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Comment by akgerber | Hacker News Reader

You definitely don't need $5000/mo. to pay bills in NYC, except maybe if you're trying to raise a family on your salary alone in a fancy neighborhood. I live very well on $2000/mo., and could easily cut that without excessive sacrifice by moving to a less happening neighborhood with a bit longer commute than my current 35 minutes (say: parts of Jersey City; Sunset Park or Ditmas Park, Brooklyn; Jackson Heights, Queens; Inwood, Manhattan; Riverdale, Bronx; Stapleton, Staten Island) and cooking more of my own food.

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If your salary is $5,000; you get about $3,000 to $3,500 in pocket after taxes, health insurance, social security and other deductions.

I live quite far from NYC in White Plains, rent for 1 bedroom apartment here is $2400.

PS. I am sure there are people surviving for $500 a month in NYC, but that is not the lifestyle most developers desire when they have job offers for $80,000 to $120,000. In fact, most developers I've met say they want to make $10,000 per month to quit their job.

You can definitely find a 1BR apartment in brooklyn for <$2000/month. And a two bedroom for not much more, if you look.

I live in Staten Island and rent for a 1 bedroom is $800 in a nice neighborhood and new house - you could get a 1 bedroom in NYC for $2400.

si != nyc ;)

Jokes aside, I'm in a Crown Heights 1br for < $,1200

Hey I'm in Crown Heights too! 1br for < $1625

Yes, CH varies quite a bit, and you can find a 1br for > $2200 tbh.

maybe you should room with akgerber...

No doubt, I'm sure the IRS would love to know how he lives in NYC on $2k gross...

$2k/month is $24,000/year, at which income the IRS does not take nearly as much. According to the IRS calculator, he would be paying $1,628 in income tax. Add in payroll tax and that's $3308 total. So his after-tax income is not far off from $2k at $1724/month.

Assuming he has roommates, his rent and other fixed costs will be less than $1k, so he will be ok, if rather Bohemian.

My Manhattan living expenses at the moment are about $1000/month (rent, utilities, monthly metro card, and phone plan). It's not really all that hard.

I mean spending $2k/month on everything, not living on a $2k gross salary. Plenty of people in less-well-compensated industries do that, though— it just means more compromises in terms of living arrangement or commute or neighborhood safety or ...

You can even own a modest apartment on that salary: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/789809-coop-3131-grand-concou...

While I agree with your initial numbers, you can get a decent apartment in White Plains around $1700 (or less if you find a deal, have lower standards, don't mind commuting, etc.).

Source: used to live/work there and just checked on craigslist.

You can rent a large bedroom in Manhattan with great subway access for $650-800, if you don't mind a 20 minute commute to midtown.

If you can't survive on $3,000-$3,500 a month here, you have a spending problem, not an earning problem.

Its quite difficult to live "very well" in NYC on $2000/month. It was several years ago when I lived there, worse now. Where exactly in NYC do you live? In Staten Island, which is pretty far from Manhattan, it was more than $800 for a decent 1 bedroom apartment in 2001. The was just a normal apartment, not a big one or anything.

So that leaves around $1000 for everything else and any savings.. which means I think you are exaggerating when you say you live very well.

I have a roommate, which is pretty essential to affordable living in a place with expensive real estate. I live in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, which is a very different neighborhood from what it was in 2001. I eat out a lot, travel reasonably often, ride bikes on the regular, attend events regularly, and so on— it's certainly possible to spend more on lifestyle, but I don't think it would make me much happier.

Tech job benefits certainly help keep expenses reasonable, too.

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