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I'm thinking of applying for a job with my country's government which will be based in New York City. I will be paying tax in my home country and anticipate my net income after tax will be in the range of 50-55k USD. I am married and would be moving with my husband if I get the job. From what I have read, he may not be able to get work rights on my visa but could if we later applied for a green card to stay there.
At a bare minimum, I would want to rent a 1 bedroom apartment (not a studio) in a nice condition and neighbourhood and have a reasonable commute to work. The job is located near Grand Central station. It has been a dream of mine to live in NY for a long time but it would not be worth the stress and expense if I couldn't enjoy the experience and was really struggling week to week. Can I have a decent standard of living with this salary? Thanks in advance
50K for two in NYC is tight. You shouldn't try to live in Manhattan, or else the rent will consume too much of your income. The good thing is that since your work location is near Grand Central, it should be easy to get to from the outer boroughs. I would look at apartments in places like Woodside and Jackson Heights.
Don’t know what your gross income is before taxes. You need to show 40x rent in your annual income or $80,000 annual income if you were to rent a one bedroom for $2000. You may find it in the outer boroughs ( not Manhattan except perhaps upper Manhattan). Or have connections that will look pass the 40x rent for annual salary. A friend of mine said her sister got a great deal for a one BR or even option for a 2 BR for $2000 or less. In Harlem. I said that’s like winning the lottery.
When I rented I guess I was lucky this rule wasn't really applicable to the building I was in. I guess my question would be what if you agree to pay full year rent up front?
Thanks. So with the x40 rule, we'd need to look for places that are $1850/month or less. Are they really strict with this - i.e. not allowing something that is say $20 or $30 more? Is Zillow the best website to look at to get an idea on costs in different neighbourhoods?
people live on whatever they have .. you back in to a lifestyle that fits .
but that does not mean you like where you live or the lifestyle it buys ... so asking how much is enough is like asking how long is a rope. it is going to be very different for each of us ..
we all have that line in the sand where we don't really want to go less then in our lifestyle so we all have different expectations and views ... would i and my wife want to retire in ny on just 50k .... nope .......we would relocate if that was the case and would never have retired here .
our friend tried retiring here on 45k plus social security and ended up leaving for florida ...it was a high stress life sweating every bill here with little discretionary spending money , they were miserable here . on the other hand you have people here on just social security and whatever welfare perks they qualify for .
Last edited by mathjak107; 08-16-2019 at 05:12 AM..
Thanks. So with the x40 rule, we'd need to look for places that are $1850/month or less. Are they really strict with this - i.e. not allowing something that is say $20 or $30 more? Is Zillow the best website to look at to get an idea on costs in different neighbourhoods?
Thanks. So with the x40 rule, we'd need to look for places that are $1850/month or less. Are they really strict with this - i.e. not allowing something that is say $20 or $30 more? Is Zillow the best website to look at to get an idea on costs in different neighbourhoods?
I can't really say, but one big reason LLs follow the 40x rule is because NYC makes it very very hard for LLs to evict non-paying tenants, so the LLs do whatever they possibly can to make sure this is not going to happen to them (that they will be stuck housing a non-paying tenant while NYC court systems takes its sweet time, like 6 months, to evict).
So, that said, it might be in your favor that you can prove you're only here for one year. There's no way they could get stuck with you staying past the one year mark, not paying and the LL having to start eviction proceedings.
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