Got a job offer to relocate to Buenos Aires - Worth it with 3 children? What budget would I need?

[travelpro]

I just got a job offer to relocate to Argentina. We enjoy traveling and we have relocated several times with my work. Once to Mexico City and another time to São Paulo. I have 3 children. All of them under 6 years old.

Both my husband and I have done a lot of research but we are finding conflicting reports on if it would be a good move for or not. I have work colleagues that previously lived in Buenos Aires just a short time ago in mid-2023 and commented how cheap it was and while I understand prices might have gone up in the meantime, could they have already gone up so drastically in a short amount of time?

What would a decent budget be to live a great quality of life with 5 people in the household including 3 younger kids? What would a comfortable life cost in net take home income each month? We would want to enjoy traveling a bit and have a reasonable budget for entertainment. I heard the locals are friendly with children.

 

[Betsy Ross]

I just got a job offer to relocate to Argentina. We enjoy traveling and we have relocated several times with my work. Once to Mexico City and another time to São Paulo. I have 3 children. All of them under 6 years old.

Both my husband and I have done a lot of research but we are finding conflicting reports on if it would be a good move for or not. I have work colleagues that previously lived in Buenos Aires just a short time ago in mid-2023 and commented how cheap it was and while I understand prices might have gone up in the meantime, could they have already gone up so drastically in a short amount of time?

What would a decent budget be to live a great quality of life with 5 people in the household including 3 younger kids? What would a comfortable life cost in net take home income each month? We would want to enjoy traveling a bit and have a reasonable budget for entertainment. I heard the locals are friendly with children.

Where in Buenos Aires will you work? Do you have to go into an office? Do any of you speak Spanish? What neighborhood do you plan to live in? How big of a property will you want? If you have kids you will most likely want to be in the northern suburbs as most of the English speaking schools are out there. How big of a property would you want? Will your company pay for health insurance? You would need to answer those questions first before people can give you input.

 

[travelpro]

Where in Buenos Aires will you work? Do you have to go into an office? Do any of you speak Spanish? What neighborhood do you plan to live in? How big of a property will you want? If you have kids you will most likely want to be in the northern suburbs as most of the English speaking schools are out there. How big of a property would you want? Will your company pay for health insurance? You would need to answer those questions first before people can give you input.

Thanks. Good questions. My office is near Puerto Madero but I heard there were no houses there. We would ideally want a 4 bedroom house so we have plenty of room. None of us speak Spanish including me. I am not opposed to my kids learning some Spanish but the school would need to primarily be English speaking. My company would give me some supplement for healthcare but I would pay out of my package so I just need to know how much including healthcare costs I would need. Thanks.

 

[Wally]

You will want to be in the Nordelta area for the kids or one of the surrounding suburbs because most of the English speaking schools are in that area. It won't be too convenient for you if you have to work in Puerto Madero so you will have commute time but you're going to be limited with wanting a 4 bedroom house. You can easily find a 4 bedroom house in Nordelta or surrounding area. Very safe area. A house like you want will probably cost between $2,000 to $2,500 dollars per month at a minimum.

For tuition figure at least $500 dollars to $900 dollars per month per kid depending on which school they go to. On top of the rent you will be expenses to pay HOA fees for the gated community. That will be around $300 dollars per month. I assume you will have a car or 2? Cars are expensive in Buenos Aires. On top of the cost to buy the car you have to have insurance which will be about $100 to $150 dollars per month per car.

Health insurance depends on which plan you have but for a family of 5 on a good plan you will probably pay at least $1,500 dollars per month.

Utilities on your house will be around $300 dollars per month including electricity, gas, water, internet/cable.
And most people have maids to help them clean. I assume if you're working unless your husband wants to clean that would be another $200 to $500 dollars per month depending on how often they are coming.

So that is about $5,500 dollars not accounting for anything else. Dining out can really add up as restaurants aren't as cheap as they were before. Forgot what your friends said about mid 2023 as prices are much higher than that now. Prices are at least 2.5x what they were then. Some 3x.

With a family of 5 you will spend a significant amount dining out to eat and groceries. I would budget whatever you are spending where you live now. Food here isn't too cheap besides a few items. Many things are more. Beef is much less than back home. Chicken pork too but some things more.

Your budget will depend on quality of life you are accustomed to back home. With a family of 5 I would say calculate about $7,500 to $8,000 dollars per month to have a good life here.

Remember that inflation is slowing down but prices are still going up. We have about 3% per month inflation here. I made the move here but my wife is from here. We have 2 kids that were born here. I am not sure I would recommend making the move here with 3 young kids especially right now.

 

[Larry]

You will want to be in the Nordelta area for the kids or one of the surrounding suburbs because most of the English speaking schools are in that area. It won't be too convenient for you if you have to work in Puerto Madero so you will have commute time but you're going to be limited with wanting a 4 bedroom house. You can easily find a 4 bedroom house in Nordelta or surrounding area. Very safe area. A house like you want will probably cost between $2,000 to $2,500 dollars per month at a minimum.

