Morning all

I'd like to ask you a few serious questions if I may

My girlfriend is thinking very seroiusly about working in America, specifically Miami, Florida. Now I don't know what's made her choose the Miami area in particular (maybe it's because I wanted to go on holiday there next year) but she seems dead keen on it & she's been looking at pictures on the net of Miami & it really does look very, very nice Sun, beaches, more sun, some more beaches

(I suppose we really shoould come over for a holiday first to see what it's like )

So I'm wondering if anyone on here in the Florida/Miami area can tell me which are nice areas & which are no go areas. I know Florida as a state is pretty huge. I'm assuming that Miami itself is a pretty expensive place to live, so maybe looking at the surrounding areas of Miami would be advantageous to us? Thats where your local knowledge comes in

What is the average pay in like & whats a good $ per hour to be earning? For instance, I'm currently earning just under 28K per year working for the government over here in the UK which is an ok ish wage I suppose.

What's that the equivilant of in the US & is that wage good?

There are soo many questions I have buzzing around in my head that I simply can't write them all down here in this thread. So any feedback from you guys would be totally fan fooking tastic

You only live once & if we don't do this we'll be kicking ourselves very hard in the future. If you don't give it a go, you'll never know eh?

Thanks in advance for taking the time out to read & respond to my post

Thanks,

Rich

look for places in hollywood/ft. lauderdale there pretty close to miami (thats where i live)

Since i live in kentucky (far from Miami) i cant answer those questions for you, but can say this.

PLEASE bring the GT-4 with you!

lol...

DO make sure you vacation there first...and don't just vacation, actually look around and imagine LIVING there...lots of people move here to the Caribbean move here after a vacation only to discover that they can't stand the people, the attitude, the way way way laid back way of life, etc...

Good luck!

yes, florida sucks. Its a nice place to visit, but you probably dont wanna live here.

Well first off I'd say don't change your life around for a woman who isn't even your wife. What if it doesn't worh out?

Flordia is kind of a miserable place to live. It gets so god-awful hot and it's intolerable to live there without Air Conditioning. That's why the population of Florida didn't really start to boom until the 70's... when A/C became ready and afforable.

But if you like the heat then go for it. If you like sunny beach cities snoop around the lower east coast, maybe even Texas. Stay away from Mississippi and Alabama, and remember in Florida you're right in the middle of hurricane terriroty, so be prepared to buy really expensive flood and disaster insurance on anything significant you own.

I'll even push Chicago a little.... anything downtown or north of downtown is really nice, and since it's on Lake Michigan, you can be fooled into thinking it's a coastal city It's also the only city that has a respectable and efficient public transportation system, so you wouldn't have to put uneccessary wear and tear on your celica to get to and from work... and then you can insure it for pleasure driving and save even more money!

miami, florida is awesome.

lots of culture, people, cars, nice houses, weather, beaches, women, etc.

i cant imagine living anywhere else.

hurricanes are okay, i guess it's something you get used to. no one here really thinks about them.

miami itself is pretty expensive place to live. i would say if its just you and your girlfriend, $50,000-$60,000 a year should suffice for an okay place and living. if not here then surrounding areas are more affordable, miramar, pembroke pines, ft lauderdale. miami beach is more expensive.

goodluck.

a little off topic

but i hear there debris the size of small fridges on the freeways in/near miami

28k pounds is like 56k dollars. i was just in london and i felt like a poor sob with my dollar only worth about 50 pence. anywho, if you want great weather and environment, come to southern california. we have beaches for surfing in the summer and mountains for snowboarding in the winter. and the temperature here is always in the 70's (dunno what that is in celsius). but that's just my opinion, which has nothing to do with the fact that you have a gt-four.

To live in Cali or Miami im going to have to say you are going to need to be making more than 56k american.

http://miami.about.com/od/jobsbusiness/a/costofliving.htm

This some info I found

Miami Apartments
It's the "Magic City," home of sophisticated nightlife, luxurious homes and apartments, fabulous restaurants and, of course, miles and miles of beaches. Although Miami is well over 100 years old, it has the fresh aura of a perpetually modern city. Want to live the good life on Miami Beach? Believe it or not, you can find small apartments for rent starting in the $500-600 range. But to live it up in style, expect to pay $1,500 or more for appropriately fabulous apartment rentals.

Just an update guys, house prices in Florida just dropped 25%. Thought that would be useful in your search.