Three Things You Should Spend Money On While Relocating

Car, health insurance, and healthy food. These are the three things you shouldn’t skimp on while relocating to the US. Let’s see why. Friday’s Digest #104

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Preface
Main Article
Readers’ Favorite
Stuff

Preface

Suitcases

When we moved to the US in the summer of 2022, we needed a lot of suitcases.

We already had five, but we needed two more.

So, I went downtown and bought two VERY cheap and VERY light suitcases.

I figured we’d use these two suitcases for the move and probably get rid of them before heading back home.

How bad could they be?

Well, they were bad. They were truly crappy suitcases.

The zippers started failing almost immediately.

But they made it to the US in the summer of 2022.

A couple of weeks ago, we packed everything again.

This time, to go back home.

Once again, we needed a LOT of suitcases.

So we ended up using one of the crappy ones.

How bad could it be?

23 Kilograms

Packing the suitcases took us an entire day, and keeping each one under 23 kg (50 pounds) was EXTREMELY challenging.

To make it work, we packed the heavier items in our trolleys. Those small carry-ons ended up weighing 15-17 kg! Each!

So here we are, at the airport.

Watching as our suitcases are weighed. Anything 50.9 pounds or lower is good. Anything 51.0 pounds and above is bad.

First suitcase—50.9 pounds. Yes!!

Second one—50.6 pounds. Perfect!

The third one—51.1 pounds. Damn. I took out a tube of toothpaste, and it went down to 50.9 pounds. We were still good!

Fourth and fifth suitcases—both around 50.7 pounds. Golden!

Then we got to the sixth one—the cheap, crappy suitcase.

It weighed only 50.1 pounds!

So, I figured, let’s put the toothpaste in this one! Why waste perfectly good toothpaste?

The airline representative was pretty amused by my math, and I think she secretly enjoyed the challenge. So, I unzipped the cheap, crappy suitcase, tossed in the toothpaste, and we both watched the scale. 50.4 pounds!

We made it!

The airline representative, one of the nicest I’ve ever met, picked up the suitcase to put it on the moving belt—you know, the thing that takes your luggage away.

But as she was lifting it…

SMASH!!

The crappy suitcase burst open, and everything spilled out!

Neither of us was smiling anymore. But instead of getting angry, she said, “Oh no!” and handed us some tape to secure that cheap, crappy suitcase.

In the end, that suitcase made it home in one piece (if you can call it that), and from there—it went straight to the trash.

Do I regret buying the cheap, crappy suitcases?

No.

Why not?

First, now I have a story to tell you on this fine Friday day 😎.

Second, those crappy suitcases were incredibly light.

And third, they allowed us to buy new suitcases in the US at about a third of the price it would’ve cost back home (thanks to Amazon’s open-box discounts).

But there’s a moral to this story:

Some things aren’t worth saving money on when you’re relocating for a fellowship or a postdoc.

What are they?

Let’s find out!

Number 104!

Main Article

Being a fellow or a post-doc will cost you money. In some cases, a LOT of money.

So naturally, you’ll look for ways to save. I’ve written before about how much it costs to live in the US, and we won’t dive into that today.

What I want to focus on today are the things you shouldn’t skimp on.

After spending almost three years in the US, I’ve learned that there are three things worth investing in.

Things you shouldn’t try to save money on.

Here they are:

🔵 Buying a Car in the US

When buying a car in the US, you generally have two options: buying from a private seller or a car dealership.

Sometimes, you may have the chance to buy a car from someone in your community who’s about to leave the US and is looking to sell.

While this might seem like a great option, remember that unless you’re close friends, their primary goal will be to return their investment. And they probably haven’t been treating their car very well during their last few months in the US.

People drive a LOT in the US. We’ve taken our car outside Massachusetts many times—driving it all the way to New York, Washington DC, and even across the country from the East Coast to the West Coast (about 5,000 km in 4 days).

On the road, you’ll often find yourself in the middle of nowhere.

This means you might not have a phone signal to call a tow truck if your car breaks down. And even if you do, it could take 5-6 hours for help to arrive.

So, invest in a car you can enjoy and rely on. If you live where it snows in the winter, consider getting an all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. We bought our car from CarMax, used Progressive as our insurance company, and had AAA for towing services (which, fortunately, we never needed).

A few tips:

🏦For insurance: You can get substantial discounts if you’re a safe driver. Progressive, for example, offers a tracking device that monitors your driving for a few months (tracking things like accelerations and hard braking). If you drive safely, you will pay less for insurance. We ended up saving hundreds of dollars.

🛻 For AAA (towing services): There are ALWAYS substantial discounts if you look hard enough. It cost us around $70 per year for two drivers. If you don’t search for deals, it could end up being $250 per year for the exact same service!

🔵 Health Insurance

Best case scenario, you’ll have health insurance provided by your workplace.

This is one of the MOST IMPORTANT things to check before choosing a workplace. Make sure you understand whether it will cost you and what it will cover.

My hospital in Boston is known for the excellent coverage it provides. It covered our family of 5, and we hardly paid anything over 2 years. And that includes prenatal care 🤰 and giving birth 🐣.

But we still received “notifications” in our mailbox.

You get a red envelope with warnings all over it 💌.

It tells you how much you must pay if the insurance won’t cover the costs. The numbers are alarming—

Tens of thousands of dollars.

Apparently, these red envelopes are quite common, but thankfully, our insurance ended up covering everything.

If there’s something I won’t miss, it's those red envelopes. Your heart drops every time you see them in your mailbox.

🔵 Watch What You Eat

I feel a little strange saying this.

Because if there’s one thing I regret about my fellowship, it’s not paying attention to what I ate.

I’ve completely corrected that since the fellowship ended, but I want to share what you should watch out for while living in the US.

First, it’s VERY hard to know how much fat and sugar are in the things you buy at the supermarket. It’s common to see labels like “45% less fat!” on the package, but that raises the question, “45% less than what?”

Nobody really knows.

Well, you can calculate it, but it’ll take you some time.

And here’s the thing—unhealthy, fatty food is cheap.

REALLY cheap. You can pay $6 for a package of ground beef, or $15 for the same size. What’s the difference between the two?

One is 20% fat, the other one is 7%. So you can save $9, but you’re paying with your health.

With cheese, it’s even worse. You might find yourself buying yellow cheese with 45% fat, and you won’t realize it unless you do the math.

And then there’s junk food. You can buy a meal for a family of four for less than $10.

Bottom line: Be careful. Buying unhealthy food is easy and very, very cheap.

Readers’ Favorite

💸 Do you know how much we pay every month to live in the US? Read about it here.

👶 Interested in what it’s like to give birth in the US? This is our story.

Stuff

💡Gear I use - a simple backpack by ZINZ 🎒

This is by far the most versatile backpack I’ve ever owned. Have you ever had a bag you used for EVERYTHING that never let you down? This is the one for me.

It’s lightweight and very thin, yet it includes numerous compartments, high-quality zippers, excellent back support, and can expand into a large backpack in seconds.

It also has a hidden pocket and a strap to secure it to your trolley while traveling.