For tuition figure at least $500 dollars to $900 dollars per month per kid depending on which school they go to. On top of the rent you will be expenses to pay HOA fees for the gated community. That will be around $300 dollars per month. I assume you will have a car or 2? Cars are expensive in Buenos Aires. On top of the cost to buy the car you have to have insurance which will be about $100 to $150 dollars per month per car.

Health insurance depends on which plan you have but for a family of 5 on a good plan you will probably pay at least $1,500 dollars per month.

Utilities on your house will be around $300 dollars per month including electricity, gas, water, internet/cable.
And most people have maids to help them clean. I assume if you're working unless your husband wants to clean that would be another $200 to $500 dollars per month depending on how often they are coming.

So that is about $5,500 dollars not accounting for anything else. Dining out can really add up as restaurants aren't as cheap as they were before. Forgot what your friends said about mid 2023 as prices are much higher than that now. Prices are at least 2.5x what they were then. Some 3x.

With a family of 5 you will spend a significant amount dining out to eat and groceries. I would budget whatever you are spending where you live now. Food here isn't too cheap besides a few items. Many things are more. Beef is much less than back home. Chicken pork too but some things more.

Your budget will depend on quality of life you are accustomed to back home. With a family of 5 I would say calculate about $7,500 to $8,000 dollars per month to have a good life here.

Remember that inflation is slowing down but prices are still going up. We have about 3% per month inflation here. I made the move here but my wife is from here. We have 2 kids that were born here. I am not sure I would recommend making the move here with 3 young kids especially right now.

Wally is probably correct you would need at least $8k USD per month to be comfortable. And maybe even more! Prices are very dear now. Things changed drastically since 2023 on prices. My advice is stay away from moving here now. Things are in a bad way with Milei. We will probably have another crash here like before at the end of 2001 when the banks closed. Maybe prices will be cheaper if a crash happened but the crime would be very high.

Buenos Aires is a great city but this isn't the time to make a move with 3 kids. Not to Argentina.

 

[Uncle Wong]

You will want to be in the Nordelta area for the kids or one of the surrounding suburbs because most of the English speaking schools are in that area. It won't be too convenient for you if you have to work in Puerto Madero so you will have commute time but you're going to be limited with wanting a 4 bedroom house. You can easily find a 4 bedroom house in Nordelta or surrounding area. Very safe area. A house like you want will probably cost between $2,000 to $2,500 dollars per month at a minimum.

For tuition figure at least $500 dollars to $900 dollars per month per kid depending on which school they go to. On top of the rent you will be expenses to pay HOA fees for the gated community. That will be around $300 dollars per month. I assume you will have a car or 2? Cars are expensive in Buenos Aires. On top of the cost to buy the car you have to have insurance which will be about $100 to $150 dollars per month per car.

Health insurance depends on which plan you have but for a family of 5 on a good plan you will probably pay at least $1,500 dollars per month.

Utilities on your house will be around $300 dollars per month including electricity, gas, water, internet/cable.
And most people have maids to help them clean. I assume if you're working unless your husband wants to clean that would be another $200 to $500 dollars per month depending on how often they are coming.

So that is about $5,500 dollars not accounting for anything else. Dining out can really add up as restaurants aren't as cheap as they were before. Forgot what your friends said about mid 2023 as prices are much higher than that now. Prices are at least 2.5x what they were then. Some 3x.

With a family of 5 you will spend a significant amount dining out to eat and groceries. I would budget whatever you are spending where you live now. Food here isn't too cheap besides a few items. Many things are more. Beef is much less than back home. Chicken pork too but some things more.

Your budget will depend on quality of life you are accustomed to back home. With a family of 5 I would say calculate about $7,500 to $8,000 dollars per month to have a good life here.

Remember that inflation is slowing down but prices are still going up. We have about 3% per month inflation here. I made the move here but my wife is from here. We have 2 kids that were born here. I am not sure I would recommend making the move here with 3 young kids especially right now.

Probably is accurate. I saw some exchanges of posts on X yesterday. @travelpro you should follow https://x.com/BowTiedMara and https://x.com/BuySellBA on X. Great sources of info. BowtiedMara said his family of 4 spends about $5k USD per month and that is paying no rent since he owns! So adding in what Wally is saying it would cost for rent sounds like it would come to what Wally is saying you will need. And this is probably light since you have 3 kids not 2 like BowtiedMara.

 

[James Bond]

Probably is accurate. I saw some exchanges of posts on X yesterday. @travelpro you should follow https://x.com/BowTiedMara and https://x.com/BuySellBA on X. Great sources of info. BowtiedMara said his family of 4 spends about $5k USD per month and that is paying no rent since he owns! So adding in what Wally is saying it would cost for rent sounds like it would come to what Wally is saying you will need. And this is probably light since you have 3 kids not 2 like BowtiedMara.

