22 Year Old Female / $90K Salary / Neighborhood for a High Rise Studio? (Chicago: luxury, college)

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by isaac2004

+1 This, who gives a **** if you live in a $2K luxury apartment if you have to live on a crazy budget because half of your wage is out the door for rent. When you add up cable tv, internet, gas, electricity, and if you have a car a $150 parking spot, your looking at another $300-$400 in "bills", so when all is said and done, you are living on like $500 a month for groceries and whatever else. Not luxury living.

Why not live in the 1400-1500 range, and have a whole paycheck that is just for you. My 2 cents

Yep, that's why it's suggested that you stay within 33% of your budget for rent and not over it unless you're a really high earner and that other 50% is still a lot of money. It's kind of like some modern luxury hotels out there versus the nice but not luxury ones. Not worth the extra money as the benefits of the service and rooms isn't worth as much as the difference as what you're paying.

I went on a date with a girl recently who lives in one of the top 3 most expensive apartment buildings in Chicago. I went up to her place and I have no idea how anybody could justify paying even $500/month more than any other building for it other than to try and impress people (her place was $2300/month and not even a 1 bedroom). In my experience, people don't care as much as you think (and really, you shouldn't even care what people think about you in the first place, but that's another story). There is a big difference between living in a dump and living in a luxury high rise versus living in a decent high rise and living in a luxury one. I actually dated a gold digger once (I do NOT recommend this) and even she didn't care that my place wasn't luxury. She cared more about the places we went.

[isaac2004]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Yep, that's why it's suggested that you stay within 33% of your budget for rent and not over it unless you're a really high earner and that other 50% is still a lot of money. It's kind of like some modern luxury hotels out there versus the nice but not luxury ones. Not worth the extra money as the benefits of the service and rooms isn't worth as much as the difference as what you're paying.

I went on a date with a girl recently who lives in one of the top 3 most expensive apartment buildings in Chicago. I went up to her place and I have no idea how anybody could justify paying even $500/month more than any other building for it other than to try and impress people (her place was $2300/month and not even a 1 bedroom). In my experience, people don't care as much as you think (and really, you shouldn't even care what people think about you in the first place, but that's another story). There is a big difference between living in a dump and living in a luxury high rise versus living in a decent high rise and living in a luxury one. I actually dated a gold digger once (I do NOT recommend this) and even she didn't care that my place wasn't luxury. She cared more about the places we went.

I think the hidden gem here is that you went up to a girl's apartment to "look at her high end apartment". Classy

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by isaac2004

I think the hidden gem here is that you went up to a girl's apartment to "look at her high end apartment". Classy

Haha..well I didn't go up for that reason, but it was nice to see what that particular building was like. She invited me up anyway.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by isaac2004

+1 This, who gives a **** if you live in a $2K luxury apartment if you have to live on a crazy budget because half of your wage is out the door for rent. When you add up cable tv, internet, gas, electricity, and if you have a car a $150 parking spot, your looking at another $300-$400 in "bills", so when all is said and done, you are living on like $500 a month for groceries and whatever else. Not luxury living.

Why not live in the 1400-1500 range, and have a whole paycheck that is just for you. My 2 cents

1) many of these expenses are included in a highrise; 2) the OP specifically said that she does not have a car and strongly implies she does not intend to get one; 3) even if the above weren't true, she'd still have a ton more than $500/mo in leftover income unless she has huge mountains of debt.

How many people contributing to the thread have actually answered the question the OP asked instead of suggesting how she should live her life?

[ToriaT]

Don't you just love it when someone starts a topic here and drops kind of a bombshell and never comes back to answer or thank people that thoughtfully replied? Or at least tells people what happened?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Drover

How many people contributing to the thread have actually answered the question the OP asked instead of suggesting how she should live her life?

The last exchange wasn't about the OP. It was about someone else making less money (at least standard income). It was a general statement about life. I do think one could live in a luxury apartment for $2000/mo on $70K/year, but it's still not entirely recommended. I was giving my own personal opinion about why I personally don't rent from luxury apartments anymore even though I can afford it. It wasn't meant to say "no you SHOULDNT do this." At the end of the day, that's their decision, but hopefully they will at least listen to a few people with first hand experience in the matter.

[hlcvd]

I have no clue how it got there, but I never said I was going to live in a $2000 apartment, I was only suggesting based on what her budget is.

[marothisu]

I totally misread something. Sorry..

[hlcvd]

Back to the orgional question... She makes 90k a year, and travels, which means no weekday expenses. $2000/month isn't bad, if you're someone who values luxury. The price you are paying is the oppotunity cost of that money you could save of spend on something else. But if luxury living is what you want, I'd say go for it.

[marothisu]

$2000/month for $90K is fine, but you don't need to spend that much to get a luxury apartment (especially for a studio - which would put you in the very, very top tier of apartments in town). You can still spend $1600-$1800/month for a luxury studio, and some luxury one bedrooms are under $1800-$1900/mo. I think West Loop is a good choice, but if you want to be around more stuff, then certain parts of River North, the north end of the Loop, or even southern end of Gold Coast near Chiacgo Ave is fine. If you are near the river, you can easily walk to the Clark/Lake Blue Line stop. If you are closer to Chicago Avenue in River North or "Gold Coast", then you could easily take the Chicago Avenue bus to the Chicago Blue Line Stop (5-15 minutes depending on where you are).

I am a consultant and do this - no big deal for me. To be honest with you, it might actually be just as fast living in River North/southern Gold Coast getting to O'Hare than living in the West Loop. I don't live too far from State & Chicago, and the total time (not counting waiting time) to get to O'Hare using the bus + train xfer is about 45-50 minutes. If you live in River North closer to the north branch of the River (say not too far from 600 W Chicago), then it would be 5 or so minutes even lesser. If you lived at Madison & Jefferson area in the W Loop, the time may actually be about the same if not longer than these areas.