relocating to DC - budget for family of 4

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you don’t need private school if you can live in a nice suburb. That will save you 50k+ per year. Enough to entertain having a car. Rent is cheaper in suburb too. 5-7k can get you a 5,000 sqft nice house in great school area. Try the American lifestyle (big house big car). Maybe you will like it. We also moved from a dense European city to here, and found having a car is quite liberating as you don’t need to rely on public transport which is always shared and limited no matter how good it is. Also DC public transport sucks. 100 years backwards compared to Asian cities like Singapore, HK or Shanghai .

This might win as the worst advice I have ever seen on this site.

Saying that OP should live in the suburbs instead of spending $50,000/year on private school is good advice.

[Anonymous]

Consider a smaller property in the McLean area of Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. Excellent public schools, an educated an international population, relatively reasonable commuting into D.C., whether by car or by public transit, and good, safe amenities like parks, libraries, and recreation centers. Fire, Police and Emergency Medical Services are all excellent, although of course you hope you never need them. Proximity to both Reagan National and Dulles International airports can be useful if you travel, and you're also not too far from Union Station for train travel. The tax burden is also generally lower in Virginia than in Maryland or in D.C. itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you don’t need private school if you can live in a nice suburb. That will save you 50k+ per year. Enough to entertain having a car. Rent is cheaper in suburb too. 5-7k can get you a 5,000 sqft nice house in great school area. Try the American lifestyle (big house big car). Maybe you will like it. We also moved from a dense European city to here, and found having a car is quite liberating as you don’t need to rely on public transport which is always shared and limited no matter how good it is. Also DC public transport sucks. 100 years backwards compared to Asian cities like Singapore, HK or Shanghai .

This might win as the worst advice I have ever seen on this site.

Disagree. I think it's good advice to tell OP about the reality of public transportation in DC. Here in DC, public transportation is better than in many American cities. But OP is coming from a dense city in Asia -- DC is very different. Our cities in the US are designed around the car, with the exception of NYC. Sure, you can get by without a car. But why not enjoy the benefits of having a car, so that you can easily go places?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you don’t need private school if you can live in a nice suburb. That will save you 50k+ per year. Enough to entertain having a car. Rent is cheaper in suburb too. 5-7k can get you a 5,000 sqft nice house in great school area. Try the American lifestyle (big house big car). Maybe you will like it. We also moved from a dense European city to here, and found having a car is quite liberating as you don’t need to rely on public transport which is always shared and limited no matter how good it is. Also DC public transport sucks. 100 years backwards compared to Asian cities like Singapore, HK or Shanghai .

This might win as the worst advice I have ever seen on this site.

Disagree. I think it's good advice to tell OP about the reality of public transportation in DC. Here in DC, public transportation is better than in many American cities. But OP is coming from a dense city in Asia -- DC is very different. Our cities in the US are designed around the car, with the exception of NYC. Sure, you can get by without a car. But why not enjoy the benefits of having a car, so that you can easily go places?

It really does depend on where you live. Most here seem to be upper NW folks. Very difficult there. Heck they are even refusing to build bike lanes there. But it is doable if you live in a more central neighborhood with multiple train lines and bike lanes. We only had to buy a car when we moved to upper NW.

[Anonymous]

OP - are you planning on private school? If so, then NWDC west of the park is not worth it. We live in AU Park with one car, two teenagers. 400K HHI, but that includes saving for retirement and college. 4500/month on housing (mortgage, property taxes, insurance). We use public transportation for commuting, our kids no longer do weekend sports but if yours do a car will be important. We cannot afford private school on this income.

We could easily live in close in Bethesda or Takoma Park, MD, but are averse to VA because of bridges and impact on commute.

If you plan on working in an office in downtown DC, a commute from the suburbs is not worth the increased size of the house that you can get for your money IMHO.

[Anonymous]

kuh ki lung. Short and sweet: understand all taxes and the tax deferred options, live in suburbs near metro, go to public school, supplement education on weekends so kids can reintegrate on return, buy a car.

[Anonymous]

Upper NW, you can find 3-4 bedroom home and condos from 5-6k. close to metro and shops. yes, its pricy, but if housing is your biggest cost, you can do it on 225k easy.

Example
https://hotpads.com/4112-chesapeake-st-nw-washington-dc-20016-1mdn6aq/a/pad?baths=2-8plus&beds=3-8plus&border=false&lat=38.9573&lon=-77.0792&propertyTypes=condo&z=15

I lived without a car in DC for years. You can walk, metro, and uber. will still save money over car and insurance.

[Anonymous]

We rent our house in AU park for $6,5K a month and it rented in 2 days when we put it on market. Probably more like $7K a month or maybe even $7.5K.

I’d budget that for housing.

Budget $5000 a month for general living expenses.

If you want to go private it’s $40K per kid. Otherwise public is fine.

So budget $15K a month post tax to be comfortable, call it $180K after tax, or $300K - $350K pre tax.