Working in NYC on 80k a year

[Daverino]

Originally posted by: 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.

Who said that? I worked two jobs for a year and a half and saved every penny to afford my own place. And now I never have to pay rent again, which is simply wasted money. If you know what you're doing, you can enter the downtown condo market with 30-50k in the bank, which is what I did. You need even less if you want to live uptown.

And even then, good lord there's enough cool stuff to do in the city without a huge bankroll.

The guy's taking home $3,800 a month and has less than $1,500 dollars in required monthly expenses. That's more than enough to enjoy the city. I think the OP just has a weird definition of 'enjoying the city' if it requires thousands of dollars a month to do so.

 

[Casawi]

This is were I got challenged in my life path too. Good luck.

You in the right track for at least thinking about it... it took me 6 months to realized I shouldn't be spending my entire paycheck.

 

[Connoisseur]

Originally posted by: 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?

Usually I go to the office at 9am and don't usually get back till 10-11pm.

To answer some other questions, our stock purchase plan accrues money for 6 months and at the end of the term, they take the lowest price during that period and subtract 15%; that's the price we purchase the stock at. So basically, I make a guaranteed 15% no questions asked. The stock is doing extremely well and, assuming this trend continues through December, I should be making a HEFTY profit on my investment.

As far as college is concerned, I did learn to booze cheap, but it was primarily by mooching off of others' liquor at parties. Senior year, I believe I blew $500 on student loans on alcohol just for the last semester . No i'm not an alcoholic; i'm just an idiot.

I appreciate everyone's input on how to curb expenses. I def. think i'm spending a lot on going out for food/drinks, although I improved on the drinking as I USED to spend >1k a month partying when I first started working. Now I think the drinking's been curbed to around 200-300 a month; drinks are expensive in NY so it's not THAT much alcohol. I suspect the true money pit is eating out. I'm going to get a costco membership and start buying wholesale.

I did make a couple of relatively big purchases the past couple of months so I know those aren't consistent expenses.

For those of you who work/live in NYC and like saving money, what's your average week like (if you don't mind me asking)? I'm sure this will vary, but i'm more interested in what kind of expenses you guys have.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

For the folks who mentioned 900-1400 rent, where exactly and what's your sq ft size?

 

[Connoisseur]

Originally posted by: PhoenixOrion
For the folks who mentioned 900-1400 rent, where exactly and what's your sq ft size?

Heh 900 for about 450 sq ft. Yes it's a tiny tiny studio. I'm paying for the ridiculous convenience really. But it's a LOT cleaner than a lot of the studios you'll find in the city. My girlfriend lives in a studio for 900 a month 1 block away from Times Sq. Awesome price but OMG what a SHITHOLE. I'm scared to step into that place for fear of catching some disease or stepping on a bug.

 

[hiromizu]

Yea I hear ya. Not much you can do. Everywhere you go, breakfast is ~$5, lunch ~$10 dinner the same and you don't have enough time to cook unless you want to be sleep deprived because you've got other things to do. Everyone else goes out and to fit in, you have to as well which means you spend ~$50 - ~$150 per night ~5x a month. On top of that you have state, city and fed income taxes which pretty much takes away 45% of your gross income to start with. $1500 is considered low rent for a decent apartment in the vicinity. Any less and there's going to be something very wrong.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Yea I hear ya. Not much you can do. Everywhere you go, breakfast is ~$5, lunch ~$10 dinner the same and you don't have enough time to cook unless you want to be sleep deprived because you've got other things to do. Everyone else goes out and to fit in, you have to as well which means you spend ~$50 - ~$150 per night ~5x a month. On top of that you have state, city and fed income taxes which pretty much takes away 45% of your gross income to start with. $1500 is considered low rent for a decent apartment in the vicinity. Any less and there's going to be something very wrong.

Damn, just 4 days short of bumping a year old thread.

 

[Throckmorton]

LOL @ people who add up the cost of living expenses, and it comes out to less than half their income, and then say they can't afford to live in XXX location. Fine, live in Houston, and save $200 on an apartment in the outskirts of the urban sprawl. I'm sure that will make your finances a lot better :roll:

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Yea I hear ya. Not much you can do. Everywhere you go, breakfast is ~$5, lunch ~$10 dinner the same and you don't have enough time to cook unless you want to be sleep deprived because you've got other things to do. Everyone else goes out and to fit in, you have to as well which means you spend ~$50 - ~$150 per night ~5x a month. On top of that you have state, city and fed income taxes which pretty much takes away 45% of your gross income to start with. $1500 is considered low rent for a decent apartment in the vicinity. Any less and there's going to be something very wrong.

