Can two income family from Dallas make it in London on one income?

Would appreciate some advice regarding possible move to London from Dallas.    Spouse is entertaining offer from London based company for London based position.  We are a two income family with two children 15 & 13 at home & one in college (ASU).

As an attorney - not sure whether I would be able to secure any similar type employment in London area.  Anyone have any suggestions or relate difficulties of non-employed spouse securing employment once landed?

Web based cost of living calculators translate Dallas $1.00 to London  $1.50  Can anyone confirm this or suggest a more realistic number?

Was an ex-pat as a child in the 60's and while I would like my children to benefit from the experience, times are different and ex-pat costs are much greater than my parents (for instance, 100% of housing costs were paid by employer - so parents kept home in US vacant for 5+ years while we lived in Europe)

Hi
I will start off by saying it all depends on how much your husbands salary will be, and what standard of living you enjoy. London in general is expensive. Housing and transport are expensive. Schools (if private) are expensive. Taxes both on income and goods is expensive. Jobs are available but I dont think you will find employment in your field in the UK. There might be someone else more qualified here to answer that question. I do agree that living here is a great experience. Its a huge decision to make. How do your children feel about moving? How will the move affect their choices of college?

Hi
I will start off by saying it all depends on how much your husbands salary will be, and what standard of living you enjoy. London in general is expensive. Housing and transport are expensive. Schools (if private) are expensive. Taxes both on income and goods is expensive. Jobs are available but I dont think you will find employment in your field in the UK. There might be someone else more qualified here to answer that question. I do agree that living here is a great experience. Its a huge decision to make. How do your children feel about moving? How will the move affect their choices of college?

Good point! I met an american teenager in the library not long ago, she had noticed my accent, and started talking to me, she moved here with her family because her dad got transferred here, I asked her how she liked it, school and everything, she said it was ok, but next year she was turning 18 and going back home to the states.

I will start off by saying it all depends on how much your husbands salary will be

Or, it depends on how much the wife's salery would be (sorry--just covering the bases)

I'm not familiar with London prices, but it certainly does depend on your income, the benny package, and the lifestyle you would like to live.  How far is the bread-winner willing to commute?  Can an attorney find work with the Embassy, serving American's living abroad?  Do you need a car?  How large of a home do you require?  These will all come into play when deciding these things.

There are a lot of things to concider with the move, and it is possible that you can negotiate a better pay package or bennys based on your needs.

Good luck!!

Thanks - figured the "spouse" reference would screw someone up - yes - its the wife that has the opportunity not the attorney/husband.

I Would appreciate comments that anyone might have regarding the likelihood of obtaining any employment once landed.   I've heard that "work permit" is difficult to obtain once your in UK.  Not limiting myself to employment opportunities in law, however, if any US licensed attorneys out there who obtained license in UK and familiar with the process/difficulty (last bar exam was long ago!)?

I found from my own experience as a child as well as experience of my own children when moved to Texas that any change is considered "bad" and therefore not openly embraced.  However, in retrospect, as an adult, I was glad my father had us move like gypsies every year.  Thus, I assume exposure to alternative cultures would be a good thing in the long run.

A good point brought up about schools - in my time I was in elementary school and found when I returned I was somewhat behind my US counterparts. What present experience is there in (1) transitioning from US public high school to UK private school from an academic standpoint and then (2) translating the UK high school for admission to US college?   Currently the 15 year old is no. 1 in his class and the 13 year old is in top 5% of his - will they fall into a lower strata if entered into a UK private school (are the private schools referenced as "public")?  Since we are currently looking at this as simply a temporary 2 year move (cause there's no place like the USA) we want to make sure kids' formal education isn't all screwed up.   

Anyway - would appreciate any advice/relating experiences that anyone wants to give.   Assume most of the members on this site are in UK due to private sector and not military.  In my time, private sector families were the minority to military families.

I can't give much advice on the job market for attorneys (solicitors?) for you.   However, as someone who's just moved to London from Chicago, I would say our experience has been tough.  We are living on my income (and yes, I'm the wife) and my husband's grad school stipend (now nearly nothing thanks to the cost of living increase here).  In Chicago on this salary we would be living very comfortably.  We are now living on the same salary in dollars - no cost of living increase from the US despite the (in my opinion) nearly doubled expenses and higher taxes.  It's difficult.  Salaries are definitely lower here than in the US when you take into account expenses.    Not trying to dissuade you, but it is tough.  Again, as others have said, as far as living on one salary, it all depends on the size of the salary.

Re: work permit, if you are going on your wife's work permit, you should not need to get one for your employment.  My husband is here as my dependent (I am on the work permit) and he has the right to work based on that.  He does not need to get another work permit when he gets a position here (which I pray will be soon). 

dcprince, welcome to the forum. It's a good place to get information. I'm moving over in January and have found loads of useful information here. My niece is an attorney stateside but she has a couple of friends who are living and working in London. They are working for US companies but based in the UK. That may be an avenue for you to explore. I'll see if I can get some info from her about who her friends work for.

Good luck!

We moved to London from Fort Worth in August. Cost of housing here is a MUCH larger percentage of income than in Texas. [sighs nostagically for the house left behind]

It really all comes down to the salary of your wage earner. What are your requirements for a place to live? Do you need a garden? How many bedrooms? rent can get pricey quickly in the safer, better areas of London. Check out www.rightmove.co.uk to get an idea of rental or purchase prices for property that meets your needs. Do you want to live in London our outside with the wage-earner commuting in? What are the plans for schools for the kids? Many London schools (what we would call "public schools" in Texas) are oversubscribed. Private school fees can run as much as 7000GBP per term and there are three terms per year.  What about transportation? Will your wage earner use public transportation? That costs (example - weekly travel card from Zone 3 is 25 pounds). If you live outside of London and the wage earner takes the train in, annual travel cards for National rail can run 1500-2500 pounds per year.

Overall, I find food and utilities to be less expensive. Council Tax varies depending on where you are, but it is a lower percentage of our budget than Property Tax was in Texas. Ultimately the cost of renting/buying in London more than eats up any savings in the other areas.

HTH