meara, I'm doing the woo hoo dance for you right now. Awesome!

...I read this as the HOO HOO dance. And was a little frightened.

Barb, we totally do. I'm in town for the next two weeks, shockingly! Let's plan...

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Good luck, Pix.

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...I read this as the HOO HOO dance. And was a little frightened.

Numfar, do the dance of Nooky!

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Wow, that's a long time! That sucks. Will they be able to do more extended stays like they have, or no?

That's some good news, they can come out on a temporary visa again, even if they've applied for a permanent visa. (Some places get a bit antsy about granting temp visas after you've already indicated you want to move there permanently.) We can also do video chat with them, though I think they're not so keen on that. We've tried it before and I think the connection isn't the greatest.

There is a reason why it costs a lot to get an expedited visa. Australia has a universal health insurance system, Medicare. Permanent residents are entitled to full benefits, which means that if they move out here, the government is liable for (most of) their health care. Especially at their age, that can be expensive. Since they haven't been part of the tax base, the charge is to cover them for the ten years or so before the standard wait time would be over.

But it still sucks for us dealing with it.

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my brain is in overdrive. Waiting all weekend for the money offer part of the job thing is killing me. I know they weren't going to call this weekend, but I was hoping they'd have called Friday. After wresting with my mind for awhile and deciding that I do want the job, my brain is playing with me, fearing that they will lowball me on salary, thus having me to turn down the gig. I know HR gal has talked to 2 of my references (I listed 5, she needed to talk to 3). I expect the call will come tomorrow. So. Rather anxious. I suspect tonight, sleep will be more toss/turn than sleep.

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It's funny, billytea, but I believe that Ryan's ability to remember his grandparents isn't as important as his sense of security/trust that they've helped foster.

Ryan's clearly a very happy kid, who knows he's loved. That's what you try to give them at this age.

His grandparents don't get memory-credit for that, but you and Wallybee don't either. He won't remember what has been done for him, but he'll know it on a deeper, not-quite-conscious level.

(One of my early epiphanies as a parent was that Emmett would never remember any of the hardest stuff I had to learn as a parent. He wouldn't have any memory of all the times I was up with him at 3am, or nursing him through his first stomach virus.)

And he'll build a relationship with them over time. Extended visits, summers, traveling will be very memorable and important to him.

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Are they from mainland China? or HK? Or Taiwan?

They're from the mainland, a city called Hangzhou. It's a couple of hours' drive from Shanghai (where they're from originally). It was the capital of China during the Southern Song dynasty, and there are some lovely gardens and temples and such like around the West Lake (the area has a national reputation.)

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I'm trying to come up with a formula working backwards to figure out what I need to make.

If average housing costs H, and H should be 35% of take home pay. Then takehome should = H/.35

Now, if Take home is equal to Gross (x) minus 10% for retirement, minus 30% for taxes, roughly speaking, take home is X-40%. So, I have rental prices for the area, what is the formula to add 40% back to take home? Ugg. mental block. probably over thinking this.

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It's late, and I'm sleepy, but I think what you're saying, OA, is.

Gross-40%=TakeHome

.6G=T

And you've already figured .35(TakeHome)=Housing

So .35(.6G)=Housing

And you know an actual number for Housing, right? Like, $1000 or whatever?

So, G=$1000/(.6*.35) (In that case, Gross would end up around $57K)

Maybe. If I'm not too sleepy to be doing algebra.

(Also...10% for retirement? Damn. You're...good. I am bad, and have only been saving up to what the company matches)

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Ha, thanks Meara, brain freeze said, ok, let's look at it from the other way. So I took TX end of year paycheck and ran the percentages of everything, then added the 7.25% CA state income tax (I know, it's a graduated thing up to 9%, so I went with average). That gave me a rough estimate of gross vs net for CA, which I estimate to be about 65% of gross. Then I made a little chart with 4 columns:

a) salary gross
b) salary net
c) 35% net (yearly rent)
d) c/12 (monthly rent)

Then filled column A with figures every 3k, starting with starting salary, and working up to get a number in column D that comes ballpark with average rent for city of Irvine. I also highlighted what range the range that hits the "subsidized University housing for faculty & staff" which is still above the pay range.

So, G=$1000/(.6*.35) [where $1000 is monthly rent]

Yes! It worked. Well, I made it .65*.35, then took your formula and multiplied it by 12 to give me a yearly. Thanks! So, when haggling on the phone, I can type in numbers, and see some basic results.

ETA: All this makes me wonder, how the hell I survived on what my old CA job payed me out there! I know, part of it was living in Long Beach, where it's a bit cheaper. But oy!

Also...10% for retirement? Damn. You're...good

Yes, I feel I kinda have to. I have no clue when this body of mine will say "nope, can't work anymore". So if I gotta go on disability, I need some kind of nest egg to pull from. Social Security/SDI pays like $800/month or so. So ya, been doing 10% since I finished grad school and had full time job. Not that it's a lot squirreled away. 10% of non-profit salary = eh. But, gotta do whatcha gotta do.

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