since we talk about saving money here, I want to add one more thing that works us well: We neither bought a new car nor we're planning to buy it in the future. We changed 4 cards in the last 4-5 years (together). We bought all of them through Craigslist (we have a lengthy process that we follow to find out good cars and take them to mechanic to check the reliability. We normally take 6 months to find a good car). We sold all the 4 cars for profit (excluding insurance). The reason being, new cars value go down at least 10% as soon as you take it out from the dealer. My husband's car is almost new and my car is reasonably new. So far we didn't have any bad experience in buying used cars (touchwood). Please pour in your ideas to save money.
No SreeSri, My DH is a not less than Prince Any girl can vows for such a sweetheart. I tried on Communications We hv Vonage me and my DH we daily chat with our parents,siblings to know their wellbeing. Comcast Internet now we don't get any new customer discount so for Blast plan its $69 per month we both are techie person so Internet is must. We watch Indian tv channels videos on Internet so need high speed for video streaming instead of that $80 plan for Tv + internet and my DH company reimburse $55 (I didn't mention it) as he calls everyday offshore. And we need wireless phones as I started driving.
Thanks. My kid is my first priority thats why otherwise I would not hv been SAHM. Yes we r in a discussion with employer hopefully will file GC soon but as I said in my earlier post my DH is not comfortable in getting hired by US based company from security point of view. Whats ur say on this??
Yes ur idea is great Uma but sometimes maintenance costs more and resale car's interior sucks very dirty. And if u can get a new car on 0% finance or 2% finance why not. If one plan to stay in USA for long terms new car is a good bargain IMO
I like US based companies better than the European/UK ones. Don't know about Indian firms. Though your hubby might have to stick around for sometime with the company after GC. 1 year is kinda minimum so that you will not have issues with GC renewal. Do not go to H1B if you are an Indian citizen. GC for H1B folks will take forever. L1A is golden for GC. EB1 category, he can get it very easily. My friend got it through that, couple of years ago. Took him less than a year from an India based IT company. Then she shifted to a US based tech firm, which was acquired by a phone company.
Why no one is mentioning any thing about medical insurance and costs ? It is a big budget killer to us
I forgot to mention we hv our expenses in India also like property taxes, monthly maintenance of more than one property, policy premiums that we need to transfer funds every month there too. I am sure few of us do need to manage this also.
I too bought too many cars so far(four for me one for my family friend, few for my friends). If you know that you would use the vehicle for at least 4-5 years, I would prefer a brand new car. But a reputed Japanese make vehicle lasts equally good even if its used. I have purchased a Honda over a decade back, it never had any single issue which is not a standard maintenance (its alarm got too sensitive some time back, I have disabled it). But when buying a used car, if you run into a lemon, you are dead right there..So, gotta be careful about finding the right car. BTW, Why I bought 4 cars for me? Since Two of the drivers liked my first two cars real good and rear ended them.. (total settlement).
In other words you read a BOOK before "How to marry a prince" Even we are also techies, heavy WFH situations, IP TV, IP Phone all.. I am on Comcast "Performance" package... never had any issue I pay $33/Month . May be once you are running out of your contract, try to switch to Uverse for some time and keep poking around the comcast for another deal. I use Dial91 for India calls, Its working out to be too good.
