Working in NYC on 80k a year

[Koing]

Eating and going out.

I'm saving a lot of money but not going out that much but also I'm such a lightweight when it comes to drink it is basically pathetic . I'm pretty hammered on 4 pints!

Drink less and cook meals. Don't have time to cook dinner and have some of it for lunch? Don't have time to save £18!

Your cable and internet seems f0cking expensive, but every AT I have seen pays a lot for their cable/ internet. Do you watch that many channels?! Cut back a bit on that and you instantly have saved $500 a year.

Koing

 

[AMCRambler]

Originally posted by: Koing
Eating and going out.

I'm saving a lot of money but not going out that much but also I'm such a lightweight when it comes to drink it is basically pathetic . I'm pretty hammered on 4 pints!

Drink less and cook meals. Don't have time to cook dinner and have some of it for lunch? Don't have time to save £18!

Your cable and internet seems f0cking expensive, but every AT I have seen pays a lot for their cable/ internet. Do you watch that many channels?! Cut back a bit on that and you instantly have saved $500 a year.

Koing

Four pints is a pretty decent amount of beer dude. That's like 5 beers. Usually gets me pretty buzzed. And if you're drinking microbrew or German beer, the alcohol content is even higher than the American domestics.
Now if you're drinking 4 pints over the course of 3-4 hours and it's kicking your butt, then I'd say you're a lightweight, hehe.

 

[Deeko]

4 pints is not a lot of beer....

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Koing
Eating and going out.

I'm saving a lot of money but not going out that much but also I'm such a lightweight when it comes to drink it is basically pathetic . I'm pretty hammered on 4 pints!

Drink less and cook meals. Don't have time to cook dinner and have some of it for lunch? Don't have time to save £18!

Your cable and internet seems f0cking expensive, but every AT I have seen pays a lot for their cable/ internet. Do you watch that many channels?! Cut back a bit on that and you instantly have saved $500 a year.

Koing

$80 a month for cable/internet isn't really a bad deal here.

At least we don't have to pay VAT on every single thing.

 

[ahurtt]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
yeah food's pretty pricey in NY. Breakfast generally costs me 4-5 bucks. Lunch about 10. I can probably cheapen the breakfast but I don't really have time to pack a lunch. I have to find some cheap places to eat around here. I'm trying to maintain some semblance of healthy eating.

"I don't have time" in my mind translates to "I sleep too late to get up and make my own breakfast/pack my own lunch."

STOP EATING OUT!
You don't need to be Iron Chef to pack a sandwich for lunch and have a bowl of cereal for breakfast. "I don't have time" usually translates to "I am lazy and oversleep."

Stop going out to bars / quit drinking so much.
You will save much more money if you follow this simple advice. Take it for whatever you will. . .It's a simple truth. You are throwing away your money and coming on here to bitch about your own bad habits.

 

[AmpedSilence]

Originally posted by: ahurtt

"I don't have time" in my mind translates to "I sleep too late to get up and make my own breakfast/pack my own lunch."

STOP EATING OUT!
You don't need to be Iron Chef to pack a sandwich for lunch and have a bowl of cereal for breakfast. "I don't have time" usually translates to "I am lazy and oversleep."

In addition, if are really serious. spend ten minutes on a Sunday morning while you are recovering from your night out to look at the Sunday paper. Go to the grocery store ads and see what they have on sale. Things like Lean Cuisines, Smart Ones, and Healthly Choices come on sale all the time. Go to the store once a week and buy five of them. Try out a few varieties and find the ones you like. Trust me they really are all not gross and disgusting. Just be careful of the sodium content on them, thats the only downfall. You'll probably spend less on lunch and still have the convenance of just "grabbing and going". I used to do that when i lived by myself. I live at home now so its not a worry about spending $8/day for lunch since my other expenses are non-existent. But spending $2/day on a frozen meal is MUCH better than spending $10/day on lunch.

Also, poptarts, muffins, and other breakfasty type foods are not that expensive. Once again going through the sunday paper will yield you great results for finding foods that are on sale and you can use. An hour a week could potentially save you up $55+/week. Is your hour worth $55? For your pay rate, it is.

