How much $$ to have in savings before moving?

amother

Sun, Jul 21 2013, 12:14 pm

My husband and I have been planning for a year to make Aliyah this fall. As the time has come closer and closer we're looking at mid-November right now. I was just curious how much money you think would be a good or "safe" amout to have in savings when making aliyah? We have 5 kids, are expecting another, dh was hoping to do ulpan for the first couple months there. He has already talked to a division of his company in Israel who is B"H interested in hiring him and told him to contact them when we move.
From reading this aliyah section, and various blogs and books and articles I get the feeling that making aliyah with less than $40k in your pocket when you come over is stupid. We're a "low middle class" family. If we need that much to make aliyah on we'll never make it! But obviously we want to be realistic and not end up moving back to the states after a year because we didn't have the money. We're used to not making frivolous purchases. We're not planning to have a car. May not even send over a shipping container.
Can anyone give me some kind of estimates?

Liba

Sun, Jul 21 2013, 12:22 pm

If your DH has a good solid job prospect, you will be getting money for making aliya and you have a good attitude about things, I don't think you need to come with that much. A couple months worth of expenses would make sense, it does for anyone in any country, plus money to replace anything that you don't move with. If you don't make a lift you will have more setup expenses.

You will get ~10,000nis a month for the the first six months, on top of about 20,000nis as a bank transfer right away and 4,000nis in the airport. 10,000nis isn't quite enough to live on unless you are frugal, but it is a good start. If you use the 20,000nis for living expenses (along with the 10,000) and not furniture, washing machine, etc you could get through quite a few months without financial worry.

http://www.nbn.org.il/aliyahpe......html

Tamiri

Sun, Jul 21 2013, 2:18 pm

The big question is: what about housing? Do you have enough money for a down payment (around 50% down) on a $250k apartment (very very low end, I am sorry to say). If not, will your husband be earning enough for you to pay 4-5000 nis/month in rent?
Right now, in my opinion, the housing situation is what will drag people down. It's changed so much for the worse in the past 10 years that even I, ever the optimist, am getting depressed.

jba

Sun, Jul 21 2013, 7:24 pm

I am really curious about this. DH and I have been talking aliya for years and are now actually planning for 2 years from now (we have a work contract that is expiring in 2 years). We have literally no savings to speak of, something that scares me in general, but just wiped out a ton of debt. We are hoping to work on our savings over the next two years but $40K is unrealistic. Part of the reason we are moving, aside from a general love of Israel, desire to live there and the majority of our family being there, is the schooling/tuition/cost of living a Jewish life in USA suburbia is just getting out of hand. It's why we have no savings, we give everything to school and kosher food (no vacations, fancy clothing or anything like that).

I second Tamiri's request - Any input from olim who have made aliya would be super helpful. Thank you!

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Jul 22 2013, 1:46 am

jba wrote:

Well, how big is your family? Then we can help more specifically.
Good Luck!

amother

Mon, Aug 05 2013, 12:52 pm

Op here.

My dh, kids and I are still hoping to make aliyah in November. At that time, my kids ages will be 8, 6, 4, 3, & 22 months, plus I'm pg and due in February. We barely have a savings to speak of, not really enough to pay for a lift. If we moved with, say, $5,000 (usd) in our savings would that even work? We're having this breakdown where everything my dh reads about Aliyah is super rosy colored. "The aliyah benefits are more than enough to live on." And "renting apartments is SO cheap and affordable." And "Food is super cheap." And I'm reading the total opposite. I'm terrified that we're going to run out of money or end up hugely in debt. Would any of you be willing to post your family size and aprox. savings amount when you came over, and how it all worked out? I know that's a personal question, but I just really could use some ideas...

amother

Mon, Aug 05 2013, 4:08 pm

I just want to point out OP that if you have an 8 year old and a 6 year old, you will be starting them off at a disadvantage by coming when the school year has started already.
I know that that has nothing to do with finances, but this has been bothering me since you posted your original post a few weeks ago.

Liba

Mon, Aug 05 2013, 4:53 pm

As long as she can get the kids in to schools at that point, I think it is okay. My oldest ended up repeating third grade, with the same teacher, so she could fully get the language. IME the first year school is about learning the language and how to fit in culturally, not about subject matter. They won't understand most of what is going on the first many months anyway.

amother

Tue, Aug 06 2013, 11:53 am

Op here.

To the amother above: believe me, we've thought (and I've stressed) about that over and over. It's really the big problem with moving in November (I will say that though my 8 year old ds "should" be third grade this year we were thinking of putting him in second in Israel to make it an easier transition time for him). Originally we were planning for Aliyah this last June but we had some things come up that made it impossible for us to do it then. There are advantages to waiting to next June, better for getting situated before starting school and time to save up that much more in savings being the biggies. But there's also a lot of cons to it as well. It's nearly a whole year of waiting again, my kids will be a year older and it will be that much harder for them to leave friends and family here, dh has a perspective job that may not be there in a year, and a very small new baby IY"H as well. As well as other things, but I'm not going to post everything here right now. Also we homeschool because it's our only option right now and we'd like our children to attend school, but for various reasons that's just not going to happen until we move away from here.

Liba

Tue, Aug 06 2013, 11:57 am

I don't see what help it would be to put leave him back on arrival. The material will be new no matter what, third or second. The first months, possibly the first year they won't be learning the material. My daughter really benefitted from learning the same material from the same teacher twice. If you are keep them back upon arrival you really can't keep them back again later if they need it...

Tamiri

Tue, Aug 06 2013, 2:12 pm

amother wrote:

You want to know my honest to G-d opinion? I would do a lot more homework. The days of being able to pick up and live in Israel with 6 kids on nothing but Emuna are sort of over. Nothing is cheap here. Anyone who says renting is cheap and affordable is lying, unless they are millionaires - in which case they won't be renting. Food is a fortune. I spend the same $1000/month here as I did in the U.S., 10 years ago. And that's without going all-out at the supermarket. So please please please do your homework. If you are willing to live with nothing in the middle of nowhere, you can do it on the Aliyah basket. Otherwise... as I said, do your homework. And I have sure changed my tune in the past 5 or so year. I used to think *anyone* can make it here. It's getting a lot more difficult, same as the world over.