See also
When we first came to the U.S. in 2007 as a newly wed couple, fellow immigrants (Indian, Singaporeans …) warned me that it often takes 2Y of adjustment to get used to living in this country. 2Y is a very generic estimate without any acid-test criteria. For me, the biggest adjustments in the past (and future) are
- — half ranked
- [f] car-first design of most U.S. cities. You can own a car, or live in expensive well-connected locations. [AA] has a section.
- [f] DIY culture, due to high labor cost. Wood house high maintenance
- immigration complexities .. visas, GC paperwork, risk of breach -> bad history
- medBx complexities, medical cost
- [f] rent .. heavy burden
- commute .. in NY region, “lucky if under 1H”
- language barriers esp. for wife
- bureaucracies (vague) … For example, the authority can make a decision against you and won’t listen to small flies like you.
- [f] long wait (worse than in SG) on most hotlines, unless you pay for a premium service. See new blogpost..
- [f] legal battles … Completely unexpected
- [f] credit report .. mistakes, monitoring. You can pay a service provider to help you monitor and explain the mistakes.
- tax filing legwork
- [f] taxi cost .. multiples of SG cost level. We couldn’t afford to use taxi except for airport.
- …
- discrimination against non-US work experience
- [f=some pff stress] Not all of these adjustments are financial but in this blogpost I mostly talk about /livelihood/.
I have been fairly resourceful/optimistic, effective in my adjustments over the initial years:
- telecommuting + work during vacations + work on weekends, to relieve commute pressure
- take calculated risk to go without medBx
- live close to train stations
- bike
- overcome my “handicap” and spend the necessary money, time and effort to learn driving. At least get a learner’s permit as a photoID
- sub-lease .. to relieve rent burden
- frequent home relocation to improve commute or rent. I discovered that Newport was actually affordable, offering much cleaner streets than Brooklyn.
- make use of generous store return policies