is 6-7$ per galon
Renting & Real Estate - 3 Answers
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1 :
This might help give you an idea... http://www.bankrate.com/brm/movecalc.asp Greece doesn't sound fun.
2 :
Welcome to America - The Land of the Free, Gold and Honey!!! A total salary of $2000.00 would not get you into the door of a house. Rent is on the range of above $1000 depending on the number of bedrooms. Check www.realtor.com website to get a sight of prevailing rates in the area. Email some realtors also and request for some information. However, please don't tell them how much are your salary. Check the website for Sacramento Bee newspaper and follow the links for houses/apartments for rent.
3 :
You said initially that you earn $400 and your husband earns $1600 a month...but then later you mention earning $5000-$6000. Is your salary increasing with the move? I would assume it will. In any event, I am sure you can make it work here in America. People get by on much less that what you are talking about--at least you'll be starting out debt free--you're already ahead of most Americans in that respect! Sacramento has a very expensive cost of living compared to almost everywhere else in America though. Rent, transportation, food, and entertainment are all more expensive there than in most American cities (save LA, New York, and San Francisco). If you find you can't make ends meet there, then you can always move to a cheaper area in California, or feel free to explore our whole beautiful country!
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