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I'm going to school currently to become a social worker, my soon to be husband is going to be a secondary history teacher. He has a 4 year old, we would only have him on school breaks and in the summer, some holidays. We also plan on having our own kids, probably before we graduate. I did some research, if we make around 120k a year, together, would we be able to live in Manhattan with a family of 4 or 5, comfortably? We'd also like to live in lower Manhattan, safer areas.
Using the 40x's rule the rent for an apt you can qualify the most for would be $3000, that does make it a bit difficult for alot of areas to live in manhattan unfortunately for 4-5 people. Unless you get a 2br and have 1br with bunkbeds for kids.
I did some research, if we make around 120k a year, together, would we be able to live in Manhattan with a family of 4 or 5, comfortably? We'd also like to live in lower Manhattan, safer areas.
When people say "a family of 4 or 5" that generally includes the adults in the count.
So here.. let me guess.. this OP hopes for someday: 2 adults, 2 kids from this couple, and 1 visiting (the Dad's) weekend child.
Visiting child could use the 2nd Bedroom until more kids come onto the scene. After that, visiting child would get demoted to a shared bedroom arrangement. You'd perhaps need a 3 BR apt someday, unless you luck out with 3 of the same gender to double-bunk all 3 in the same BR.
So this is a choice: does she get to have 2 of her own children but need to move to a borough to get an affordable 3-br someday? Will the love for Manhattan cause them to scale back to one baby between them..?
Baby for a borough? Tough one.
No disrespect intended here, honestly. It ought to be that a social worker and high school history teacher, both working fulltime, which just about DEFINES middle-class.. could afford 3 children, but it's hard. When you require "lower Manhattan, safer areas" you got a lot of "no" answers here. Borough living opens up more options for you, especially to find public schools nearby for your own kids.
Try to get one of your parents excited about NYC, to live around the corner, so you don't have to buy fulltime childcare.
Last edited by BrightRabbit; 02-07-2015 at 07:55 PM..
^Usually when people say "a family of 4 or 5" that includes the adults in the count.
That's true, but my answer to her question is still no.
If we're going to dissect and analyze the situation, we would then also need to figure that the $120K she's estimating is coming from BOTH salaries. Where is the money going to come from for full-time childcare when they start having their own children?
Manhattan is extremely expensive. It's not the place for a family with 2-3 children who are squeaking by on a social worker's and history teacher's salary.
^Henna, I agree. Do you think the borough math could work?
Maybe. There are 2 bedrooms apartments where I live in Queens for $2500 and there are plenty of families around. If it were me, though, I would want more than one bathroom for that many people, and apartments with second bathrooms are hard to come by, not to mention much more expensive.
Then comes the issues with the schools, although it seems to me that plenty of well-educated parents in my area are sending their kids to public schools, at least through 6th grade.
If the family were ok with a 2 bedroom/1 bath and sending the kids to public schools, it could probably work fine. It really depends on what kind of quality of life you're looking for, and how you deal with space limitations.
However, that said, I must say I know nothing about the cost of childcare before the children enter Pre-K, so that cost could easily throw a wrench into the works. I've heard good childcare is very expensive.
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