Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Remember that if you are working outside the City but living here, you are subjected to the NYC Personal Income tax on everything your earn.
So living where you work yields a sizable dividend.
Just so you know,this is the premium you will be paying to live in Manhattan and work in Westchester:
1) Probably 1,000/mo premium in rent on a comparable apartment.
2)300/mo on metro north (3,600/yr)
3) 3 1/2 percent NYC resident personal income tax( let's say 3,500 on 100,000 income)
4) An extra 1.5 hrs every work day to commute unless you live in Murray Hill or Harlem near 125th St.
Total premium on a 100,000 income: 19,100 in extra rent ,taxes and commuting fees and about 350 hrs/yr in extra commuting time.
Westchester is hopefully only a temporary thing. I'm finishing up my degree in School Psychology, and I need an internship. It's a one-year internship. I could do it down here, but everyone I've talked to (including school psychologists in New York) said it would be a good thing if I could get up there and start networking before I'm actually looking for a job. I can't get an internship in Manhattan because the New York City Department of Education has special programs with the colleges in the city that places its interns. For me, the next best thing is to get into a county as close to the city as possible.
My goal is to have this internship in Westchester for a year, but find a job within NYC after that. My starting salary as a school psychologist in NYC should be around $60k if I read the NYCDE website correctly, but in two years I'm hoping my long-distance boyfriend will be my live-in husband, and our two salaries (he's working on finishing a degree in physics) should get us to that $100k mark at least, making it possible for me to continue on a $2500 a month budget for rent. (I'm guessing at all this by the 40x your salary rule).
I have enough family support to cover my living costs right now, that I'm really not that worried about them. (Gotta love that Texas oil...) If everything crashes and burns, it's not like I can't move back and start over. But I'm an optimist, and I figure if I play my cards right it will all come together. If worst came to worst and I didn't have a second income to get me through in a Manhattan apartment, I could live in Harlem, or move out to Queens or the Bronx, as I'm interested in disadvantaged kids in inner-city schools anyway.
Bluedog2 and Kefir King, thanks for the info about the NYC personal income tax. I wasn't aware of that. In Texas we don't have a state income tax at all, so it's good to know this stuff.
Bronxguyanese, if you're asking "really" about all the stuff I said about public transportation, yes it's really true. Only the really poor people in Texas don't have cars, and the buses really only service the less-than-nice neighborhoods of the cities (I'm in Houston). I would feel unsafe riding public transport here. Having been to NYC (and Europe actually) and seeing what public transportation can be, how convenient and how much more environmentally friendly it is than having a car, not to mention how safe I felt...hey, I welcome a longer commute if it means I'm not driving. If I do my internship in the Houston schools, I'll be spending at least an hour, if not an hour and a half, to commute in traffic every day. And that's all time lost. No sitting on a train and reading the morning paper or a book or whatever. Just an hour and a half of angry, road-raged drivers.
So who wants to move to Texas? We have cheaper rent and larger apartments! Oh and did I mention that today's high temperature will be 97 degrees? That goes great with the 94% humidity.
Another premium to consider in Manhattan is your car if you plan to bring one with you. Manhattan insurance is slightly lower than the other boroughs (Brooklyn is out of sight in that regard), but Manhattan parking is going to be upwards of $400/month for a garage, and you may not find one in the same building (or same block) where you have an apartment. If you're not planning to keep a car, this is a moot point.
One other thing to consider is that public transportation in Westchester is spotty, so if your employer does not have a shuttle van to go to/from the train station, and they're not within walking distance of the train, it can be a time consuming hassle to get around Westchester. There is some bus service, but it's not as comprehensive, and some routes not as reliable, as the MTA is in the city. That's why many who work in Westchester, even if they live in the city, find it can be much more convenient to drive to work.
__________________
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
Thanks bmwdcguy, that's something I'll check into. I was hoping not to bring a car. I know my parents would keep it for me for a little while if I asked, I wonder if I could start off without it, and only have it brought up if necessary?
Since you know you will be working in Westchester and since money is no issue for you the best advice I can give you is to find an apartment in the murray hill area. You can get something within a 5-10 minute walk to grand central well in your budget. Get a 1 year lease and spend that year exploring every neighborhood to figure out where you would really like to live. And by that time maybe you will have found out where in NYC you will be working to help that base where to live.
That would actually be a good experiment, to start off without the car, and see how things work out for you. For some people, it's not an issue to be without a vehicle, but I am not one of them. LOL You can always join a car sharing service like ZipCar, which can provide you with a flexible use of a vehicle at a per hour or per day rate.
__________________
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
I was also going to mention that you should make sure that you have transportation from the Metro North station to your place of internship. Also make sure that you will not need transportation to go to different building sites for that internship. I would imagine that you will. I would not be so optimistic about expecting to get a job as a school psych in either NYC or a Westchester SD as both are not hiring much school personnel for the foreseeable future. I would do a little more research as the vibe and logistics here are quite different from Houston.
Thank you Coney for your input. I'll definitely check into transportation to and from the schools from the Metro North station.
I understand that New York has cut back on their hiring. But in this economy it's all one can do, to be optimistic. Texas is really no better. Despite what you might hear Rick Perry say on TV about the "Texas miracle", he recently instigated a $4 billion budget cut to the Texas education system. Thousands of school employee contracts have not been renewed as a result of his cuts. Some Houston area districts are no longer even offering internships. I haven't talked to anyone in a public school who hasn't felt some effect of the budget cuts.
At least in New York state (and most of the other states) I can work outside public schools. In Texas this is simply not the case. In Texas, I can't even call myself a psychologist, it's a "Licensed Specialist in School Psychology". Sure I can also work as a diagnostician in a public school, but nothing else. No private schools or agencies, supervised by a doctoral level psychologist or not. If I can't find work in the next couple years in NYC, I'm certainly open to looking at other surrounding counties or even other states. I just really don't have much of a desire to stay in Texas.
If you do have any constructive advice on who to contact or other places I should look once I'm in the market for a job, I would greatly appreciate it. You obviously have some insight into the education system; might I ask what you do?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
