The sourced starting points
Use these as a starting range, not as a single true price. Rent methods differ, and that difference matters more than any single average. Vietnam rents are often quoted in dollars to foreigners, but this calculator uses dong so the conversion stays visible.
| Item | Atlanta | Ho Chi Minh City | Source and caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom rent, per month | $1,544 median, new leases | $750 to $1,200 expat-standard, about 19,400,000 to 31,000,000 VND at 25,843 VND per $1; local listings run lower | Atlanta: Apartment List October 2026 Rent Index, September 2026 estimates, one-bedroom median $1,544, all sizes $1,540. Ho Chi Minh City: Asia Long Stay expat rent guide, listing and agency ranges February to April 2026, comfortable expat-standard one-bedroom $750 to $1,200, wider one-bedroom range $500 to $1,400. Crowdsourced cost-of-living figures put a city-centre one-bedroom near $445, which measures a different, more local market, so do not mix that figure with expat-standard serviced or modern condo rents. |
| Vietnam income tax, 2026, residents | Five progressive bands on monthly taxable income after deductions: 5% to 10,000,000 VND, 10% to 30,000,000 VND, 20% to 60,000,000 VND, 30% to 100,000,000 VND, 35% above. Personal deduction 15,500,000 VND per month, 6,200,000 VND per dependent per month. Non-residents pay a flat 20% on Vietnam-sourced employment income, with no family deductions. | Multiple 2026 summaries of Personal Income Tax Law 109/2025/QH15 checked 24 October 2026, agreeing on the five bands and deductions. Older seven-band schedules still appear in some sources: those are the pre-2026 schedule, not the 2026 schedule used here. Whether you are a resident depends on days present and residence status, so enter your own effective rate in the calculator and get personal advice. | |
| US tax, Atlanta | No single rate is used here. Federal tax plus Georgia state tax apply, and your effective rate depends on income, filing status, and deductions. | Enter your own effective tax rate in the calculator. Do not use a headline marginal rate as if it were your total tax. | |
| Healthcare, in one line | Mainly employer or private insurance in the US, with premiums, deductibles, and copays on top of tax. | Public hospitals are low cost but crowded and Vietnamese-language, private and international hospitals are far more comfortable and cost far more, and foreigners outside formal employment are generally outside the public scheme, so private cover is the realistic plan. | This is a system difference, not a price. Budget for private or international cover, and check whether a policy covers motorbike use, which is a common exclusion. |
Why the Ho Chi Minh City range is wide: a local one-bedroom, a modern expat condo, and a serviced apartment in District 1 are different products at different prices. Pick the building type and district that matches your move, then replace the range with listings you have actually seen.
Try it: match your life, not just your salary
Ho Chi Minh City rent is entered in dong and converted at the editable exchange rate, so you can see the conversion instead of guessing it. Other Ho Chi Minh City costs are an example only, replace them with your own.
Formula, in plain words: take-home needed in Ho Chi Minh City equals Ho Chi Minh City monthly costs in dollars plus your current monthly cushion, divided by one minus your Ho Chi Minh City tax rate. This is illustrative maths, not a tax calculation. The bands above are the check, not a substitute for a personal calculation.
Worked example, checked: $85,000 salary, 22% tax now, $1,544 rent now, $1,800 other costs now, 23,000,000 VND rent, 15,000,000 VND other costs, 1 VND = $0.00003869, 20% tax there gives about $54,768 equivalent gross salary, about $1,470 monthly Ho Chi Minh City costs in dollars, and about $1,874 per month lower costs than Atlanta on these inputs.
Your result
Equivalent gross salary needed in Ho Chi Minh City
Savings difference is Atlanta monthly costs minus Ho Chi Minh City monthly costs in dollars. Positive means Ho Chi Minh City costs less on these inputs. It is not a savings forecast, because tax, healthcare, transport, and lifestyle are only partly in these fields, and a lower salary in Vietnam may also mean lower US tax and visa costs that are not in this calculator.
Saved comparisons stay in this browser only, on this device. No account, no email, no data sent anywhere in this draft.
Official links to check, not search results
No Vietnam government link is given on this page, and that is deliberate. The Vietnam e-visa portal address appears in secondary summaries, but a direct fetch of the official portal did not verify it in this drafting pass, so no link is printed here rather than risking a copycat address. Go to the Vietnam Immigration Department portal through an official government listing, check the domain ends in .gov.vn, and do not pay an agency surcharge on top of the official fee without knowing exactly what it buys.
Scam warning, in general terms: other websites imitate government visa services and charge more than the official fee. If the address is not a .gov.vn government address, or the price is higher than the official fee, stop. Do not enter passport details or payment details there.
There is no matching US passport to Vietnam visa page in this cluster, so this page does not link to a companion visa page. A short visit is not a move: get immigration advice for work or residence permission.
What this page still does not do
- Family size: one-bedroom rent and a single-person budget do not scale cleanly to a family. A family version needs bedroom count, schooling, and childcare as separate fields.
- Housing ownership: buying, mortgage, and ownership rules for foreigners are not in this calculator. Renters only, for now.
- Pension and remote income: salary mode only in this template. Pension mode and remote-income mode are not yet built.
- Visa and residence: a short visit is not a move. See the note above: there is no companion visa page for this pair in this cluster.
Sources, checked 24 October 2026
- Apartment List October 2026 Rent Index: Atlanta one-bedroom median $1,544, all sizes $1,540, September 2026 estimates.
- Asia Long Stay expat rent guide, listing and agency ranges February to April 2026: Ho Chi Minh City comfortable expat-standard one-bedroom $750 to $1,200, wider one-bedroom range $500 to $1,400.
- TravelSafe-Abroad cost-of-living figures, crowdsourced: Ho Chi Minh City one-bedroom city centre $445.05, outside centre $286.67. Different market slice from expat-standard rents, shown only to explain the gap.
- Vietnam 2026 resident personal income tax bands 5% to 35% and deductions 15,500,000 VND personal and 6,200,000 VND per dependent per month, from multiple 2026 summaries of Law 109/2025/QH15 checked that day. Non-resident flat 20% from the same summaries.
- Exchange rate: $1 = 25,843 VND, 1 VND = $0.00003869, on 24 October 2026, from market summaries checked that day. Editable in the calculator.
- Vietnam healthcare summary: public hospitals low cost, private and international hospitals higher cost, foreigners outside formal employment generally outside the public scheme, from 2026 expat healthcare guides checked that day.
- Sources note: no Vietnam government URL is linked on this page because a direct official-site fetch did not verify the portal address in this drafting pass. Recheck the Immigration Department portal before publication and add the verified link then.
If any figure above has moved since 24 October 2026, the page is out of date until it is rechecked. That is the point of the last-checked stamp.