Salary in London?

[Anonymous]

DH is a finalist for a job in London. What kind of salary should he be looking for to have a lifestyle that's similar to what we can afford in the DMV on $250k? Our house is worth about $1.2m. We expect to rent, not buy, in London. One car. Two kids in public school. I freelance and don't bring in a lot. We'll want to travel as much as possible.

[Anonymous]

My company pays much less in london even relative to the terrible exchange rate for GBP right now. I’d expect a pay cut in this move.

[Anonymous]

I can’t give you a proper figure without knowing if you’ll be on a full expat package with schooling, medical, packing/shipping household plus vehicles (if you plan to bring) etc

Also, how will your tax situation change?

[Anonymous]

OP here. No idea what the offer will be. I want to know what we should ask for (or not take the job at all) if offered. What's a full expat package?

[Anonymous]

You just aren’t going to have a similar lifestyle in London. It’s like moving to NYC in that you have to get used to a much smaller square footage being normal/luxurious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You just aren’t going to have a similar lifestyle in London. It’s like moving to NYC in that you have to get used to a much smaller square footage being normal/luxurious.

It’s worse. It’s as expensive as NYC but white collar salaries are much lower.

OP - I would expect a 20 percent paycut and to pay an additional 10 percent in taxes. So about 30 percent less money plus a more expensive city.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, London is simply outrageous and it's only livable by Brits because they are conditioned to tiny homes and high taxes.

Try for Edinburgh? Same charm, way more livable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As others have said, London is simply outrageous and it's only livable by Brits because they are conditioned to tiny homes and high taxes.

Try for Edinburgh? Same charm, way more livable.

This. And they will go on and on about their free healthcare. There is no point telling them that they’d still take home 25% more money by living in the US and have a much larger home and an extra car. But whatever - free NHS yay.

[Anonymous]

OP here. The job is in London, not Edinburgh. We don't have a choice about location.

We don't need a huge house. (We previously lived in NYC and SF.) But I don't want to have to pay 50% of salary for an apartment in a safe area close to work.

It sounds like maybe they'll offer us less than what DH currently makes? Is that common?

[Anonymous]

How do you even afford 1.2 million house on 250k HHI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you even afford 1.2 million house on 250k HHI?

OP here. 50% down payment and very low interest rate.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure how to answer this. I was under the impression that most people can’t afford a $1.2 million house with a $250k HHI so it sounds like you might not have a typical lifestyle for someone with that HHI. So I guess the first thing to clarify is, what kind of lifestyle are you expecting? We lived in London with a similar HHI and lived in a 2 bed/1 bath flat near Wimbledon with one nice car and no kids. We went on 3-4 vacations a year, ate out often and generally lived a very nice lifestyle. But we definitely were not living in a £1 million detached house. And yes, taxes will be much higher with that income so you do need to plan for that. Saved thousand on healthcare though so that balanced it out a bit.

[Anonymous]

I would say 150k a year, but hard to know if this is realistic without knowing what type of job he is going for and what part of London you are considering. You will definitely be living in smaller accommodation. This guide is quite helpful:

https://dontdisappoint.me.uk/resources/lifestyle/what-is-a-good-salary-in-london/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The job is in London, not Edinburgh. We don't have a choice about location.

We don't need a huge house. (We previously lived in NYC and SF.) But I don't want to have to pay 50% of salary for an apartment in a safe area close to work.

It sounds like maybe they'll offer us less than what DH currently makes? Is that common?

No that’s not common for Americans moving over to London IME.

In law anyway, there used to be a great ex pat package to go work in London.

[Anonymous]

Why are people getting hung up on the 1.2 million house on OP’s current HHI? If someone bought in the DMV in the right place at the right time they would have very good appreciation by now.