Living in Bay Area on single income ( should we go back to india)
I moved to Bay Area two and half years ago .My husband is in tech ( non faang)!and on H1B. I waited for two and half years for my work auth based on my husbands i140 . i started interviewing recently , but the results dont seem encouraging so far. Are we better off going to india given our situation . his Tc is 150K ( 4 years experience) . we dont have kids . But with kids , its going to be more expensive . with single income , i feel like we are at the bottom of the pyramid here in the bay area. would like to hear thoughts from others . please dont do any negative criticism. i m trying my best to reach my potential and get a job . he too is trying hard to help me get a job and at the same time trying to improve his skills and raise his TC .
you have a realistic perspective, that’s always a good thing. You need probably 350 K household income to have a middle class existence with a child in the Bay Area. If that’s not realistic your quality of life will be better many other places. Good luck
This is dumb. A lot of families get by with 200k
Dumb? I’m describing middle class. You can get by with nothing. I’ve got a great homeless camp that you would love
You can do it on one income, the biggest expense in the Bay Area is housing, if you can find something for under 3k u can make it on one income.
I see . Can we have better standard of living in India as compared to the situation here . Like being away from every one , poor standard of living and even then not winning it and being at the bottom of the pyramid.
Definitely get a job. You seem to be putting the effort and your husband supports it. Get a job, experience living comfortably in the Bay Area and then make a decision.
Thank you for your support . I will certainly try .
Well, why can't you move away from the Bay Area and look for a job in Texas or some place else. Plenty of Indians doing so all over three place
Try hard, if not try contractor positions for gaining US work exp! Don’t know how worth it is though, new grad here
I interviewed for new grad role in juniper , never knew why I got rejected .
Well you can do better trust me!
With only 4 yoe you don't need to be in a rush to have kids. You can be happy for a little longer! His TC is low. And you don't yet have a job . So you clearly have a lot of room to improve, perhaps even more than double your total income. So it is probably too premature to quit. A few more details will help:- Just curious, why are you finding it difficult to find a job (I assume tech)? Have you tried non tech? And 150 is pretty low by Bay area standards. Why not job change? Need but be Facebook or Google, anything that will give a decent TC lift. Feel free to DM.
Why not move to other cheaper city in US. Even seattle has lower COL and no state income tax.
+1 Bay Area or India seems like a false choice. There are many less expensive places to live where your husband's income won't decrease as much as the cost of living will. Probably more than 90% of American families would find it impossible to live in the Bay Area on their current income (myself included).
Please don’t give up yet. You seem to have the right attitude to achieve the brinksmanship involved in interviewing for tech. It is really not that difficult to get ‘a’ job in our industry. It may seem hopeless, but it does get easy once you break through. Also the ROI on interviewing in tech and securing a job is huge in the Bay Area. Many magnitudes more than any other place in the world.
Kind words , thank you.
Single biggest thing that will help in this situation is not comparing to others in your circle in terms of where they work what car they drive etc. Agree that this is very hard to do when living among a big Desi community. Any time you meet any other Desi there is very high probability that questions like what do you do, where does your spouse work come up with in first 5 mins of talking. But if you take a step back and look at what is important for you to be happy, I think most of the things you think about will change. There are wonderful folks, working as teachers, police, etc, doing a lot more to the community and being paid a lot less than software engineers IMHO. Following TC race is never ending. Find the things that makes and keep you happy should be the guiding principle IMO
If you have EAD, there are non tech opportunities. Have you considered those? Example: pre-school teacher, instructor (math/lang arts), admin jobs..