Pl guide about cost of living per month in Seattle (US) for a single, transferring from India,?

coming for job , age 34 , consider moderate expenditure- including housing, utilities (like power, gas, phone , internet unlimited ),food, transport (own car or rental or taxi for to and fro to work place from accommodation near 6th avenue). miscellaneous and health insurance.
pl help to give possible detail as i want to come to a figure of outgoing per month say 2k to 2.5k or 3k to 3.5 k or even up to 4k? this is urgently require to negotiate salary . ( if some one is sure about state and federal taxes on 60k salary then can give exact deduction of tax)
any one knows good sites can also indicate. thanks in advance.. and pl don't reply for fun...as this answer may be helpful to many.

If you intend to live downtown you'll be paying around $1,000 for a one bedroom apartment. An easy way to get an idea of pricing of rentals is just go to http://www.seattletimes.com and click on the Classifieds or look at rentals on http://www.rent.com

My neighbours, friends and I all tend to use Comcast for internet, cable and if you also want, phone service. Promo packages will run you about $100 a month for all three. You can check pricing at http://www.comcast.com A lot of people don't bother with home phones - they just use their cell. A cell with 1,000 minutes will run you about $50 a month.

Electric cost will really depend on what you live in - rented room? Apartment with washer/dryer? No washer/dryer? I had a friend living downtown and his electric only ran about $30 a month without a washer/dryer. Some units you will also be subject to trash/sewer so check with the landlord before you sign anything.

If you're not going to have a car Seattle has a great bus system that will get you around town quite cheaply. You can even buy monthly passes to make the cost even less.

Food - depends on whether you're one to cook at home or eat out a lot so this expense can vary greatly. There's lots of grocery stores from the big chains to small family-owned stores. So shopping around a bit can save you quite a bit of money.

Health insurance - this would most likely be provided by your employer. They may pay the full cost or more likely share the cost with you. Individually policies are rather expensive and tend to come with high out-of-pocket deductibles before the insurance company starts to pay.

As for deductions on $60K salary - you'd be subject to FICA tax which is 7.65% of your salary. Federal Withholding depends on what you intend to claim - Single/0, Single/1, etc. General rule is your paycheck will be about 80-85% of your gross wages after FICA and FWT. There is no State Income Tax in Washington. Some employers also deduct a portion of their L&I tax from employees but this is VERY minor so nothing you really should waste time factoring in.

There's a few really good books out for people moving to the area. I picked up one called "Relocating to Seattle and Surrounding Areas" when I moved up here from Florida. It had loads of info plus links to all kinds of sites with more info, plus contact info for utility companies, etc. Here's a link to that book and several others - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105...

Good luck on the move. Seattle's a great place to live! And there's LOTS of people here from India so you definitely won't feel like the "odd man out" :)