Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all these responses. Several of you provided very helpful comments. I had not realized public schools there were so hard to get into. What do most expats do for school? Pay? Should we negotiate for school fees too?

The office is near the London School of Economics. We are hoping to live near there so commute isn't hours long.

I used to teach in London and, unless you wanted to go to Thomas’s in Battersea which is amazing, no, I would absolutely not pay for private. Instead, I recommend doing whatever you can to get into an Ofsted rated outstanding (or good) public school. The Ofsted reports can be found on the school’s website in the statutory info section. Wandsworth has some really great ones. Belleville and Earlsfield Primary are the two I would try to get my kids into.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all these responses. Several of you provided very helpful comments. I had not realized public schools there were so hard to get into. What do most expats do for school? Pay? Should we negotiate for school fees too?

The office is near the London School of Economics. We are hoping to live near there so commute isn't hours long.

Everyone I know who lives there has private school paid for by the company. I’ve never heard of anyone going to public school in London.

500,000 pounds

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all these responses. Several of you provided very helpful comments. I had not realized public schools there were so hard to get into. What do most expats do for school? Pay? Should we negotiate for school fees too?

The office is near the London School of Economics. We are hoping to live near there so commute isn't hours long.

You’re not going to want to live near the LSE. There is no residential neighbourhood there (Holborn). I mean, there are some flats but it’s not a place to live with a family. Holborn is literally in the centre so you can live basically anywhere in zone 2 or 3 (look at a tube map) and you’ll be within good commuting distance. I don’t think your salary will permit you to live in one of the close in neighbourhoods that would make the commute really short like Islington or Notting Hill, but look around. I think that many Americans go to the American School in St John’s Wood so you might want to negotiate for those fees, or for other private school fees.

OP here. Thanks for all these responses. Several of you provided very helpful comments. I had not realized public schools there were so hard to get into. What do most expats do for school? Pay? Should we negotiate for school fees too?

The office is near the London School of Economics. We are hoping to live near there so commute isn't hours long.

We did this and the big thing we negotiated was housing. Like PP's have said, the salaries are low and taxes are high and school boundaries tiny. My employer was unwilling to up salary since mine was high for London going in -- though that was then cut heavily due to taxes. Max out the housing allowance. For us with 3 kids we got about $5k/mo for housing which gave us a lot more areas to look around in for a bit more space. And the NHS is truly terrible and you pay for that in taxes. See if your employer will pay for private insurance on top of the NHS.

Salaries are much lower in London and taxes higher. That said, I'd rather live in London than anywhere else in the US. PPs are correct about much smaller houses.

Not sure what your rental budget will be but 3k GBP/month should get you 2 bed/2 bath in a good zone 2/3 location. As PPs have noted state schools can be good but there are very tight distance criteria to get in (essentially they draw a circle of about 150m from the school and everyone in that circle can reasonably assume they can get in). Tricky after that. Rightmove etc have good school checkers on their website to help you.

I’m from London. A lot depends on where you would be happy to live and what sort of accommodation you’d be happy with. Also depends on what schools you want because the best public (state) schools are difficult to get into as admissions are based on proximity to the school, with some of the best schools only taking people within a few hundred metres, after places are allocated for siblings and special needs. London is a huge city with very good public transport, so most people with families live relatively far out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

Ok well if you have rich parents why are you stressing

She didn't say she paid $1.2M, she said its worth that. My house is worth $1M and I paid $600k and have a 2.25% interest rate. Focus on the actual question.

OP, I'd need to know what a decent townhouse/apartment costs before I could really answer this question.

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP,

Money is not everything. Just do it! It's a great adventure. And if you don't like it, you can come back after 2 years. Life is simply different in Europe/UK and I would not want to miss the experience. Assuming your kids are still little, I would just go. I took my family to Europe for two years and we all loved it. This kind of experience is hard to measure with money.

Good luck!

I actually think this kind of experience is pretty easy to measure with money Seems irresponsible to ignore the financial impact this has on your family and your ability to fund retirement savings, save for your children's college and so on. Cutting my discretionary income substantially for several few years would have a huge impact on these things - and that isn't something I could chalk up to a "life experience".

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?

It depends on the field. For me, salaries were easily half in the UK what they are in the US. I told a recruiter my salary range as an individual contributor, and he was like yeaaaaahhhhh that's more than the director makes.

Hi OP,

Money is not everything. Just do it! It's a great adventure. And if you don't like it, you can come back after 2 years. Life is simply different in Europe/UK and I would not want to miss the experience. Assuming your kids are still little, I would just go. I took my family to Europe for two years and we all loved it. This kind of experience is hard to measure with money.

Good luck!

I make $175k in the midwest and had an offer earlier this year in London for $92k. Such a waste of time, but it did seem that across the board similar roles have significantly lower pay

Not all London is the same. My sister and I both lived in Zone 2, but she and her husband (earning a lot more than I) lived in Westminster while I lived in Tower Hamlets. Rent premium is about 50% west vs east. My cousin, also working in London, was over an hour away by train where things were about half price.

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

Ok well if you have rich parents why are you stressing