Don't compare what your co-workers spend here in 2023 vs. now. As others mentioned, you will spend 2x what you spent then. Buenos Aires is a fabulous city. I wouldn't worry about safety concerns but I would agree with Larry that prices with kids aren't going to be cheap. Private schools are the only way to go for you if your kids don't speak any Spanish. And even if they did they are still the only way to go in BA. I doubt you'd want to send them to public schools.

Healthcare costs also jumped up and are still going up. I lived in BA for over a decade but moved to Spain last year as prices kept spiraling upwards.
You can come if costs are not an issue but the fact that you created this post and talking about how much net income you would need tells me you're on some limited budget.

Most of my expat friends or people that came here for work are leaving or thinking about leaving now due to the high cost of living in BA vs. thinking about moving here now.

 

[travelpro]

Thanks to all for answering. Wow I am shocked to hear prices are so much more today vs only 1.5 years ago when my coworker was stationed there in BA. She did not have kids. I read statistics that talked about average salaries and low rental prices. How can the average family with kids afford Argentina?

$8,000 dollars per month net take home pay needed is shocking for South America. I assumed rentals were cheaper. What about 4 bedroom houses closer to Puerto Madero? Are they common there? What about apartments with 4 bedrooms if not a house? I can't believe medical insurance is so expensive now. My colleague paid what she said was affordable rates. But if things are 2 times the cost then maybe this is true it is not cheap now.

I will check out some of those links on X. If prices are this high then it is not worth it to me for the added stress to my family if things are not going well. I heard inflation was down and the currency was stable but I mistakenly assumed that prices are also down if inflation is down.

These prices sound like what I would need in the USA! I did not know they were so expensive. I will take it off my list if prices are so high. I also do not like the idea of commuting so long to work. Nordelta to my office on Google Maps says it is 1 hour each way! I can't spend 2 hours in a car each day. Thanks for the info. This helps me.

 

[Vero]

Thanks to all for answering. Wow I am shocked to hear prices are so much more today vs only 1.5 years ago when my coworker was stationed there in BA. She did not have kids. I read statistics that talked about average salaries and low rental prices. How can the average family with kids afford Argentina?

$8,000 dollars per month net take home pay needed is shocking for South America. I assumed rentals were cheaper. What about 4 bedroom houses closer to Puerto Madero? Are they common there? What about apartments with 4 bedrooms if not a house? I can't believe medical insurance is so expensive now. My colleague paid what she said was affordable rates. But if things are 2 times the cost then maybe this is true it is not cheap now.

I will check out some of those links on X. If prices are this high then it is not worth it to me for the added stress to my family if things are not going well. I heard inflation was down and the currency was stable but I mistakenly assumed that prices are also down if inflation is down.

These prices sound like what I would need in the USA! I did not know they were so expensive. I will take it off my list if prices are so high. I also do not like the idea of commuting so long to work. Nordelta to my office on Google Maps says it is 1 hour each way! I can't spend 2 hours in a car each day. Thanks for the info. This helps me.

People are surprised when they learn how expensive Buenos Aires has become. Having a dollar income will help but things aren't like 2023 now. Prices are much higher. I wouldn't recommend the move with such young kids now. I would not worry about the safety part of it. BA is not a dangerous city at all.

4 bedroom houses are not common in Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero is very expensive. Probably more than most cities in the States. Rentals are very high there. I don't even know if they have 4 bedroom apartments in that area. There are some 4 bedroom apartments in BA. I don't think you would want to be so far from your office. But you should nail down what possible schools you can send your kids to first. They won't be cheap. Some schools have school buses that will pick up your kids into the city so you may check that. But even a 4 bedroom furnished apartment in the city will be expensive. Probably the same price as a house in Nordelta.

The commute time will be even longer than 1 hour. You are probably looking now which there is not much traffic as it is a weekend. During the week it can be very busy with traffic. I wouldn't recommend that long commute each day.

Now you will spend a lot at restaurants. Probably would be cheaper to hire someone to cook for you each day. Your work can maybe help you find a full time maid that can cook for you. You will go broke going out to eat with 5 people each day.

Unfortunately our healthcare payments have jumped up very high since 2023. I don't think you will spend less than $1000 USD per month with healthcare for a good plan. Maybe even $1,500 USD per month.

 

[Betsy Ross]

Thanks to all for answering. Wow I am shocked to hear prices are so much more today vs only 1.5 years ago when my coworker was stationed there in BA. She did not have kids. I read statistics that talked about average salaries and low rental prices. How can the average family with kids afford Argentina?

$8,000 dollars per month net take home pay needed is shocking for South America. I assumed rentals were cheaper. What about 4 bedroom houses closer to Puerto Madero? Are they common there? What about apartments with 4 bedrooms if not a house? I can't believe medical insurance is so expensive now. My colleague paid what she said was affordable rates. But if things are 2 times the cost then maybe this is true it is not cheap now.

I will check out some of those links on X. If prices are this high then it is not worth it to me for the added stress to my family if things are not going well. I heard inflation was down and the currency was stable but I mistakenly assumed that prices are also down if inflation is down.

