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US relocation budget: city-by-city cost guide (NYC, SF, Austin, Miami, Seattle)
Moving to the United States costs more, and in more categories, than most people budget for. This guide builds a complete relocation budget and applies it to five very different cities, New York, San Francisco, Austin, Miami, and Seattle, so you can compare the real cost of landing in each.
What you’ll learn
- A line-by-line relocation budget template you can reuse
- Government, visa, and credential-evaluation fees to expect
- Typical first-month housing cost: rent, deposit, and broker fees by city
- Health-insurance costs before an employer plan begins
- Cost-of-living comparison across NYC, SF, Austin, Miami, and Seattle
- How much cash buffer to hold before your first US paycheck
- Shipping vs buying new: what is actually worth bringing
It accounts for the expenses people forget: government and visa fees, flights and shipping, the first month's rent plus a security deposit (often without US credit), furniture, health insurance before an employer plan starts, and a buffer for the weeks before the first paycheck. You will finish with a spreadsheet-style framework you can adapt to any city and salary.
Educational content only, these guides are not legal advice.Read the full disclaimer →
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