 

[ahurtt]

Here's an article from thestreet.com: Top 10 reasons why you aren't rich

Ask yourself and answer honestly, do any of these reasons apply to you?
From your post here, sounds like you should pay particular attention to reason number 3. You Have Bad Habits.

I speak from experience. I can't believe how much more money I save every month since I quit drinking and quit going out to bars/clubs. Once I got out of those bad habits and had time to clear my head and look back at my old spending habits, I figured that I had easily been throwing away $150-$300 PER WEEK going out and getting pissed and shooting pool (with the lions share going toward the "getting faced" part). Drinks in bars are EXPENSIVE! That's not to say you can never go out and have fun but keep it realistic. . .moderation is the key. One or two nights a week max and don't drink so much you are plastered. Two or three drinks max. If you are drinking much more than that on a weekly basis you should probably consider that you are abusing alcohol and my be developing what could become a serious drinking problem down the road.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler

Originally posted by: Koing
Eating and going out.

I'm saving a lot of money but not going out that much but also I'm such a lightweight when it comes to drink it is basically pathetic . I'm pretty hammered on 4 pints!

Drink less and cook meals. Don't have time to cook dinner and have some of it for lunch? Don't have time to save £18!

Your cable and internet seems f0cking expensive, but every AT I have seen pays a lot for their cable/ internet. Do you watch that many channels?! Cut back a bit on that and you instantly have saved $500 a year.

Koing

Four pints is a pretty decent amount of beer dude. That's like 5 beers. Usually gets me pretty buzzed. And if you're drinking microbrew or German beer, the alcohol content is even higher than the American domestics.
Now if you're drinking 4 pints over the course of 3-4 hours and it's kicking your butt, then I'd say you're a lightweight, hehe.

A few weeks ago it was 4 pints in about 90mins and I was wrecked. My mates ploughed on but they just handle it much better then I do.

VAT sucks but I have to live with it.

Koing

 

[alkemyst]

A $20k bump is a bit much to hope for in today's economy. Don't budget money you don't have yet. Also as a good rule of thumb if you can always put into savings/investment 1/2 of a raise, you still get a raise you can play with and have greater retirement potential.

 

[akshatp]

Originally posted by: akubi

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: elmro
Quick thread-jack follow-up - How do you get home at 4 in the morning to NJ? Are the trains still running? Do cabs go there? I've always wondered what NJ partyers did.

PATH runs 24/7

yeah but jersey city's a ghetto, i wouldn't want to take the path there after midnight.

When is the last time you were in the area? Not all of JC is a ghetto...

 

[nageov3t]

I enjoyed the NY life on half that.

people like to exaggerate... believe it or not, you can still enjoy life without living in a townhouse in the middle of NYC, having the latest and greatest toys, going on crazy vacations, etc.

 

[aceO07]

That's a lot of spending on food. What are your hours if you don't have time to eat breakfast at home or prepare lunch?

 

[Daverino]

I live in Chelsea NYC on just over 80K a year and I own my own condo. No problems here. . . loving it just fine. Granted I don't eat at Le Bernadin's every night, but still. If you're having problems in NYC on 80K you've really gotta be pushing it. Mind you I have no car, but I'm sure I more than make up for it in mortgage payments.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Daverino
I live in Chelsea NYC on just over 80K a year and I own my own condo. No problems here. . . loving it just fine. Granted I don't eat at Le Bernadin's every night, but still. If you're having problems in NYC on 80K you've really gotta be pushing it. Mind you I have no car, but I'm sure I more than make up for it in mortgage payments.

Not everyone has mommy and daddy to help pay the down payment.

 

[Nerva]

I think 80k is quite enough to live in NYC. i make 60k a year base, and here are my rough expenses:

1400 - rent + cellphone (upper east side)
180 - lunch
60 - subway

i think that's all t he major items. which is under 2k. you should be fine.

 

[Josh]

Get a 30 pack keystone light. Pre-game. Save money at bar.