These prices sound like what I would need in the USA! I did not know they were so expensive. I will take it off my list if prices are so high. I also do not like the idea of commuting so long to work. Nordelta to my office on Google Maps says it is 1 hour each way! I can't spend 2 hours in a car each day. Thanks for the info. This helps me.

Everyone is giving you solid advice. I would disagree that there is potential for crime to escalate. I am not saying crime doesn't exist here but I don't think it is any different than any big city anywhere in the world. I have lived here a while and never felt BA was unsafe. I can walk around even at night alone and never had any problems.

Prices jumped up since your co-workers was last living here. The wildcard factor is having 3 kids. Location of schools is going to have an impact on distance between your office in Puerto Madero and the schools. Almost all of the English only schools are in the north. I would assume your employer will pay for your healthcare or at least reimburse you for it. It has jumped up since 2023. I'm paying $450 dollars a month just for myself on a good plan. Private schools have jumped up in price and from what my friends tell me they are going up every 2 months. I am not sure how much that will slow down as salaries keep going up.

Of course you can do Buenos Aires more affordably but the key is just what kind of lifestyle you are living. For a big property of 4 bedrooms you aren't going to find anything too low in good areas. The others gave you good advice. Maybe you can get a smaller place and the kids can share rooms? If you are way out in Nordelta you will definitely need a car. You won't like that commute to your office. I have friends that used to do that commute before covid but now they refuse to except once or twice a week. I am not sure if working remote out of your house is an option if you decide to live near Nordelta.

 

[earlyretirement]

I just got a job offer to relocate to Argentina. We enjoy traveling and we have relocated several times with my work. Once to Mexico City and another time to São Paulo. I have 3 children. All of them under 6 years old.

Both my husband and I have done a lot of research but we are finding conflicting reports on if it would be a good move for or not. I have work colleagues that previously lived in Buenos Aires just a short time ago in mid-2023 and commented how cheap it was and while I understand prices might have gone up in the meantime, could they have already gone up so drastically in a short amount of time?

What would a decent budget be to live a great quality of life with 5 people in the household including 3 younger kids? What would a comfortable life cost in net take home income each month? We would want to enjoy traveling a bit and have a reasonable budget for entertainment. I heard the locals are friendly with children.

Hi @travelpro,

You are getting some good advice on this thread. It's great that you have experience living in other Latin American countries. I am not sure how old your other children are but if they are very young and won't have school then you would save some money but the advice is correct about private schooling.

I have 3 children, 2 of which were born in Buenos Aires. We moved from Buenos Aires back to the USA once my oldest was 3 years old as I didn't want to raise them in Buenos Aires. I'm not sure how long your potential work assignment is. I happen to love Buenos Aires and could have made it work raising them in BA.

You have to be careful and things like "comfortable" or "good life" are all subjective terms. It can mean different things to different people. Obviously the more "comfortable" life you live the more it's going to cost. Prices have jumped up since the middle of 2023 when your friend was living there. Things like education, healthcare, restaurants, insurance have all jumped up considerably. Things like utilities are still much cheaper than the USA or even Mexico when you calculate cost per kWh. By that standard they are still "cheap" but you will hear many locals complaining because they were accustomed to super low subsidized pricing so when you hear them say it is expensive it's relative. Expensive means different things to different people.

You can spend a reasonable amount or you can spend a LOT of money in BA. For what you're asking for a larger 4 bedroom property you will pay quite a bit of money to rent a furnished property. I have a lot of friends in Buenos Aires that have 3 or 4 bedroom properties and just their HOA bill alone now is $800 to $900 USD per month. Some of these apartments are the only one on the floor or only 2 units in the floor so their share of expenses are higher. I don't think you will spend less than $2,000 to $2,500 USD per month or more on a property if it's in a desirable area and it's well furnished.

Medical expenses will vastly vary just depending on which company and plan but it is much higher than when your friend was here. To give you an example I'm paying over $525 USD per month for an employee with 1 child. And that is on a mid-level OSDE 310 plan. Not the best and not the worst. A higher plan and I think the other people giving you estimates are correct.

I dine out a lot and you can spend an absolute fortune on that in Buenos Aires. The advice to get a full-time maid or one that comes daily and will cook and clean is a good idea. Not always easy to find that right now but that would make the most sense from cost perspective.

I think the estimates are all reasonable. I think you would need a minimum of at least $7,000 USD per month and obviously it could be much higher depending on what activities you do. Buenos Aires is not nearly as affordable as it was before. And keep in mind inflation is still a factor. Monthly inflation is at least 3% a month and certain things you will hear about prices jumping up more than that.

Don't let people scare you though. You can get by for the most part cheaper than you can live in the USA but it will depend on what kind of lifestyle you lived. I don't think I could get by in BA for less than $10k a month with 3 kids going to private schools but that is a fraction of what we spend in the USA so things are relative.

I've posted this before on other posts about budgeting and cost of living.

In my experience, people always underestimate what they will spend vs. overestimate. Everyone should be making a very detailed spreadsheet of All their expenses that they spend in their home country before they make a move. You should know your costs of what you're spending now. I know exactly what I'm spending each month. But before you move add in all your expenses. Here is my list below. You may have others to add to this.

