Asking for advice from anyone whos made a similar move from the UK or Ireland to the US.
Travel tips, packing tips, cultural information, doing your own taxes etc etc
Thank you in advance for anyone that offers advice!
Asking for advice from anyone whos made a similar move from the UK or Ireland to the US.
Travel tips, packing tips, cultural information, doing your own taxes etc etc
Thank you in advance for anyone that offers advice!
Be prepared for lots of people telling you they are Irish and then repeating lots of annoying Irish stereotypes, like they are extremely lucky, drink a lot, have terrible tempers and hate the British. Just play along.
Be prepared to receive a lot more attention from the opposite sex when they hear your accent.
Ignore the people saying you need to make 200k. That’s just hogwash. The median household income is about 70k.
As someone else has stated your taxes should be easy to do with TurboTax except that the terminology can be really confusing at first.
Make sure that you have health insurance. I can’t stress this enough. Being from Europe you get lulled into a false sense of security where healthcare is basically free and no-one really thinks about it much. In the US an overnight stay at a hospital can cost 10-20k without insurance and even with insurance you may have to meet a deductible of many thousands of dollars before insurance kicks in. A serious medical situation can bankrupt you, without insurance. When you go to the doctor they will want to see your ID, your insurance card and your credit card before anything else.
Unless you live in a few big cities, you will definitely need a car. Since you will have no driving record, insurance history or credit score you might find car insurance really expensive at first.
Passing the driving test in the US is trivial, but as you are probably aware they drive on the wrong side of the street, which can take a little getting used to. Just be a little more careful than normal when turning left to make sure you don’t turn into oncoming traffic. Also be careful as a pedestrian crossing the street, you WILL look the wrong way
That’s all I can think of for now.
Good luck and welcome to the USA.
Nailed it. Nice work!
This has definitely been the funniest, broadest advice I’ve gotten so far thank you. I didn’t even think of insurance till now so I’ll definitely keep that in mind.
The 100k-200k a year thing was baffling to me to say the least, i was assuming they were like city centre paychecks
I got insurance through ACA. I opted for the gold policy. Luckily that year my bill was only $12,000 so only had to pay around 10%.
I had a chest x-ray took 2 minutes $1,200.
Be absolutely sure you get health insurance immediately even if you think you’re young and fit. Shit happens.
My income was about $65k and it was difficult to make ends meet. Just south of Cleveland, Ohio for reference.
The only thing I’d disagree with is the income in this statement. While the median is $70k, it doesn’t mean people are doing well. The vast majority of people can’t afford a $500 emergency because of how wages haven’t kept up with inflation over the past 50 years or so. I made $80k last year living in Denver and while I was comfortable, it would still take me a decade to save what I need for a down payment on a house. It’s just really expensive to live in the US compared to the UK/Ireland. I think they’ll be surprised how little they’ll get at the grocery store for $50.
I grew up in Colorado and fled as an economic refugee to the Midwest 6 years ago. Good move. But it’s starting to get more expensive here too.
It’s happening everywhere slowly but surely. Even my hometown of Nashville is turning into Denver with the cost of living.