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My husband is currently spending 900/month on his commute (gas and tolls) and non of it is pre-tax as it's driving. I'm not counting the wear on car. He's also getting NYC resident tax (500/mo out of his check)...so really moving to Jersey would save us $900/mo just in commute and tax (counting $500 for my commute). The kids do lots of activities which costs a lot here in bk (each kid 1k/mo in activities plus daycare and afterschool). The reason for 600 budget is that our place is paid off here and I don't want to get into another mortgage w/ 12k/ year property tax. So that's really all of it. My skills are not all that marketable in jersey. I doubt I'd get another job.
So wait, you're moving to NJ to avoid property taxes!?!?!?! Just about the only thing that costs less in NYC than it does in NJ is the property taxes! A house in Cranford in the $550-$650K range will easily cost you $10-$15K a year in property taxes. Moving to NJ and trading the commute and crazy property taxes for the break on the NYC resident tax makes a lot more sense if you make a lot of money because those are the people who get dinged the most on the 3.8% from the city. Otherwise, say you only make $200K a year combined, your property taxes and commuting costs and house maintenance costs will eat up whatever you will be saving in NYC income tax.
My husband is currently spending 900/month on his commute (gas and tolls) and non of it is pre-tax as it's driving. I'm not counting the wear on car. He's also getting NYC resident tax (500/mo out of his check)...so really moving to Jersey would save us $900/mo just in commute and tax (counting $500 for my commute). The kids do lots of activities which costs a lot here in bk (each kid 1k/mo in activities plus daycare and afterschool). The reason for 600 budget is that our place is paid off here and I don't want to get into another mortgage w/ 12k/ year property tax. So that's really all of it. My skills are not all that marketable in jersey. I doubt I'd get another job.
Even if your place is paid off, you still own property taxes on it. Am I missing something?
My husband drops them off. He leaves for work at 9. So that's not a problem. That's how we do it now. I was thinking I'd pay for after care till 6:30 in case of delay and if it's a crazy delay, husband can leave work early and get them. He normally leaves work at 6 but it's flexible.
Another thing to consider.. If your child gets sick and needs to be picked up from school, you are way too far. Your husband can make it from Mahwah in 40-45min which is probably fine, but he needs to be prepared that it's his responsibility.
Another thing to consider.. If your child gets sick and needs to be picked up from school, you are way too far. Your husband can make it from Mahwah in 40-45min which is probably fine, but he needs to be prepared that it's his responsibility.
He is. He is the hands off type. Like I said, with my current location it would take me an hour to get to my kids if one of them is sick. I also have in Laws in Jersey - 30 min drive from any of the above listed locations.
He is. He is the hands off type. Like I said, with my current location it would take me an hour to get to my kids if one of them is sick. I also have in Laws in Jersey - 30 min drive from any of the above listed locations.
Good luck, it's a tough situation to figure out! You can pan me if you have any specific questions about Livingston.
So wait, you're moving to NJ to avoid property taxes!?!?!?! Just about the only thing that costs less in NYC than it does in NJ is the property taxes! A house in Cranford in the $550-$650K range will easily cost you $10-$15K a year in property taxes. Moving to NJ and trading the commute and crazy property taxes for the break on the NYC resident tax makes a lot more sense if you make a lot of money because those are the people who get dinged the most on the 3.8% from the city. Otherwise, say you only make $200K a year combined, your property taxes and commuting costs and house maintenance costs will eat up whatever you will be saving in NYC income tax.
That's not what I said. We currently pay property tax (5k) plus he pays city tax (5-6k/year) and we don't get any services in return. The public school has 30 kids per class and no extra curriculars, the cops don't care and the streets are filthy. My husband pays about a G a month for commute. So moving would give us space, better schools, less crime, reduction in commute cost by $500/mo, and the tax diff is almost made up. So same price...way better environment for the kids. We make less than 200k a year combined. I've done the calculations, it wouldn't be much more for us to move to Jersey. I only mentioned the costs b/c you were saying my commute cost will be insane. It won't crazier than our current commute costs. Anyway like I said, I'm not asking IF I should move. I'm asking where.
Good luck, it's a tough situation to figure out! You can pan me if you have any specific questions about Livingston.
Thanks! I definitely will. Livingston is in the lead for now. I will want to try out the Harrison drive myself before I decide. We still have about a year and a half as the little one is still in daycare.
Radburn to Hoboken express is 30 minutes, local is 40 minutes. Express trains are packed and the first one is at 7:10 am which would be too late for the OP. I would give these realistic estimates:
Drive to a Fairlawn station: 10min (incl park/walk/wait)
Train to Hoboken: 40 min
PATH to WTC: 25 min (incl walk/wait)
WTC to A,C,2,3,R; 10 min (incl walk/wait)
Subway to Bklyn: 10 min?
Walk to work: 10 min
Total: 95 minutes or about an hour and a half at the very least.
But you have to realize that this you will be relying on the public transportation from three different transit agencies with different ticketing options. And the tri state is not exactly Japan or Switzerland. As is typical for US mass transit, all of these agencies are short on budget, overcrowded during rush hour and have plenty of deferred maintenance. I would count on a delay somewhere at least once a week. In summary, in my opinion, a commute like that every day would be nightmare that would seriously degrade your quality of life.
Those times look about right, basically an hour and half give or take. But have you actually done this commute on a daily basis for an extended period of time? Because I have for the last 2+ yrs (not the Subway to Bklyn), and it is nowhere close to having the weekly delays you speak of. I'm not talking about the occasional 1 or 2min delays, but +10min delays. The Main/Bergen NJT line does not share tracks w/ Amtrak which generally shields it from the massive delays the other NJT lines experience, and PATH to WTC has been pretty spot on.
I just don't understand the motivation for these kinds of commutes! Yikes!
At some point you really have to ask yourself why you're both working. The way it sounds is that if you live near your job, hubby gets 4 hours commuting. Live near hubby's job, wife gets 3-4 hours of commuting (actual, real life door to door commute to brooklyn from NJ). Wouldn't you rather just live more modestly and see your kids 4 more hours a day?
I'm not saying the wife should quit, just that one spouse should. Or at least find a job closer to home, even if that job pays 50% of what that person currently makes. I mean seriously, these kinds of commutes are 20 hours a week!!! Why not live life and forget about maximizing the amount of green paper you earn!
I've been thinking about this one. How do you figure you'd see the kids for 4 more hrs a day? School starts at 8am. My husband sees them until they get in the building. This wouldn't change if he worked 10 minutes away. I leave at 6:30 for work. If I worked 10 minutes away, I'd get too see the kids for 20 minutes at 7:15am (if you have kids you know this is not a great time to socialize with them). If we both worked 9-5 10 min away, I'd then see my kids at 5:30ish for the 2.5 hrs till bedtime as I do now with an hour long commute. My husband would indeed gain 2 hrs in the evening with the kids. If we live in Jersey, mornings would be the same, and in evening I'd get them at 6 (a 30 minute loss of supervising homework) and he'd see them at 6:45-7. He's lost 45 minutes with them on his commute. Grand total lost with children per day with current commutes = 2h20m and Jersey - 1h15m. Nowhere near 4 hrs.
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