-Rent (if you don't own your property)
- Property taxes if you own
-Phone (Land line and Cell phone) for each member of your family that will have a phone
- Utilities (gas, water, electricity, cable, internet, etc)
- HOA fees/expensas each month
- Maintenance and repairs (if you own a property)
- Car payments
- Car insurance
- Auto Fuel each month for each car
- Registration fees for your car each year
- Maintenance on your car to include car washes and oil changes
-Parking (various times when you're out and about plus if you don't have a garage in your apartment and have to rent one) Parking has really jumped up in Buenos Aires over the past 2 years.
- Home/rental insurance for your property
- Life insurance
- Health insurance premiums
- Dental insurance premiums
- Medical/Dental expenses (what insurance won't cover)
- Prescription medications
- School expenses for kids if applicable (tuition, stuff for school, ballet classes, etc)
- Babysitter expenses
- Annual fee for Credit Cards
- Clothes for kids and yourself
- Toys for kids
- Dry Cleaning and laundry expenses
- Health club / gym
- Taxi/Uber fares which are inevitable.
- Beauty (hair salon for hair cuts, color, nails, make up, massages, etc)
- Extracurricular activities dues/fees
- Entertainment (movies, theatre, plays, Zoo, concerts, sporting events, etc --)
- Magazine/newspaper/Ipad app subscriptions
- Dining out at restaurants
- Grocery budget
- Retirement savings contributions
- Kids college fund savings contributions
- Charity/donations
- Travel / vacation expenses
- Federal/State/local income taxes
- Any revolving debt payments you might have
- Bad habit type stuff (alcohol, smoking, etc)
- Emergency savings fund for any major health issues
- Non reimbursed office/work expenses and supplies

One final thing I will say is moving with kids can be a stressful situation not only for the kids but also adults. I'm not sure if your husband works from home or if he works remote, etc. But doing this with kids is always much more difficult situation vs. moving alone or with just adults. Moving international is a stressful situation as I'm sure you already know if you've moved to Mexico City and São Paulo. I'm not sure if you did that when you had kids or not but needless to say it is a vastly different experience. The added stress of schooling and language barriers can be stressful.

I think Buenos Aires is a fabulous city. I know many friends and clients that have moved here and were successful but there were still some growing pains. I'm not sure if you already visited Buenos Aires before? What I would suggest before you even think about it is come and visit the city and some of the schools. Go to your office and make that commute that you'd be making if you were to live outside. Meet with a few realtors and ask your company if they would help with finding a place. That is not always an easy process. That process in and of itself can be very stressful. Renting here isn't as easy as most places around the world.

But come here and see in detail and give yourself a glimpse of what your life would look like here before making the move with the family.

 

[Avocado]

Wally is probably correct you would need at least $8k USD per month to be comfortable. And maybe even more! Prices are very dear now. Things changed drastically since 2023 on prices. My advice is stay away from moving here now. Things are in a bad way with Milei. We will probably have another crash here like before at the end of 2001 when the banks closed. Maybe prices will be cheaper if a crash happened but the crime would be very high.

Buenos Aires is a great city but this isn't the time to make a move with 3 kids. Not to Argentina.

I love my city and country but I would agree with Larry that this is not a good time to visit. Many things are up in the air now. Wait until after the elections in October to see how things turn out.

Thanks to all for answering. Wow I am shocked to hear prices are so much more today vs only 1.5 years ago when my coworker was stationed there in BA. She did not have kids. I read statistics that talked about average salaries and low rental prices. How can the average family with kids afford Argentina?

$8,000 dollars per month net take home pay needed is shocking for South America. I assumed rentals were cheaper. What about 4 bedroom houses closer to Puerto Madero? Are they common there? What about apartments with 4 bedrooms if not a house? I can't believe medical insurance is so expensive now. My colleague paid what she said was affordable rates. But if things are 2 times the cost then maybe this is true it is not cheap now.

I will check out some of those links on X. If prices are this high then it is not worth it to me for the added stress to my family if things are not going well. I heard inflation was down and the currency was stable but I mistakenly assumed that prices are also down if inflation is down.

These prices sound like what I would need in the USA! I did not know they were so expensive. I will take it off my list if prices are so high. I also do not like the idea of commuting so long to work. Nordelta to my office on Google Maps says it is 1 hour each way! I can't spend 2 hours in a car each day. Thanks for the info. This helps me.

Your friend probably spent less than half of what you need today. All the thing go up. Private school absolute must for you. You kid do not speak Spanish. Very few people here speak English.

Look on zonaprop for prices for rentals. https://www.zonaprop.com.ar/

You can put in 4 bedrooms and search different neighborhood. You can also do search for private schools that teach in English and see on website price for tuition. It not cheap. You will be limited where you live base on where you kids go to school.

Maybe you can home school them? That save you money. I have expat friend do that and they save money but they say they go crazy trying to be teacher.