Is NY tax that much??

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: pyonir
400-600 a month on food? Seriously? That's WAY too much. Eat pop-tarts for breakfast...and have a sandwich and some fruit lunch...that will cut your costs down a ton. When i was living by myself i was spending less than 300 a month on food...it isn't that hard. (i don't know what food prices are in NYC, but i can't imagine it's THAT much more than when i lived in Phoenix).

pop tarts suck

have some cereal, or eggs and toast. jesus.

and make sammiches. really, dont have time? thats a lousy excuse for someone who wants to cut costs.

 

[bonkers325]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Yea I hear ya. Not much you can do. Everywhere you go, breakfast is ~$5, lunch ~$10 dinner the same and you don't have enough time to cook unless you want to be sleep deprived because you've got other things to do. Everyone else goes out and to fit in, you have to as well which means you spend ~$50 - ~$150 per night ~5x a month. On top of that you have state, city and fed income taxes which pretty much takes away 45% of your gross income to start with. $1500 is considered low rent for a decent apartment in the vicinity. Any less and there's going to be something very wrong.

Is NY tax that much??

no.

you will lose about 30-33% of your gross due to taxes, give or take for IRA/401k and transitcheks

 

[Insomniator]

Cooking is a waste of time and you don't need to do it if your makin 80k and only spending 500 a month on food. That is not a good reason you
aren't saving money...

 

[EKKC]

120k and feel like a bum in queens. i dont know how you ppl do it

 

[Genx87]

Stop eating out at lunch. Biggest money drain I have found. You think 5 bucks isnt a lot until you do the math. 25 bucks a week, 100 bucks a month, 1200 a year. In your case double it since you are eating breakfast. And it may even be more than that since you are eating more expensive than 5 bucks a pop. You could be upwards of 3-5K a year in food expenses. That is a lot of pre-tax income out the window.

 

[EKKC]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Stop eating out at lunch. Biggest money drain I have found. You think 5 bucks isnt a lot until you do the math. 25 bucks a week, 100 bucks a month, 1200 a year. In your case double it since you are eating breakfast. And it may even be more than that since you are eating more expensive than 5 bucks a pop. You could be upwards of 3-5K a year in food expenses. That is a lot of pre-tax income out the window.

i havent had lunch outside for a while. a stupid half-soup half salad with no drink cost me almost $9 the other day.

agreed. it is a money drain, that's why i've been bringing my own lunch for the past 3-4 years.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: 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?

this is what I thought immediately. As a general rule of thumb, I never invest in the company I work for. My salary is one huge egg in the basket, no need to add more.

Better to put the 8% into 401k.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Yea I hear ya. Not much you can do. Everywhere you go, breakfast is ~$5, lunch ~$10 dinner the same and you don't have enough time to cook unless you want to be sleep deprived because you've got other things to do. Everyone else goes out and to fit in, you have to as well which means you spend ~$50 - ~$150 per night ~5x a month. On top of that you have state, city and fed income taxes which pretty much takes away 45% of your gross income to start with. $1500 is considered low rent for a decent apartment in the vicinity. Any less and there's going to be something very wrong.

Is NY tax that much??

No. Even with my 401k maxed at 15.5k, health, taxes..etc, my paycheck is still about 58% of gross.

Fed being around 33% (actual tax rate was 28%), state around 5%, city around 4.5%

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: EKKC
120k and feel like a bum in queens. i dont know how you ppl do it

I am more than that and my wife takes home a decent amount. We were spending 3.2k/mo on rent (UWS), and we were doing OK, although not nearly as well as I would have liked. Now we're in Stamford and saving about 2k/mo on living costs. Don't miss the city much.

 

[EKKC]

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: EKKC
120k and feel like a bum in queens. i dont know how you ppl do it

I am more than that and my wife takes home a decent amount. We were spending 3.2k/mo on rent (UWS), and we were doing OK, although not nearly as well as I would have liked. Now we're in Stamford and saving about 2k/mo on living costs. Don't miss the city much.

rent is just a waste. even with interest, taking a mortgage on a nice condo or a townhouse is definitely much better

of course you had to have something saved up for the down payment. we just decided it was too stupid to pay $1300/month for a place in queens. that's $15000 down the drain a year. so yeah living in UWS or UES is just burning money

its weird for me, i work in CT and Westchester most of the time, but i'm still paying the hefty NYC tax by living in queens, but the gf's got to work in manhattan, oh well what are ya gonna do?

