Oh, I'm loving how this thread is developing. Thanks everyone for your input so far.
@Britsimon - you summed it up nicely.
Indeed we experienced the Latin flavor in SE Florida when we visited 18 months ago. We actually stayed with a lovely Cuban lady in her house near Brickell Ave, Miami for the first couple of days. While she was fluent in three languages, in general it really felt as if nobody spoke English 'on the street' anywhere we went (i.e. you go to any store or small restaurant and you feel like a foreigner for not speaking Spanish). I actually DO understand and speak a bit of Spanish (thanks to a self teaching course and multiple language studies in Spain in the 1990's and keeping up with it more or less), but I am not really sure if we like to be surrounded by Spanish language all the time...it would certainly make it "feel" like not actually moving to live in the USA in the same way we had imagined - especially since we are fluent in English, which is already our second language.
While we loved
Florida in general, in particular the neatness and cleanliness of the streets, the landscaping and great diversity of housing estates (all of this often commented by others as 'fake' or 'artificial'), I agree that the hot and humid weather can wear you down. We were actually surprised how warm it still was when we visited (which was in Nov/Dec); during our last few days around the Homestead to the Keys areas, it was even a bit muggy. We lived in Brisbane, Australia for over seven years and it certainly often felt a bit too hot and muggy during the long summer months...especially when you are renting and there is NO air conditioning. Then again, we don't like cold winter months ... and when I mean cold I mean 10 to 15C like Sydney (AU) can be like for 5 to 6 months.
California .... has been our alternative 'dream lifestyle state' but just like pointed out by others, it seems one of the most expensive areas to live. In many aspects, California would be the best fit as we too prefer hilly coastal areas to plain flat landscape. Moreover, it seems there is a lot more to explore in and around California.
@Britsimon, I wanted to ask you something. I know you are an IT Consultant currently working with your brother's business. I assume your intention is to be self-employed, so what I am concerned about is the tax situation CA vs. FL, at least for what I aspire to in the future. I have heard lots of companies (and people) moving to other states where the grass is greener apparently in terms of general tax advantages but I am not sure if that only relates to not paying any state income tax.
So I wonder how attractive either state is from an overall tax liability perspective. I have read up on self-employment tax and how to save some by forming an S-Corp.
I am seeing myself working in a home based business (Internet Marketing) in the long run, even though I might have to take up a job initially (which again concerns me with regard to the fact that many employers might not even want to offer any part-time work and/or health care benefits, so that the transition from a part-time job to full-time online earnings might be difficult for that I may have to shoulder federal income tax, state income tax, California S Corporations tax, full self-employment tax and health care premiums on top of that!).
You see, this combination of costs appear like major hurdles for those aspiring to self-employment when I compare moving to the US to returning back to AUS, where I'd receive full medicare benefits no matter if I had an income or not (cost is between zero to 3.5% of gross income, payable at the end of the tax year), where the job is not dependent on health care benefits tied to the employer, where there is no such thing as Social Security and Medicare taxes ('Self-Employment tax').
How are you handling this? From what I remember you were stating some time ago, your monthly expenses are very high (in part due to the fact that you have chosen to live in one of the most expensive places in the US) .... i..e ~$1000 per month in health insurance alone.
I feel that in the long run, if and when we'd make a
very solid 6-figure household income, tax wise alone it would be a better outcome by living in the US,
compared to Australia...where you'd pay an average of 30% in income tax up to the 180k mark and this is where the top tax bracket already kicks in at 47% (plus a 2% 'budget-deficit' levy for the next 3 years, as recently announced).
However, I've never really seen sample calculations of overall tax liabilities if you were self-employed and earned at that level in say California, considering the above mentioned various taxes...heck, there could be yet another income tax at some county or school district level...which makes it all even more complicated - argh!
I never really understood the concept of setting up a Corporation, at least not what they call a C-Corp in the US ... because, what's the point of being taxed as a Corp, when you get again taxed at the personal level for anything that eventually passes through ... I just don't get it for small business as it seems like double taxation for no reason. On the other hand, a simple sole propriety or LLC will cost you self-employment tax on ALL of the gross income, which really will never be capped. Also, I don't understand where there is any benefit to incorporating in another state while being a resident in another.
Well, I guess we can just move to CA initially, just like you said, work out a smart way to high income earnings somehow, invest in property and deal with tax then. I just like to understand what people are referring to when they leave for tax reasons...perhaps many such comments relate to property taxes and such, too.
You see, a few days ago I read some news coverage about property prices in Sydney and Australia in general, which reminds me of your comments on the California property market:
The average (!) Sydney property price now stands at $678,500 (houses on average $800,000 & units on average $576,000) - down about 1% in May, but up 3.8% this year to date, and up 16.6% compared to the same time last year. The average (!) property in all of Australia now stands at $540,000!
BTW...while we found grocery prices in all of Australia ridiculously overprized, compared to most of Europe (not sure about the UK), often up to triple what they charge in Germany (which is ridiculously cheap!), we actually realized that the most common grocery chain in Florida seems to be PUBLIX, with rather steep prices, too. It took a bit of searching for alternative shopping, i.e. we quite liked some of the latino supermarkets and then there was a Walmart here and there (plus a good'ol German ALDI which we found on the Gulf of Mexico).
What are grocery prices and general cost of living in California, compared to FL if you exclude the cost of rental?
I'm going to research job opportunities in either state, too but some quick lookups did confirm what you stated in that FL pays on the low side.
BTW...my wife's employer has US subsidiaries and the main one is located in Orlando - but on two separate occasions they do not seem very keen to be dealing with foreign job applicants despite being one and the same company and her local HR person sending enquiries directly ... which gives us some first not-so-good impressions of what working conditions and management might be like. Just the other day I've read some online ratings of former and current employees, and it was all a mixed bag, but it sounded like a very stressed-out work environment with lots of overtime and restructuring going on.
Hopefully there are much better employers, perhaps this makes the difference between FL and CA....