 

[VINO]

Great advice so far. I met a few people that made the move here. A few with kids but most have left Buenos Aires last year due to cost of living increase. Spend some time searching on X. Many posts from expats.

If you already own a place it can be reasonable to live here because you aren't at the mercy of landlords. It can be a pain moving every year or 2.

Probably you will find that there has to be some give and take. Either you have to be willing to commute to work or your kids will have to be willing to commute either with a driver or with dad taking them. Some schools I heard do have a bus. I am not sure on routes but you can ask the schools.

Many great neighborhoods. You won't easily find a house in most neighborhoods in the city but you can find apartments. Belgrano has bigger properties. Recoleta and Palermo too. Nuñez and Olives are also nice but just keep in mind commute times to your work or their school. I personally would never want a car in the city. Ubers are so easy. Parking is a nightmare in BA. My friends that have cars almost don't use them now because parking is a pain. Car break-ins are also more common now so be careful parking on the street. TBH if you are all the way out in Nordelta you will need a car. To be the beauty of being in BA is being close to the city. If you're working in Puerto Madero you' will be in the city during the week. I doubt you will want to be too far.

There are other nice communities in the North like Escobar, Pilar, etc. If you are way out here I think you would have to have a car, especially with kids.

Honestly with kids BA is not what I would consider affordable anymore. The budgets all sound reasonable. Most of my friends with kids in private schools are all spending a lot of money.

What is your main reason you want to move here @travelpro? Is it for the experience of living abroad? I Agee it's a good idea to come here first and see distances of everything.

 

[travelpro]

Hi @travelpro,

You are getting some good advice on this thread. It's great that you have experience living in other Latin American countries. I am not sure how old your other children are but if they are very young and won't have school then you would save some money but the advice is correct about private schooling.

I have 3 children, 2 of which were born in Buenos Aires. We moved from Buenos Aires back to the USA once my oldest was 3 years old as I didn't want to raise them in Buenos Aires. I'm not sure how long your potential work assignment is. I happen to love Buenos Aires and could have made it work raising them in BA.

You have to be careful and things like "comfortable" or "good life" are all subjective terms. It can mean different things to different people. Obviously the more "comfortable" life you live the more it's going to cost. Prices have jumped up since the middle of 2023 when your friend was living there. Things like education, healthcare, restaurants, insurance have all jumped up considerably. Things like utilities are still much cheaper than the USA or even Mexico when you calculate cost per kWh. By that standard they are still "cheap" but you will hear many locals complaining because they were accustomed to super low subsidized pricing so when you hear them say it is expensive it's relative. Expensive means different things to different people.

You can spend a reasonable amount or you can spend a LOT of money in BA. For what you're asking for a larger 4 bedroom property you will pay quite a bit of money to rent a furnished property. I have a lot of friends in Buenos Aires that have 3 or 4 bedroom properties and just their HOA bill alone now is $800 to $900 USD per month. Some of these apartments are the only one on the floor or only 2 units in the floor so their share of expenses are higher. I don't think you will spend less than $2,000 to $2,500 USD per month or more on a property if it's in a desirable area and it's well furnished.

Medical expenses will vastly vary just depending on which company and plan but it is much higher than when your friend was here. To give you an example I'm paying over $525 USD per month for an employee with 1 child. And that is on a mid-level OSDE 310 plan. Not the best and not the worst. A higher plan and I think the other people giving you estimates are correct.

I dine out a lot and you can spend an absolute fortune on that in Buenos Aires. The advice to get a full-time maid or one that comes daily and will cook and clean is a good idea. Not always easy to find that right now but that would make the most sense from cost perspective.

I think the estimates are all reasonable. I think you would need a minimum of at least $7,000 USD per month and obviously it could be much higher depending on what activities you do. Buenos Aires is not nearly as affordable as it was before. And keep in mind inflation is still a factor. Monthly inflation is at least 3% a month and certain things you will hear about prices jumping up more than that.

Don't let people scare you though. You can get by for the most part cheaper than you can live in the USA but it will depend on what kind of lifestyle you lived. I don't think I could get by in BA for less than $10k a month with 3 kids going to private schools but that is a fraction of what we spend in the USA so things are relative.

I've posted this before on other posts about budgeting and cost of living.

In my experience, people always underestimate what they will spend vs. overestimate. Everyone should be making a very detailed spreadsheet of All their expenses that they spend in their home country before they make a move. You should know your costs of what you're spending now. I know exactly what I'm spending each month. But before you move add in all your expenses. Here is my list below. You may have others to add to this.

