is 33 thousand a year enough (New York, Bedford: apartment, for rent, insurance)
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for a single 24 year old who is looking to rent out a room in the bronx
a few details about myself
i am hopefully starting a new job where i will be making 33 thousand dollars a year not sure if it will be enough since i did work a valet job once before where i made roughly around 29 thousand a year and i was able to afford a 500 dollar a month room but had to limit myself a lot when it came to shopping and eating out things i love to do
the reason i ask if this is enough is because i will be commuting everyday on the train to go to work and get back home thats 5.50 every day it can get a bit pricey
i would just like to know if i can afford to live a good life with this money every year or am i better off locating a room closer to my job??
for a single 24 year old who is looking to rent out a room in the bronx
a few details about myself
i am hopefully starting a new job where i will be making 33 thousand dollars a year not sure if it will be enough since i did work a valet job once before where i made roughly around 29 thousand a year and i was able to afford a 500 dollar a month room but had to limit myself a lot when it came to shopping and eating out things i love to do
the reason i ask if this is enough is because i will be commuting everyday on the train to go to work and get back home thats 5.50 every day it can get a bit pricey
i would just like to know if i can afford to live a good life with this money every year or am i better off locating a room closer to my job??
i will be working on beaver street
If you're making $33K a year I'm assuming you're making about $15 an hour which depending on your circumstances could be anywhere from $425-475 weekly clean. Let's say you make about $450/wk, that comes out to about $1800 monthly. If I was you, what I would do is create an expense list of everything (EVERYTHING) you spend money on and how much do you spend on it monthly.
Example:
Rent for Room -$600
Food - $200
Complete Insurance - $200
Metro card - $120
Triple play package (Recommended for someone whose doing it alone) - $120
Haircut - $20
Additional Expenses - $240
Total Monthly Expenses: $1500
Total Monthly Income (Clean): $1800
Monthly Savings: $300
Even taking into account additional expenses if your list would look something like this, you'd still have a little wiggle room for savings.
Do this and exaggerate your expenses slightly. This way, if you do go over what you truly think you'll be spending every now and then, you're still within your monthly budget. You'd be surprised what people can live on if they would simply learn how to budget their money properly. Best of luck.
My opinion on your situation, I think you can. Two pieces of advice, don't get conned into living in the hood in the Bronx. There are plenty of decent working class areas in the Bronx that aren't that expensive, especially considering what the rest of the city is charging for rents. Decent options include Bedford Park, Parkchester, Throggs Neck, Pelham Bay, to name a few examples. Second piece of advice, choose your roommate carefully. There's a lot of crazies out there, be wise about who you decide to share an apartment and potentially spend most of your time with.
It's doable but it's a tough way to live. I'd recommend you look into getting roommates. Just for mental sanity. Living alone sucks. I did it for a few years, so I know. Living alone in a room is even worse.
If you're making $33K a year I'm assuming you're making about $15 an hour which depending on your circumstances could be anywhere from $425-475 weekly clean. Let's say you make about $450/wk, that comes out to about $1800 monthly. If I was you, what I would do is create an expense list of everything (EVERYTHING) you spend money on and how much do you spend on it monthly.
Example:
Rent for Room -$600
Food - $200
Complete Insurance - $200
Metro card - $120
Triple play package (Recommended for someone whose doing it alone) - $120
Haircut - $20
Additional Expenses - $240
Total Monthly Expenses: $1500
Total Monthly Income (Clean): $1800
Monthly Savings: $300
Even taking into account additional expenses if your list would look something like this, you'd still have a little wiggle room for savings.
Do this and exaggerate your expenses slightly. This way, if you do go over what you truly think you'll be spending every now and then, you're still within your monthly budget. You'd be surprised what people can live on if they would simply learn how to budget their money properly. Best of luck.
My opinion on your situation, I think you can. Two pieces of advice, don't get conned into living in the hood in the Bronx. There are plenty of decent working class areas in the Bronx that aren't that expensive, especially considering what the rest of the city is charging for rents. Decent options include Bedford Park, Parkchester, Throggs Neck, Pelham Bay, to name a few examples. Second piece of advice, choose your roommate carefully. There's a lot of crazies out there, be wise about who you decide to share an apartment and potentially spend most of your time with.
the reason i ask if this is enough is because i will be commuting everyday on the train to go to work and get back home thats 5.50 every day it can get a bit pricey
Get the monthly Metro card. If you are going to ride back and forth everyday, it comes out cheaper. With the monthly card, you can ride as many times as you want in that month.
I would say it's doable for a couple of years while if you're young, frugal, and have prospects for something better. That kind of lifestyle is not sustainable in the long run, though. You get all the expenses of living in the city without any of the pleasures that come along with having some discretionary income here. If I were you, I wouldn't go into it without a concrete plan for transitioning into a higher-wage job within the next three years or so.
Doable, I estimate I only -need- about $40k to live where i do at absolute minimum and my rent is $1600. It'll be tough, but certainly doable to live on that much in the Bronx. I also think that living alone depends on the person. For instance, I'd love to live with an SO, but would rather live alone otherwise. Preference after having lived alone for 2+ years.
Doable, I estimate I only -need- about $40k to live where i do at absolute minimum and my rent is $1600. It'll be tough, but certainly doable to live on that much in the Bronx. I also think that living alone depends on the person. For instance, I'd love to live with an SO, but would rather live alone otherwise. Preference after having lived alone for 2+ years.
You need at least $65k. No landlord in New York is going to rent a $1600 apartment to you on a $40k income.
To rent it yeah, but now that I have it if I were to for some reason have my income drop to 40k, I could still live off of that.
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