 

[DT4K]

I'm not in NY, but unless I'm missing something, that's pretty much irrelevant since your rent is only a very small portion of your expenses.
I make about that much and support a wife and 4 kids with a $1700/month mortgage payment and big utility bills (3500 sq. ft house). I still manage to have money to play golf every weekend and take the family out to dinner at least once (sometimes 2 or 3 times) a week.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: DT4K
I'm not in NY, but unless I'm missing something, that's pretty much irrelevant since your rent is only a very small portion of your expenses.
I make about that much and support a wife and 4 kids with a $1700/month mortgage payment and big utility bills (3500 sq. ft house). I still manage to have money to play golf every weekend and take the family out to dinner at least once (sometimes 2 or 3 times) a week.

in NYC, rent is quite likely to be 30-50% of your take-home.

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: DT4K
I'm not in NY, but unless I'm missing something, that's pretty much irrelevant since your rent is only a very small portion of your expenses.
I make about that much and support a wife and 4 kids with a $1700/month mortgage payment and big utility bills (3500 sq. ft house). I still manage to have money to play golf every weekend and take the family out to dinner at least once (sometimes 2 or 3 times) a week.

in NYC, rent is quite likely to be 30-50% of your take-home.

That's my point. His rent is only $900/month, so what else is so expensive about working in NYC?

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: DT4K

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: DT4K
I'm not in NY, but unless I'm missing something, that's pretty much irrelevant since your rent is only a very small portion of your expenses.
I make about that much and support a wife and 4 kids with a $1700/month mortgage payment and big utility bills (3500 sq. ft house). I still manage to have money to play golf every weekend and take the family out to dinner at least once (sometimes 2 or 3 times) a week.

in NYC, rent is quite likely to be 30-50% of your take-home.

That's my point. His rent is only $900/month, so what else is so expensive about working in NYC?

Food, hookers, alcohol, blow,...you can't avoid going out unless you enjoy being holed up in a cramp ass apt.

 

[SSSnail]

I think mainly because your $80K is worth about $40K in actuality.

 

[Skeeedunt]

Originally posted by: elmro

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
I'm not sure myself but I suspect the rest of the money goes towards partying (drinking primarily).

Quote of the century!!

You are my new best friend

It is easy to party on 80K a year - you are already doing it.

:laugh:

Yeah spending over $1k/month on boozing will really eat into your bottom line.

 

[Sphexi]

Yeah, so that's like, 25-26k a year in expenses, where's the other 50k going?

 

[tranceport]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
ha ha lol sorry forgot to mention some important things. 6% goes into 401k pretax straight from my paycheck and about 8% goes into the employee stock purchase plan post-tax. After social security/medical/dental it comes out to something like 3800/month give or take. I'm not sure myself but I suspect the rest of the money goes towards partying (drinking primarily).

What incentive are they giving with the employee stock purchase plan? I would most likely not buy their stock and instead invest it elsewhere. How is this stock doing? Can you cash out at any time?

 

[Anghang]

starting with what you pull into your pocket per month: 3800

concrete monthly expenses:
900 apt
150 car (is this gas or monthly payment)
180 student loan
80 cable/internet
70 gym

Total = 1380

3800 - 1380 = 2420 a month

fluctuating monthly expenses:
400-600 food
100 misc. going out (bi)weekly
assuming the max, this can equal 1000 a month

2420 - 1000 = 1420 a month saved

my expenses are similar, this is how i cut back on expenses and maybe you can too:
1. reduce your cable to the lowest minimum package (no premium channels), or just get rid of it completely
2. no gym membership, i run and do body weight exercises (pushups, crunches, pullups, chinups, etc)
3. buy food in bulk, with a car you can drive to Costco or Sam's club to buy food in bulk, this includes ready-made food since you don't cook. ie: whole rotisserie chicken is like $5 and will last you a couple to several days, veggies and fruits are cheap, also get a cheap rice cooker and buy a 20 lb bag of rice...rice is cheap and can be eaten with almost any food
4. going out with $100 weekly is costly, if this is alcohol and partying, time to reduce it...drink at home before going out, drink beer instead of liquor and/or go early to take advantage of happy hour or drink specials
5. if you use credit cards, make sure you partake in any rewards program they have so you can eventually redeem for things you would normally spend money on
6. keep an eye out for free tasting events, free alcohol and food is always good

good luck