-Rent (if you don't own your property)
- Property taxes if you own
-Phone (Land line and Cell phone) for each member of your family that will have a phone
- Utilities (gas, water, electricity, cable, internet, etc)
- HOA fees/expensas each month
- Maintenance and repairs (if you own a property)
- Car payments
- Car insurance
- Auto Fuel each month for each car
- Registration fees for your car each year
- Maintenance on your car to include car washes and oil changes
-Parking (various times when you're out and about plus if you don't have a garage in your apartment and have to rent one) Parking has really jumped up in Buenos Aires over the past 2 years.
- Home/rental insurance for your property
- Life insurance
- Health insurance premiums
- Dental insurance premiums
- Medical/Dental expenses (what insurance won't cover)
- Prescription medications
- School expenses for kids if applicable (tuition, stuff for school, ballet classes, etc)
- Babysitter expenses
- Annual fee for Credit Cards
- Clothes for kids and yourself
- Toys for kids
- Dry Cleaning and laundry expenses
- Health club / gym
- Taxi/Uber fares which are inevitable.
- Beauty (hair salon for hair cuts, color, nails, make up, massages, etc)
- Extracurricular activities dues/fees
- Entertainment (movies, theatre, plays, Zoo, concerts, sporting events, etc --)
- Magazine/newspaper/Ipad app subscriptions
- Dining out at restaurants
- Grocery budget
- Retirement savings contributions
- Kids college fund savings contributions
- Charity/donations
- Travel / vacation expenses
- Federal/State/local income taxes
- Any revolving debt payments you might have
- Bad habit type stuff (alcohol, smoking, etc)
- Emergency savings fund for any major health issues
- Non reimbursed office/work expenses and supplies

One final thing I will say is moving with kids can be a stressful situation not only for the kids but also adults. I'm not sure if your husband works from home or if he works remote, etc. But doing this with kids is always much more difficult situation vs. moving alone or with just adults. Moving international is a stressful situation as I'm sure you already know if you've moved to Mexico City and São Paulo. I'm not sure if you did that when you had kids or not but needless to say it is a vastly different experience. The added stress of schooling and language barriers can be stressful.

I think Buenos Aires is a fabulous city. I know many friends and clients that have moved here and were successful but there were still some growing pains. I'm not sure if you already visited Buenos Aires before? What I would suggest before you even think about it is come and visit the city and some of the schools. Go to your office and make that commute that you'd be making if you were to live outside. Meet with a few realtors and ask your company if they would help with finding a place. That is not always an easy process. That process in and of itself can be very stressful. Renting here isn't as easy as most places around the world.

But come here and see in detail and give yourself a glimpse of what your life would look like here before making the move with the family.

Thank you for this very detailed list! We have a list of general items but this is more detailed and will incorporate into our expense list. We left a lot of things off.

Can I ask why you didn't want to raise your kids in Buenos Aires @earlyretirement? I know that is a personal question so feel free to DM me if you don't want to answer it.

We did not have our children when we lived abroad so this would be a huge change for us. We know it is different making the move with kids vs without them. We did plan to visit before deciding but just researching ahead of time to see if it makes sense has it confused because we read some blogs not that long ago and things are totally outdated which we found difficult to believe.

I love my city and country but I would agree with Larry that this is not a good time to visit. Many things are up in the air now. Wait until after the elections in October to see how things turn out.


Your friend probably spent less than half of what you need today. All the thing go up. Private school absolute must for you. You kid do not speak Spanish. Very few people here speak English.

Look on zonaprop for prices for rentals. https://www.zonaprop.com.ar/

You can put in 4 bedrooms and search different neighborhood. You can also do search for private schools that teach in English and see on website price for tuition. It not cheap. You will be limited where you live base on where you kids go to school.

Maybe you can home school them? That save you money. I have expat friend do that and they save money but they say they go crazy trying to be teacher.

Thanks for the link to this website! I will check it out and see what options there are. We have never been to BA so difficult to understand distances other than searches on Google maps but commute times look very long to Nordelta or the other communities. That is not ideal for me as I must be in the office monday-friday.

What is your main reason you want to move here @travelpro? Is it for the experience of living abroad? I Agee it's a good idea to come here first and see distances of everything.

Life here in the USA have gotten so expensive. We thought it would be a good way to save money if the cost of living was lower there. My work colleague told me how cheap it was but it sounds like things have drastically changed since 2023. We would have the opportunity to pay lower taxes with the foreign income tax exclusion and living remotely. My sister and her family needed a place to stay and potentially was going to rent our current house to her.

We wanted to do it for the experience of living abroad again and also saving some money. But Mexico City elevation wasn't idea and the crime in São Paulo we wouldn't want to move there with our kids. We heard such amazing things about Buenos Aires but quite honestly at those prices it would not make sense for us. We thought it would be much more affordable.

We will try to plan a visit down there and research more. Thanks for all the helpful posts.

 

[Larry]

Thank you for this very detailed list! We have a list of general items but this is more detailed and will incorporate into our expense list. We left a lot of things off.

Can I ask why you didn't want to raise your kids in Buenos Aires @earlyretirement? I know that is a personal question so feel free to DM me if you don't want to answer it.

We did not have our children when we lived abroad so this would be a huge change for us. We know it is different making the move with kids vs without them. We did plan to visit before deciding but just researching ahead of time to see if it makes sense has it confused because we read some blogs not that long ago and things are totally outdated which we found difficult to believe.


Thanks for the link to this website! I will check it out and see what options there are. We have never been to BA so difficult to understand distances other than searches on Google maps but commute times look very long to Nordelta or the other communities. That is not ideal for me as I must be in the office monday-friday.


