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I was asked to move to Bridgewater, NJ with work (L1 visa) and while I am quite keen to take the offer, I am not sure if the package is good/substancial enough.
Where are you coming from? Dublin, Ireland
Why are you moving? Work transfer - main reason is work opportunity and experience, life in the US, etc.
Where will you be working ? Bridgewater, NJ
Will you buy or rent? Rent
What is your budget ? Max 3000 a month on rent - I am not even sure if we can afford that, salary on offer is 145K/year + 12.5% bonus so ~ 160K/year, pre-tax.
What kind of place are you looking for? A 3bd room house in nice place to raise a family, hopefully community oriented.
Will anyone (spouse, children, pets) be moving with you ? Wife + 3 children (7, 5, 2)
Do you need/want good public schools? Yes good public schools are a priority
Briefly describe the kind of neighborhood you'd like to live in
Ideally a family oriented, with activities for parents & kids. We are an active family. Currently the 2 older kids do loads of extra-curricular activities: swimming, music, football and tennis lessons every week.
I also play squash 3/4 times a week, that's super important for me. The US will be the 4th country I will be moving to and squash has been always a social outlet. My wife likes running & coffee :-) She's not working at the moment but she has American citizenship so in the future she could work. She's Irish, I'm Chilean, kids are raised bilingual and that's also something super important for us.
List three things that are important to you in order of importance.(examples: nightlife, outdoor activities, rural/urban, safety, downtown area, charming, new construction, proximity to XYZ, family oriented, easy parking, short commute, etc)
Family oriented
Outdoor activities
Downtown area would be great.
Questions
Is the money I am making enough to sustain the life style we have now in Ireland? We are quite comfortable in Dublin, I don't want to make the leap and have to start to worry about money, or have to send the kids to private schools etc. We drive a 2008 car and we are quite frugal on the day to day life. We probably go out twice a month for something to eat, and we do go on holidays every year. That's probably is our biggest expense.
I estimated the salary after tax will be between 8500 to 9000 a month, 800 of that will go to healthcare. A part of me thinks that is crazy money but again I am worried that won't be enough. Is it crazy that I am worried ?
What towns close to Bridgewater would you consider that are in my budget? I like Morristown but I am not sure about the schools. I had a look at Princenton, it looks great but I am not sure if it's in my budget. It's the typical catch 22 :-)
Overall Bridgewater is a good location,,, you can easily be a half lour away and in fairly much anything from rural to the west or urban to the east. A very quick glance , I havent read it all yet, Id go for it.
Check out Martinsville. It's a nice wooded area. There's a small (very small) downtown area with pizza shops, restaurants, and a nice ice cream place that sells food as well (Gabriel's Fountain). The Bridgewater schools are good public schools as well. Another town to check out is Warren. It's right next to Bridgewater so your commute won't be too long. The public schools are excellent and the center of town is pretty developed with most of what you need. They've also got quite a bit of community activity as well. I checked 3 bedroom rents in both areas, there's houses you can get that are in your budget. Good thing about both communities are houses are spread out so you (depending on the lot) have decent space for the kids to run around and privacy from your neighbors.
I'm from Dublin, so feel free to PM me. I live in one of the surrounding towns from Bridgewater and fairly happy here with our 2 boys and hubby. The salary you listed is quite doable here as ours is similar but only have 2 kids though. I know how expensive Dublin is, but so is NJ too. This is coming from me who lived in several different major cities like Boston, NYC, D.C and now NJ.
I used to work in Morristown, while the lifestyle living is pretty good. The schools isn't. Several families I knew were sending their kids to private schools which is very $$$ like in the tune of 25K for non secular private and 10K+ for parochial private. Bridgewater has a good housing stock, schools is good but HUGE district. The High School alone is well over 3K, whereas our town's sending HS is much smaller; around 700 students which is nice as it's small enough to get lots of attention from teachers, coaches, guidance counselors and enough openings in clubs/sports for kids to get in.
At any rate, look into Bridgewater, Martinsville, Warren, and Branchburg.
You might like The Hills in Bedminster, nice townhouse community with kids & adults activities, pool, recreation. Great schools. Minutes from Bridgewater.
Thank you all for the feedback, it's really appreciated.
I should be in Bridgewater before the move, so I'll definitely check the areas you mentioned. They all look appealing.
mommy2be1053: you might be receiving a pm from my wife soon - thanks for that!
I think that captne76's recommendation of Bridgewater Township is both valid and trustworthy.
However, I would recommend that you ignore educational advice from anyone who states..."schools is good".
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- thanks for that!
