Could I survive and save some money earning 65k in NY? • Hacker News Board

Re: Could I survive and save some money earning 65k in NY?

#11

Post by coreymaass » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:59 PM UTC

I've previously earned as much as $110,000, and spent it without effort. Cabs. Big nights out. Clothes. Fancy restaurants. A nicer apartment than I needed.

Now I've been living on less than $2000/month for a six months. I had a nice apartment in South Slope (roommates, $700/month, 40 minutes to Soho), and have recently moved to Queens (with my girlfriend, $600/month, 30 minutes to Time's Square). My girlfriend had previously been paying $1200/month by herself, on a salary of $65,000, maxing out her retirement, and socking away a couple grand a month.

We never take cabs. We drink at home. We go out to great restaurants ($50 or less for two people), but not up-scale ones. We cook a lot at home. She takes lunches. We work really hard not to buy more crap we don't need.

I've lived here for 12 years. I started out in Harlem and loved it. Over time, the more I paid for my life here, the less I liked it. The old, gritty New York is getting harder to find, and it's getting easier to never see it. Once I started living cheaper, suddenly I found myself in the New York I'd been missing for years. It's full of surprises, real people, history, and depth. In my opinion, the best way to really live in New York, appreciate it for what it is, and get the most out of it, is to try to spend as little money as possible. The best things in life are free?

Re: Could I survive and save some money earning 65k in NY?

#12

Post by jyu » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 3:21 PM UTC

T-hawk wrote: post #6

I did this, on a 40k salary, in 2003. I had a $1k/month studio apartment in Hoboken NJ and commuted on the Path subway to lower Manhattan. I kept spending very low: never went to restaurants, never traveled, no relationship, no cell phone, cheapest available DSL internet at $30/month. For food I'd sometimes actually get ramen, but more often other cheap groceries like store brand cereals, pancake mix, PB&J. I had abo…

Cheap rents in NJ is not true anymore. Hoboken and Jersey City rents are pretty comparable to cheaper parts of Manhattan. Same story in Williamsburg.

Re: Could I survive and save some money earning 65k in NY?

#13

Post by jyu » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 3:27 PM UTC

coreymaass wrote: post #11

I've previously earned as much as $110,000, and spent it without effort. Cabs. Big nights out. Clothes. Fancy restaurants. A nicer apartment than I needed. Now I've been living on less than $2000/month for a six months. I had a nice apartment in South Slope (roommates, $700/month, 40 minutes to Soho), and have recently moved to Queens (with my girlfriend, $600/month, 30 minutes to Time's Square). My girlfriend had pr…

I used to spend $7k / mo living in Manhattan. Now I have a live in gf, and we spend ~$3k/mo living in the same place in Manhattan. The extra $1k/mo from coreymass is probably from the difference in rent.

Pretty similar lifestyle change: no cabs, drink out 1-2x / wk, go to great restaurants 1-2x / wk, and cook at home a lot. We like going out to gritty New York to explore on weekends, and enjoy the fast commutes to work during the weekdays.

Re: Could I survive and save some money earning 65k in NY?

#14

Post by codegeek » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 7:44 PM UTC

Sure you can do it. I did it with 40K salary even though a decade ago. If you are single, one possible scenario

- Housing cost: $800-$1200 for shared housing/apartment in queens etc.

- Subway: $110/mo

- Grocery: $400/mo (100/wk average)

- No car (this is huge)

- cell phone/internet: $200/mo

- Entertainment: $200/mo ($50/week)

Total: $1700-$2100 /mo

On a 65K salary, you are looking at income of: $5416/mo gross. $3791/mo net.(30% tax roughly.)

cashflow in = $3791

cashflow out = $2100

You are in good shape.

Re: Could I survive and save some money earning 65k in NY?

#15

Post by berserkpi » Thu, Jan 24, 2013, 1:30 AM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #14

Sure you can do it. I did it with 40K salary even though a decade ago. If you are single, one possible scenario - Housing cost: $800-$1200 for shared housing/apartment in queens etc. - Subway: $110/mo - Grocery: $400/mo (100/wk average) - No car (this is huge) - cell phone/internet: $200/mo - Entertainment: $200/mo ($50/week) Total: $1700-$2100 /mo On a 65K salary, you are looking at income of: $5416/mo gross. $3791/…

Nice answer mister, thank you very much.

Re: Could I survive and save some money earning 65k in NY?

#16

Post by Bramble » Sat, Jan 26, 2013, 11:15 PM UTC

If you don't mind living in the outerboroughs, taking the subway every day, and having roommates, this should be easy.

When I was 18 - 22 (2007 - 2010), I saved over 10k making about 30k-40k a year in 4 years in NYC. I was also paying off about 6k in student loans at the time, going out drinking about once a week, splurging on clothing every once in a while, and eating out a lot.

I lived in Queens (Astoria and Sunnyside, in my case, though I could have found cheaper if I was okay with a sketchier area) for about $900 a month with roommates and commuted by train. I had an expensive (NYSC) gym membership, a cell phone, and a social life. I enjoyed what NYC had to offer.

To be honest, every time I hear someone say that NYC is too expensive for them and they can barely make ends meet, I look at their lifestyle and see immediate room for improvement: They refuse to live outside of Manhattan, they go out 3-4X a week compared to my 1, they insist on going to the most expensive, trendy places that were recently featured in XYZ magazine, whereas I enjoy eating out at the neighborhood Thai place and grabbing drinks from my neighborhood bar. They insist that they "need" to buy new clothes every few weeks for some reason, whereas I would splurge once every few months.

I could have saved a lot more during those 4 years if I were eating ramen every night, sure, but I put life enjoyment above my monetary nest egg. Even now, as a working student, I will not stoop to eating PB&J and Ramen as my only sources of nutrition. I live outside of NYC now, live on 15k, and still don't feel that I lack for anything. I think a lot of people don't keep track of their spending as well as they purport.