Life in London
 

I'm moving to an outskirts of London.
I've been there only one time for a couple of days on business and have no relatives or friends. My knowledge not only London but also UK is very limited. Still, I have to start my life there. So my request is your contribution to picture economics in London. For example;
average salary for IT manager
rent for a 1 bedroom flat
dinning and winning,
transportation (metro, car including various fee like tax and insulance, bycycle etc)

Sign up to www.americanexpats.co.uk

A lot will depend on whereabouts you are, both in terms of housing and local transportation. "Outskirts of London" could be anywhere within an enormous area.

Some other sites to get you started are
www.tfl.gov.uk (the main London Transport site)
www.upmystreet.co.uk: links to various sorts of information for any local area, and to messageboards for local
residents

For salary information, you'd need to look at job adverts in the specialist press. You might know better than I what those are, but you could start with www.computerweekly.com

Also: http://www.computing.co.uk/

Both Computing and Computer Weekly are weekly trade magazines targetted at people working in your industry, and will include job ads. You can buy these magazines at most newsagents such as WHSmiths.

Question, as you are asking about salaries, do you have a work permit?

check out http://talk.uk-yankee.com/

average salary for IT manager - no idea.

rent for a 1 bedroom flat - depends where. Somewhere really nice like Kew - up to £2000pcm, somewhere like Penge £450 pcm. I would guess the average would be around £7-900

dinning and winning, Beer's aboput £3 a pint - wine the same for a glass. Meals out range from a rubly or chines at around £20 a head with drinks (and there WILL be drinks!) tyhrough to £150 a head for three start places.

transportation (metro, - One week 1-3 zone travel card £26. Cabs are expensive.

car including various fee like tax and insulance, - Tax is based on things like the greeness of the car etc, and insurance on your record - as a foreigner you'd be considered high risk, so expect a nasty surprise. If you are planning on driving into central london remember that there is an £8 daily congestion charge to enter the central zone.

Make sutre you are paid in pounds - dollars are next to worthless here (ie One pound is worth what you would normally spend about $2.50 on)

Or a $1.80

Firstly, do you know which "outskirts" you'll be living?
Rents--make note many real estate agents quote rents par week. multiply by 52 and divide by 12 to get calendar month equivalent.
Car--I won't recommend driving into central London because of parking hassles and congestion charges (£8 daily).
Income Tax--10% for the first £2150, 22% for £2151-33300, 40% above that. Plus you'll pay council tax and national insurance.

www.jobserve.co.uk or www.cwjobs.co.uk will give you loads of data about the sort of money which IT managers can earn; you put in the keywords which relate to your specific skills, they'll show you job ads which meet those criteria (perm & contract)

Thank you all for tipps regardless of my abstruct questions caused from my ignorance about life in London/UK.
I'm in the stage of negotiating my salary with the UK Headquarters. My workplace will be in Berkshire. (Maybe you don't say it's "outskirt" of London...)
London or UK is famous for its high living costs. Before posting this ad, I surfed the local estate agencies and retailors just to grab some idea. No flat under 750 pounds was found. Bike costs at least 150 pounds. It was way more than what I had expected.
I have no idea how the taxation works in UK. (As far as I understand, taxation in Europe is high and after taxation your salary gets half in some countries.) If enough finance cannot be secured, I should take a second thought to accept the job. That's why I wanted to receive tipps from locals.

Many thanks anyway!

Hi wh, if you are a US citizen I strongly suggest that you talk to your accountant regarding taxes for US citizens that work in other countries outside of the US. The IRS rules get a bit complicated. Best wishes to you with your new venture.

Berkshire has nothing to do with London. It is relatively near to it, but is by no means a suburb of London as you implied.

As for taxation, it depends how much you earn... if your salary/unearned income takes you into the top band, then it's 40 per cent on all income that falls into that band. I'm not sure why you're moving to Berkshire; if the job's there, then why the worry about commuting?

Take studio flats if that's practical, these will be much cheaper. How much research have you actually done?

Now, you don't say where in Berksire which even though it is close to London is not classed as the 'outskirts' (that tends to be limited to towns within the M25,but even that's pushing it) but if you're talking Bracknell or Reading expect to pay over 750gbp for a nice one bed flat - my daughter rents a very nice flat in Camberley (Surrey)for that price.

Windsor/Maidenhead you will pay more.

Location,Location,Location.

wh: Now you say it is really Berkshire. Tell us what town - that will make a big difference re both where you should look for a flat and how much it might cost.

But - if you are negotiating w/ a firm in Berkshire theyshould be able to help you find a flat or at least refer you to an estate agent.

Unless you are a real big-wig you can estimate on losing around 25%- 35% of your salary to taxes and national insurance (although I do believe that the USA will tax you even if you are living and working abroad, so find out about that now. My sister-in-law is a US citizen and complains about having to pay tax in both countries!) Even if you are in the 40% tax band as mentioned by someone else, that doesn't apply to all your earnings, only the bit that is over the lower tax band limit. So most people lose roughly 25%. Don't forget you'll get free medical treatment here from the NHS though, so that is one USA cost that you won't need to pay out here.

Depending on the town and area within the town, you should be able to find a houseshare from around £320 a month and a small bedsit/studio flat from around £600.

You'll find the exact rules on eligibility for NHS treatment here:

http://digbig.com/4gxhg

It's not totally free for most people, but what payments there are at the point of use (for prescriptions, optical and dental treatment) are at fixed rates and relatively small.

Don't forget, you also need to make sure you have a TV licence: you'll need to clarify with a landlord whether that's covered by the rent or not.

As said above, you will still have to file a tax return with IRS if you are a US citizen, but you won't be taxed twice for the same income. For a start, the first $80K of income earned abroad is exempt from US tax. After that you can claim foreign tax credit on your US return. The whole thing is pretty complicated, so you will probably need help in filing. There are accountants and lawyers in the London area who specialize in US tax matters.

wh, you haven't told us where you are coming from. Many here are assuming you are coming from the US, but I'm not sure English is your first language. Would I be correct?

Expect to pay about 25% of your income in taxes. Income tax rates do vary according to how much you earn and how much tax free allowance you are entitled to, but 25% is a good guide.

If you're prepared to tell us how much your company is offering to pay you, we can give you an idea of what will actually be in your paypacket per month, and how you can live on it.

And a town name would help enormously too! Berkshire is a lovely county, by the way, but there are nice and not so nice towns, so we can help you with advice on where to look for accomodation.

Presumably your company will help you find a property through some kind of relocation service?

i know it's not the main point of this thread but many, many people commute from berkshire to london. probably 1/2 the people in sunningdale work in the city. so i do consider much of berkshire a commuter suburb of london.

but since you are working in berkshire this does not concern you. if you tell us where your company is, we can suggest towns that might fall into your budget (not totally sure what that is). berkshire is a big place so if you want a minimal commute, you need to be more specific.

as others have said, berkshire ranges from the very posh and expensive (ascot and sunningdale) to ugly and functional (slough), to the downmarket (you know who you are).

do try to get paid in £ (no matter where you come from). or at least get an expense allowance payable in £. the last thing you need to worry about is watching the exchange rate and seeing your salary dwindle...of course it can go up but who wants to take a risk.