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Comment by jonathanjaeger | Hacker News Reader

You can EASILY live on $75K in a studio in Manhattan. What kind of lavish lifestyle are you trying to live? You don't need a car in NYC.

Edit: Maybe starting salaries in NYC for tech startups are that high for programmers, but other positions tend to be in the $35K-$50K range.

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Second that. I lived for a year in Manhattan (East Village) while working on my start-up - I had roommates, but I made well under 75k and was just fine. Was still able to do all the things a 25 yr old guy wanted to do. The idea that it takes $75k+ to make it work in Manhattan is a farce perpetuated by big banks selling shitty jobs to naive grads and people who don't know how to budget/ be thrifty on message boards.

But think about the long run: Roommates are great until you hit age 30 or so and settle down and get married and maybe have kids (no pressure here Sean!). At that point Manhattan becomes painful unless you are married into money. Now you could move out to Brooklyn or your startup can avoid older employees (which is illegal), but if you grow your company to over ten people you can hit those issues pretty quickly. Also it's a spectrum -- Manhattan on $60 can work while being in NYC on $25k is a nightmare.

Yup. But they were talking about starting salaries on the Fog Creek thing. $75K right out of college for a young adult opens a lot of doors. But I definitely agree that being 30 with a kid, rather than 22-24, would be a lot harder on $75K.

>Was still able to do all the things a 25 yr old guy wanted to do

Yeah, at 25 its easy. When you're 37, married, two kids, etc.. My minimum required salary is well over 100K

I hear that. However, the thrust of the article and the focus of my comment is about new grads, people in going through the recruitment -> internship -> job offer cycle

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