 

[markgm]

I don't think your budget is that far off, you're probably just spending too much money on the meals that aren't breakfast and lunch. Curb going out as much and that bill will drop. What I started to do is host dinner at my place with different friends, and then we move it around. Last week I had 6 people over and I made a lobster dinner that was less than I could spend on a night out. This week I'll be going over to a friends' house's and not spend a dime.

$5 for breakfast and $10 for lunch isn't horrible if that's what you like to do. I probably spend close to the same. For breakfast I grab an energy bar (buy them at Costco) and then when I get to work I have some fruit. I could go buy some fruit at home but I feel like it always goes bad before I eat it so it winds up being a bigger waste of money. I go out for lunch and that's my 'spending time with the people I work with' moment.

If you can scale that back then you can up the amounts you invest. When I was making 80k I was able to put 10% into the stock purchase plan (same as yours) 6% into the 401(k), and 5k a year into a Roth IRA, and my mortgage and taxes are a little less than 3 times what your rent is.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: EKKC

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: EKKC
120k and feel like a bum in queens. i dont know how you ppl do it

I am more than that and my wife takes home a decent amount. We were spending 3.2k/mo on rent (UWS), and we were doing OK, although not nearly as well as I would have liked. Now we're in Stamford and saving about 2k/mo on living costs. Don't miss the city much.

rent is just a waste. even with interest, taking a mortgage on a nice condo or a townhouse is definitely much better

of course you had to have something saved up for the down payment. we just decided it was too stupid to pay $1300/month for a place in queens. that's $15000 down the drain a year. so yeah living in UWS or UES is just burning money

its weird for me, i work in CT and Westchester most of the time, but i'm still paying the hefty NYC tax by living in queens, but the gf's got to work in manhattan, oh well what are ya gonna do?

We were in the city for 14 months, 2 months of free rent. We ended up burning a crap-ton of money on rent and I just couldn't take it anymore. Not for a 688sqft apartment, even if it was "luxury" (by NYC standards).

I don't understand the tax situation myself. I'm actually still paying NY state tax, despite living in CT. My HR dept. says that's how it works, I just apply the NY state tax to my CT return and I'll get cash back, since NYS taxes are higher than CT.

I tell ya though, living in CT is far better than the city, even if the commute is longer.

 

[Connoisseur]

Ha ha damn. Can't believe this thread got bumped from way back then. I didn't even recognize that it was my thread until I started reading the first post... I thought to myself... "Wait a second, this sounds damn familiar."

In either case, here's a quick update on my situation as well as some replies to other posts if anyone ever cared to know. Cliffs at the bottom:

• I now make 90k base + 18k bonus. It's still not much at all although i'm not complaining
  
  I'm still living in the same building because I realized how choice the location is (8-9 minutes to hoboken, ~20min to Manhattan) but I moved into a 2BR with my buddy. Save a couple hundred a month and have much more space. But I do miss living by myself sometimes
  
  I'm now paying 15% of my paycheck into the Employee Stock Purchase Program. In my opinion, it's been the best investment ever. Basically, they accrue my money for a 6 month time frame (Jan-June, July-Dec). At the end of the 6 month frame, they determine the lowest price between the first and last date and purchase stocks at a 15% discount of the lowest price. Basically, I get a "guaranteed" 15% return (if I decide to sell it immediately). Currently, our stock is doing extremely well and I stand to make a MUCH higher rate of return. I haven't found the time to start investing in the stock market so this is the next best option
  
  I don't go out nearly as much anymore. Not having a girlfriend does miracles for the wallet so i'm saving a bit more money.
  
  Finally, I don't worry so much about saving money. I'm doing it and I don't freak out about it anymore.

Cliffs:
A year later and I'm doing ok for myself

 

[markgm]

Rock on!

 

[imported_Lothar]

Why are people putting money into employee stock purchase plans when they haven't maxed their 401k yet?

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

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?

exactly, this thread title is is misleading because you may be working in NYC, but that's irrelevant since you're living in JC on the cheap.