Here's my basic situation, I was born in the United States but have not lived there for a significant amount of time (two decades), as my parents emigrated to Hong Kong to start their own company.
I'm looking to travel with my possible future spouse, who has family in the United States but has no citizenship of her own.
By all accounts, it'll be a difficult challenge so I'm open to the idea of structuring it as a long-term working holiday. Obviously, going all the way and moving back permanently would be much preferred.
Legally
I have US citizenship, a passport, social security number but it pretty much ends at that.
Assets
My family no longer has a US address or home, so I would be looking at renting or maybe buying a cheap house.
Naturally, this means that I won't have any other assets or belongings at all in the US. No car, no furniture, and whatever we can bring with us on the flight over.
Employment
I majored in Business and minored in German at a Taiwanese university. I'll be honest, I'm not too sure about my prospects here. I've been looking at some jobs related to IT support or global trade.
My possible spouse has a degree in education, and she's interested in the idea of teaching Chinese in the states.
Financially
I'll realistically have an emergency cash reserve of $50k to $100k USD. This would be used for rent, food and other expenses while we're in the process of securing employment. This isn't a hard limit, but we're not exactly made of money either. It'll also mostly come from both our families, so we'd like to reduce the amount of reserve we have as much as possible.
Skills
I am bilingual in both Chinese and English at native or near native levels, with preference to English. I have some experience repairing and troubleshooting computers, and I have also done some translation work in the past. She is a native Chinese speaker with average to above average English, with a lot of experience teaching.
We both have work experience (technical support, customer service, translation, tutoring), but I'm not sure how well it translates to a resume in the states.
Basically, I'd like to ask how I would navigate the financial challenges of a clean slate start in the United States. We don't have any real restrictions on where we'd like to live (though safety is important), and we're used to small accommodations.
My rather rough estimates puts rent at $1,000 per month, utilities at $300, and food at $600. With a conservative income estimate of $15k multiplied by two (two minimum wage salaries), living in the states seems doable. What parts of the equation am I missing? Is minimum wage really enough to start a life in the United States?
Sorry for all the text! A heartfelt thanks in advance if you read it this far!
Submitted June 27, 2017 at 06:13AM by Aliastral http://ift.tt/2thZKni