Life here in the USA have gotten so expensive. We thought it would be a good way to save money if the cost of living was lower there. My work colleague told me how cheap it was but it sounds like things have drastically changed since 2023. We would have the opportunity to pay lower taxes with the foreign income tax exclusion and living remotely. My sister and her family needed a place to stay and potentially was going to rent our current house to her.

We wanted to do it for the experience of living abroad again and also saving some money. But Mexico City elevation wasn't idea and the crime in São Paulo we wouldn't want to move there with our kids. We heard such amazing things about Buenos Aires but quite honestly at those prices it would not make sense for us. We thought it would be much more affordable.

We will try to plan a visit down there and research more. Thanks for all the helpful posts.

If you think life in the USA has gotten expensive we are going through the same thing but worse! I am sure that inflation in the USA is nothing like here. We get announcement that beef prices will jump up 10% over night. This is not the time to come to BA.

 

[import export]

I just got a job offer to relocate to Argentina. We enjoy traveling and we have relocated several times with my work. Once to Mexico City and another time to São Paulo. I have 3 children. All of them under 6 years old.

Both my husband and I have done a lot of research but we are finding conflicting reports on if it would be a good move for or not. I have work colleagues that previously lived in Buenos Aires just a short time ago in mid-2023 and commented how cheap it was and while I understand prices might have gone up in the meantime, could they have already gone up so drastically in a short amount of time?

What would a decent budget be to live a great quality of life with 5 people in the household including 3 younger kids? What would a comfortable life cost in net take home income each month? We would want to enjoy traveling a bit and have a reasonable budget for entertainment. I heard the locals are friendly with children.

You will always get a wide variety of answers on cost of living type questions. One of the members of this board has a blog and posted in detail about cost of living. I'm not sure if it's updated to today's prices.

Post in thread 'A newsletter for expats in Buenos Aires'

Aug 8, 2024

Hey all,

The survey is out!

It ended up being just about Buenos Aires (lack of responses in other areas).

Interesting facts:

- Median cost of living is $1,550
- Median rent is $650
- Rent is almost always 40% of total monthly expenses

Here's more information: https://argentinaexpat.com/cost-of-living-buenos-aires/

• Argentina Expat

• 
• 

Cost of living in Buenos Aires in 2024 - Argentina Expat

Want to know how much it costs to live in Buenos Aires in 2024? Our survey provides the results.

argentinaexpat.com

 

[Piranha]

You will always get a wide variety of answers on cost of living type questions. One of the members of this board has a blog and posted in detail about cost of living. I'm not sure if it's updated to today's prices.

Post in thread 'A newsletter for expats in Buenos Aires'

Aug 8, 2024

Hey all,

The survey is out!

It ended up being just about Buenos Aires (lack of responses in other areas).

Interesting facts:

- Median cost of living is $1,550
- Median rent is $650
- Rent is almost always 40% of total monthly expenses

Here's more information: https://argentinaexpat.com/cost-of-living-buenos-aires/

• Argentina Expat

• 
• 

Cost of living in Buenos Aires in 2024 - Argentina Expat

Want to know how much it costs to live in Buenos Aires in 2024? Our survey provides the results.

argentinaexpat.com

I remember seeing that last year. Prices went up since then so probably need to add on quite a bit. The big difference will be going out to eat. Just going out myself it adds up. I can't imagine a family of 5!

 

[FuturoBA]

This website is one of my favorites for researching COL

The Earth Awaits - Buenos Aires, Argentina

Check out my cost of living in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a family of 2!

www.theearthawaits.com

although it doesn't list private schools, health insurance, etc. gives a general idea and you can play with it. For an opulent lifestyle it suggests around $6k w/o the prior items.

 

[Piranha]

This website is one of my favorites for researching COL

The Earth Awaits - Buenos Aires, Argentina

Check out my cost of living in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a family of 2!

www.theearthawaits.com

although it doesn't list private schools, health insurance, etc. gives a general idea and you can play with it. For an opulent lifestyle it suggests around $6k w/o the prior items.

This is excellent! Thanks @FuturoBA! Just checked it out and very good. Thanks.

 

[ChaChaK]

I just got a job offer to relocate to Argentina. We enjoy traveling and we have relocated several times with my work. Once to Mexico City and another time to São Paulo. I have 3 children. All of them under 6 years old.

Both my husband and I have done a lot of research but we are finding conflicting reports on if it would be a good move for or not. I have work colleagues that previously lived in Buenos Aires just a short time ago in mid-2023 and commented how cheap it was and while I understand prices might have gone up in the meantime, could they have already gone up so drastically in a short amount of time?

What would a decent budget be to live a great quality of life with 5 people in the household including 3 younger kids? What would a comfortable life cost in net take home income each month? We would want to enjoy traveling a bit and have a reasonable budget for entertainment. I heard the locals are friendly with children.

DO NOT move to BA if you do not speak fluent Spanish and also have local contacts.