Moving from United Kingdom to USA. Is it worth it?

.. ahh but you live on the E. Coast, my man. Try the south or midwest.. you could easily get by, nothing lavish but decent food / housing. $13.00 won't cut it in the N. East you're right. Smoking is expensive, don't do it , so I don't have the expense. Which means I won't have the bullsh.t cancer expense either. Try the midwest or south; you won't have to be on assistance or welfare at all.

The US is going through a revamping right now but it's not the apocalypse or anything and it will get better but it's going to be maybe 5 years or so.

I have been to Vegas. Trust me, it is not the kind of environment you want to raise a family in. It got hit hard by the recession. It ain't pretty.

my mother proudly (!) lives on $800 a month. I have no idea how she does it. Granted, her house and car are all paid for, but the bills like insurance, electric, gas, water, must be at least $500/month. With the $300/mo remaining, she manages to keep herself and her dog in fresh vegetables, and still sends some money to her sister in Poland.

For entertainment she gardens, fixes (tinkers with) everything, plays with her stocks and checks on everyone via facebook. She is my hero. ;)
In contrast, my living expenses, even after the house was paid off, are still close to 3K/month!

f stop wrote:


electric, gas and water, in an avg sized house, is nowhere near $500/month. that would be crazy.

i have 120 sq meters and I pay under $200 a month for electric and water, no gas bill. also, for someone living alone, it would be even cheaper (less showers, less laundry, etc.).

regarding medical insurance, I'd have to ask how old your mother is. if she's 65 or over, she's completely covered by Medicare.

assuming your mother doesn't drive a sports car, her car insurance is minimal. again, i don't know how old she is but if she doesn't commute to work every day, she's probably registered as a part time driver. if i knew what state she lived in, i could probably take a good guess at how much she's paying. northeast, maybe $800-$900 a year, midwest/down south, maybe $400 a year.

That would be having an airconditioner in the south.


Think she meant insurance for the house/car.

convex wrote:


i live in the deep south. those are my numbers.

when you have 4000 sq feet house... or like living in igloo/sahara conditions...
even with 115F outside, i don't pay that much...

i'm not sure how much A/C cost in Poland?

How much is your homeowners insurance? Can get very expensive. 10 years ago our electricity bill in Austin was over $300 a month during the summer in a 2br apartment.

Nah,it's not that bad.Last month I had AC running 24/7 and the total electric bill was $305 but AC is a necessity here.Oh ,and the AC unit is like 5 years old,with older one I guess the bill would be higher.

$600-700 a year, i think...


a/c gets more expensive with a 2 stories house and 2 a/c units...

my estimates of my mother's bills are: electric:$150 (summer), internet+phone:$100, water:$100(water cost has been sky-rocketing in FL, and she waters her garden almost every day), gas:$50, car and house insurance:$100.

My electric is over $400/month in the summer, ~$100 in the winter (I have a big house with 3 AC systems. Don't ask, I'm working on it...).

Her home insurance is $600. Mine, hurricane alone is over $6000.. that's why I don't have any.

GOTTA do central air.

two of them are central. The third, the new experiment, is ductless, which I think I'll be switching to.

Who the hell chooses USA now? It's just not worth it imo.

ive an eu pss/p - a british one... easy visa free travel to the states ... but give me a green card and id be there tomorrow - as would most folks

lower taxes, less government, sense of ownership , sense of freedom - nice people , nice country - need say more?

I wouldn't describe US this way. I'm from Poland and EU always wins with USA when I think about place to live. Quite frankly this dream about USA finished good 10 years ago. Most Poles now prefer Europe.

There remain valid reasons why, despite


you do not find hordes of Germans, French, Danes, Finns, Swedes etc. immigrating to the US....