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bramflakes comments on Open Thread March 31 - April 7 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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A question for London LWers:
I have recently created an opportunity for potentially moving from my home in the American South to London, where I would be employed by a fairly prestigious secondary school. Obviously, the prospect of leaving an area of very little opportunity for one of greater opportunity entices me. A lot. However, I have only minimum savings, and my family, reflecting the area, is poor and highly desirous of avoiding change, leaving me to do this alone.
I have not yet had a salary offer. My salary will be determined by my qualifications and I will not be informed of such a decision until some weeks from now. My research has led me to expect a salary between 24,000 and 26,000 pounds annually. As far as I am aware, there is no housing stipend or housing assistance with my employment, though I do not yet know if there is no chance of such assistance being offered or included.
While I do believe this move would be extremely beneficial and an excellent start to my chosen career, my worry is that I could not sustain myself taking on both the move and living in London on such a salary. I only know of two people with experience in London, both of whom have advised me that such a salary is quite low. However, one has little real experience in living in London, and the other has very little to say beyond “You need a housing stipend or some form of housing assistance.”
If you live in London (and especially are familiar with the educational system and the standards of living in the city), I would very much like any information you can give on what I can expect as an American coming out of the US with no experience. I mainly want to determine what the job is worth. Would it only be worth the move if my salary is high and a housing stipend is included? What would my rough estimate of the annal salary cover of my new London expenses? What, exactly, is 26,000 pounds worth to a frugal, informed person in London? What should I expect, not in terms of culture shock, but in terms of financial challenges? Also, if you are an American who moved to London to work, I would very much like to hear how your experience went.
I would appreciate any help.
24k to 26k is low for London. If you're poor already then your standard of living might not change much.
Try using various cost of living calculators to figure out where and how far your money will have to go - I don't know where exactly in the South you come from, but I picked the two Southern states tied for median cost of living (the Carolinas) and stuck some random towns and cities into the calculator. Rent in particular is often 250% higher or more, and your local purchasing power will be in the region of 20-40% lower.
Taxes: The USA has generally lower taxes than the UK, but for the most easily comparable tax - income tax - you'll probably pay roughly the same at the 24-26k level. From what I can tell, National Insurance (UK version of Social Security) is higher UK. VAT (sales tax) is 20% on everything except life necessities (food, insurance, healthcare, childcare goods), which is over double the highest total sales tax rate (Tennessee, 9.44%). VAT is calculated into the display price of the product unlike in some US jurisdictions. These are probably all factored into the cost of living calculator above, but it's worth keeping in mind. All in all, you'll be taking home less of your salary whatever your income level. Healthcare costs are included in the above taxes though, and you'll be entitled to the same treatment as a British citizen in almost all cases.
Since you're (presumably) not a citizen of any EEA country nor a refugee, you can't claim housing benefit upon arrival. You can only get it once you have "habitual residence" status, which means you intend to stay here long-term and have been here for a (intentionally vaguely-defined) "appreciable period of time". So, upon arrival you can forget about any housing stipend unless your employer is generous - you'll have to look into shared accommodation or get really lucky. (Did that London LW house ever get started?)
For transport, your first port of call ought to be the bus network. There's a flat fare across the whole city and it's much cheaper than the tube. Annual fare for an adult is about £800. If for whatever reason you can't use the bus, the tube network is more expensive, and it will also depend on where exactly the school is in London, and where exactly you can get cheap rent. The annual fare will be in the range £1000 - £3000 for an adult, depending on the zones you're travelling to and from. Petrol prices are much higher in the UK than in the USA.
I tried doing a Fermi estimate with a bunch of different estimates of your requirements to figure out how much disposable income you'd have, but they ended up all over the map (negative £2000/year to £4000/year). You can survive, but depending on how much luxury you like to live in I can't say if you'll thrive.
What's the job market for teachers like in your home state, or the US as a whole? If prestigious British schools are willing to take you on, why not American ones?
At the moment, my current income is $10 per hour at forty hours a week. I live with my family so my expenses are low. This allows me to put back money for investing and saving. Not much, but some.
Thanks for the link. That is a very useful tool. I’ll be applying that to other prospects, not just London.
Tax is one aspect I’m still trying to figure out all the small details for. I know that I can expect higher taxes, but I don’t know what I’m getting out of that tax. I have some light, continuous medical expenses, so making certain of my healthcare is fairly important to me. If my current healthcare costs are absorbed by my taxes, I won’t be changing expenses much, as far as tax and medical goes.
No, I am not from any EEA country. Thank you for clarifying how the housing benefits work.
Yep, that was the plan. The area is Barnet, in North London. I’m not sure how far out from the school I’d have to live, but my plan is to bus. If I could get within biking range, I’d switch to cycling, but I suspect Barnet itself to be out of my price range.
I principally want to have money left over for investing, either in personal accounts or actual investments. I do not purchase many luxury goods (as a librarian, I get most of my luxury items on loan), but I do want to plan for the future. Cryonics won’t pay for itself!
To clarify, the job is a librarian position. My state is abysmal as far as prospects. Only one city has any opportunities of note. It is highly saturated with librarians from my alma mater, and the only openings are entry level with extremely poor benefits ($9-$10 per hour, part time, higher expenses than other cities in the state). The South as a whole is little better. Only North Carolina and parts of Virginia have a decent market for librarians and both are saturated with students of the Research Triangle. As I am not an alum from the area, getting in is difficult. I do have other prospects in the works, but they are all State-side so I can calculate their costs on my own, without a second opinion.
As for why the school in the U.K. is interested, I believe (I cannot say for sure as they have only given me basic information) that it is because I’m a foreign citizen with some decent level of experience. I’ve only worked in libraries a few years (since high school), but I’ve made the most of the time and managed to bolster my resume somewhat. I think this and the appeal to diversity (American, Southern, still well educated) might be giving me an advantage, though, again, this is not saying much as I have not yet been offered the job. Only spoken to the Headmaster of the school about the basics of the position.
Doctor's visits, surgery, emergencies and the like are free at the point of use. Prescriptions on the other hand, are usually a fixed price (at the moment £8.05, you might be able to get a low-earner discount though) if you're in England (Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland are free). Other things like dentistry and opticians have their own separate rules.
Prescription is my concern so that's what I needed to know about. Thanks for the info and the link.