I'm planning to move to US from Bangalore, India next year and I'd like to understand what's the typical cost of living in Bay Area (specifically around SJC) for a family of 3. Wife not working and a 2 year old toddler. What could be the monthly cost of living including rent, bills, insurance, car loan EMI and utilities. ## TC in India : 60LPA Experience : 9 yrs Expected base in SJC 180K, bonus 15%, RSUs 85K/3 yrs
Don’t! Stay rich in India instead of being poor in Bay Area.
180k with a family of 3 is poor here. You’re going to be penny pinching here when you could have lived comfortably in India. Wife will complain too since she’ll have to be a full time maid cook and nanny
If you want to buy a house then $350k TC. Otherwise $250k to live comfortably. Rent around here for a family of 3 so 2 bedrooms is around $4000 per month.
2 bedroom rent for a good apartment will be easily 3K a month. Other living expenses including car loan monthly if you watch your expenses can be kept around 2K. But as initial investment you will have to spend on furniture and other household items. On your Banglore salary you will likely see a drop in quality of life. San Jose now a days isn't really a place for families. As bachelors it is great.
RSUs could be higher https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=PayPal,Google,Facebook&track=Software%20Engineer 180K is a number that you can live with comfortably
You can probably find a 2 bedroom apartment in SJ for less than $3000 if you look hard enough. There are plenty of families here in SJ that don’t make 180k
Thanks for the responses. I don't have long term plans.. so no buying houses and all.. I'd possibly come back to India in about 5 to 6 years. I'm guessing I should be able to save my bonus and RSUs every year completely and manage to also save about $1.5K to $2K from monthly pay apart from ESPP. That should be a good deal in return for a few years in the US with some good exposure.
That’s good. Looks like you want to come here for maximising you’re exposure and not really for financial gain. In that case you’ll be fine. But realise for sure that, exposure will come at a cost of doing all household chores by yourself (one could argue that’s exposure too). And if your wife would want to help you with the chores. 180K personally doesn’t seem like a whole lot compared to 60lpa in india. Your life in india would be atleast 5x more luxurious than life here. Also great job with 60lpa in india. I’d love to pick your brain on how to achieve that, since I’d want to move back soon.
Single guy here, who makes 170k base. My rent is $1800 and I barely save $1.5k per month from base after espp and 401k deduction. I don’t live frugally, but no grandeur life either. With family, I find it hard to save 2k from base even if you live rather frugally. Random expenses show up here and there. So ask yourself, do you really want to live frugally for 5-6 years ?
Rent - 3600$ a month for a 2bed (buying similar house will be $1.2M+). A nicer place will be around 4000$ Car - 800$ per month for one car including insurance, gas etc Food - 1000$ per month if you’re frugal and cook Misc / entertainment - 500$ per month Day care - 4000$ per month Even if you skip the day care, don’t expect to be rich here on that salary. There are folks here who make 500+
Those rent/car prices are a bit high. I live in SJ and know 2 bedroom apartments that are $2600. I also spend $550 a month on my Honda 2013, 150 insurance, 150 gas and 250 monthly payments. I think it’s possible for OP
“It’s possible” - sure anything is possible if you drop your std of living. But coming from Blr at 60lpa it will be a huge drop in standard of living
San Jose is allowing construction of ADUs which could be a cheaper alternative so you may want to consider properties that have ADU. You’ll probably see those ADU listed for rent on Craigslist, Airbnb, or Facebook.
Since your wife is not working, I would assume she will take care of toddler and no need of day care, 180k should be sufficient if you are careful with your expenses.
Thanks. Any idea what would the expenses come to a about roughly? That'll help me get an idea how much will I be able to save from the monthly pay (if any) apart from the bonus & RSUs!
Even if wife not working goood to get day care - kids need to interact with other kids.