Cost of living in NYC- a break down

[MRoss]

As I told my high school classes last year: If you have a family of 2 kids in NYC, better earn $20,000 than $100,000.

With $20,000 you get:
1) Section 8 (nearly entire rent paid)
2) HEAP (no more heating bills)
3) Food stamps
4) WIC
5) Americhoice
6) Baby-sitting paid by government
7) Tax-Returns (+$8,000)
8) ...

Walk away with = $28,000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With $100,000 you get:
1) Nearly $40,000 in taxes ('cause you have such a small family)
2) Must pay rent (-$25,000)
3) Must pay heat (-$4,000)
4) Must pay for food (-$5,000)
5) Must buy baby stuff (-$3,000)
6) Must pay health insurance (-$10,000)
7) Must pay baby-sitters (-$6,000)
8) ...

Walk away with = $7,000

Remind me why I'm in school again?

 

[MRoss]

...oh right. To earn $250,000.

 

[Eugene Krel]

there is a vast difference between living on foodstamps and not....

 

[bigbadwolf]

It's a dog's life being a millionaire. Forget your kid's third iPad or wife's Porsche of the month, I hear you now get bounced out of some Meatpacking dist. clubs for forgetting to update your rolex to the current week's model. Give me my 12,000 a year and Harlem shanty any day.

Just being barely a millionaire (i.e., net worth between $1m and $5m) doesn't mean much in major cities like NYC and London. I doubt such a millionaire could afford a Porsche. Someone -- I forget who -- came up with classification of $1m-10m as affluent, $10m-100m as middle-class rich and $100m-1bn as very rich, withe the bilionaires being in another category. The 6-bedroom penthouse at the recently completely One Hyde Park Corner (London) sold for 140m pounds (~$210m). Roman Abramovish's yacht supposedly cost $1.1bn.

Even a Harlem shanty must be worth several hundred thousand dollars -- weren't they trying to gentrify it some time back?

Money doesn't buy what it used to. And also, as the disparities in wealth have increased, many of those at the upper end have got vastly richer and there are differences among them themselves.

 

[Avinash Burra]

Just being barely a millionaire (i.e., net worth between $1m and $5m) doesn't mean much in major cities like NYC and London. I doubt such a millionaire could afford a Porsche.

My deepest sympathies to the people in the above category. Anyone who struggles to get by comfortably in NYC on $500,000 a year is, if for lack of a more eloquent description, a bleedin' eejit. By most estimates (I wish I had the links readily available), a family of 4 can lead a comfortable middle class lifestyle in NYC on $170,000 + a year. On $500,000, with sensible spending, one can lead a luxurious life.

 

[Avinash Burra]

Even a Harlem shanty must be worth several hundred thousand dollars -- weren't they trying to gentrify it some time back?

Yes, a 2br condo in a new construction in El Barrio is going for around $600,000 currently. The buildings are brand new, but I've heard horror stories about heating, leaks and generally shoddy fittings. I checked out a couple recently and they indeed were filth.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Why not go a bit further up to Riverdale or cross the river?
You pay an arm and leg for trying to stay in Manhattan. A few more extra subway stops will lower your cost significantly.

 

[MRoss]

People take the subway when they make over $500K? I always wondered what the salaries of those businessmen in the fancy suits on the subways were...

 

[alain]

People take the subway when they make over $500K?.

why not?

 

[MRoss]

why not?

I always assumed the class difference would make people uncomfortable. For example: I try not to take the subway back to Far Rockaway every night because I know that late nights are not nearly as safe as the LIRR. I pay a $6 premium per ride for this.

 

[Avinash Burra]

People take the subway when they make over $500K?

My boss at my previous job used to make around 1 mn a year and he occasionally used to take the subway to get back in touch with his younger days. His usual mode of transport was limo service, and in the absence of that, yellow cab.

 

[Lyosha]

I pay $900 a month in east harlem...

Manhattan is supposedly one of the worst places in NYC to own real estate; renting is supposed to be much cheaper.

 

[Eugene Krel]

not every affluent person has to wear a $10k suit on the subway. they might be wearing ripped jeans and a tshirt just as easily.

 

[myampol]

Mayor Bloomberg rides the subway to work.

However, rather than cramming sardine-style into the No.6 local train at the 77th street station nearest his home, he is instead driven a mile to the express station at 59th street (which, incidentally, happens to be beneath the office tower of his eponymous company, Bloomberg L.P.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/nyregion/01bloomberg.html
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/08/01/nyregion/20070801_BLOOMBERG_GRAPHIC.html

 

[Andy Nguyen]

This is what we used to banter back in the early days of QuantNet. I wonder if any current member who is living/studying in NYC can chime in.

 

[MikeLawrence]

This is what we used to banter back in the early days of QuantNet. I wonder if any current member who is living/studying in NYC can chime in.

Most of us take the Path from NJ.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Most of us take the Path from NJ.

NYC is too expensive on a student budget now even in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx. I can see why it makes sense for many to move to New Jersey.
Keep this in mind when looking at compensation level. Lot of that will go to housing and taxes.

 

[Paul Lopez]

NYC is too expensive on a student budget now even in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx. I can see why it makes sense for many to move to New Jersey.
Keep this in mind when looking at compensation level. Lot of that will go to housing and taxes.

you'll need to live way out in a borough with 3 roommates

 

[Andy Nguyen]

you'll need to live way out in a borough with 3 roommates

There is no shame in this game
Well, at least you may not have to share share a bunk bed.
For a lot of people who are not native New Yorker (which is majority of our members), this may come as a cultural shock but after a while, you don't even bat an eye.
If you can survive NYC, you can survive anywhere.