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By "lifestyle" I mean housing, groceries and eating out, shopping, entertainment, etc....pretty much everything. I'm interested in seeing your answers.
I assume you mean lower Manhattan and the upper east and west sides!
25,000= homeless
50000= share an apt. maybe and and broke
75000= maybe find a deal on a studio and live alone
Lots of ~19-21yo kids earn ~$150K/yr in their first job at inv banks/hedge funds...and typically have incomes that climb by >$100K/yr for a few yrs (those who aren't weeded out by the industry's Darwinian selection)....even in the periodic, inevitable cycles of the financial industry of past 20+ yrs
1000s of mediocre 30-something yos in Manhattan have 7-fig annual incomes in financial industry
That said, those w/equivalent pay in financial industry in SiliconValley or BeverlyHills have a far superior standard of living when comparing size/quality of apartments; ability to easily commute around town in a new performance car, w/spacious garages and valet parking everywhere that matters; near-perfect weather; quality of restaurants/bars, etc etc
Most financiers start their careers in Manhattan....and esp those who enjoy nr-perfect weather and daily-driving perf cars yr-round quickly migrate to CA once their career allows
Lots of ~19-21yo kids earn ~$150K/yr in their first job at inv banks/hedge funds...and typically have incomes that climb by >$100K/yr for a few yrs (those who aren't weeded out by the industry's Darwinian selection)....even in the periodic, inevitable cycles of the financial industry of past 20+ yrs
1000s of mediocre 30-something yos in Manhattan have 7-fig annual incomes in financial industry
There are not a lot of 19-21 year olds who make $150k. That's extremely rare. I think you mean 22, 23 year old grads from Stern, MIT, etc which is a little more common.
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That said, those w/equivalent pay in financial industry in SiliconValley or BeverlyHills have a far superior standard of living when comparing size/quality of apartments; ability to easily commute around town in a new performance car, w/spacious garages and valet parking everywhere that matters; near-perfect weather; quality of restaurants/bars, etc etc
Most financiers start their careers in Manhattan....and esp those who enjoy nr-perfect weather and daily-driving perf cars yr-round quickly migrate to CA once their career allows
No. 99% of fortune 500 billionaire financiers live in Manhattan. I know many top financiers, retired and working, and they all live in Manhattan and some Greenwich/Scarsdale/New Canaan. Most live in Manhattan because they prefer the superior quality of life in Manhattan than second/third tier areas like BH or SF.
With that said,
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Originally Posted by tvdxer
On $25,000 a year?
Crappy
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$50,000 a year?
A little above crappy
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$100,000 a year?
OK, but not enough.
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$200,000 a year?
Above average.
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$1,000,000 a year?
Comfortable.
Last edited by Americanboy; 01-04-2009 at 02:55 PM..
Everyone has their own view and standards of what a good lifestyle is. Some people need their space and cleanliness and want to live alone or with few other people. Some people are perfectly fine with sharing a studio and sleeping in bunkbeds and living with more people. There are affordable places in manhattan, but it really comes down to how much you can put up with and what you are willing to sacrifice.
Lots of ~19-21yo kids earn ~$150K/yr in their first job at inv banks/hedge funds...and typically have incomes that climb by >$100K/yr for a few yrs (those who aren't weeded out by the industry's Darwinian selection)....even in the periodic, inevitable cycles of the financial industry of past 20+ yrs
1000s of mediocre 30-something yos in Manhattan have 7-fig annual incomes in financial industry
That said, those w/equivalent pay in financial industry in SiliconValley or BeverlyHills have a far superior standard of living when comparing size/quality of apartments; ability to easily commute around town in a new performance car, w/spacious garages and valet parking everywhere that matters; near-perfect weather; quality of restaurants/bars, etc etc
Most financiers start their careers in Manhattan....and esp those who enjoy nr-perfect weather and daily-driving perf cars yr-round quickly migrate to CA once their career allows
Lots of ~19-21yo kids earn ~$150K/yr in their first job at inv banks/hedge funds...and typically have incomes that climb by >$100K/yr for a few yrs (those who aren't weeded out by the industry's Darwinian selection)....even in the periodic, inevitable cycles of the financial industry of past 20+ yrs
Lots? What world do you live in?
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Most financiers start their careers in Manhattan....and esp those who enjoy nr-perfect weather and daily-driving perf cars yr-round quickly migrate to CA once their career allows
FALSE.
It's usually the other way around. People into finance (the ones who occupy the top jobs) MOVE and stay in and around NYC. Did you just say the restaurants are better in SF and BH? And I must have completely different tastes than you because my lifestyle here is far better.
I love my car, but I have no plans on moving to Beverly Hills or SF, nor do I know any other serious wall streeters who has made such a move in my entire unless they are changing careers, moving down the ladder or have lost their jobs.
When I made 50K (the last time I worked, and my record high) a year, single, about 14 years ago when I was 30 (so should I change it for our purposes to 65K?) I:
Couldn't afford to live in Manhattan, so lived in Hoboken and paid $750 for a spacious one bedroom (OK, a run of the mill fifth floor walk-up railroad apartment, but it was mine!). I know rent's much more expensive today.
Worked every weekday from at least 9-6:30, 7:30 not unusual. Lots of travel through the weekends with no days off, probably ten weekends a year. Allow one hour each way for the commute by public transportation.
No way I could afford a car, parking and insurance. Didn't need the headache anyway.
Had a health club membership--not a fancy one.
Didn't have any money leftover to take vacations.
Bought lunch almost every day--spent around 7 bucks. Looking back that was an easy place to save--should have brought lunch more.
Short cab rides a few times a month. Regular money spent on subway and Path trains.
Couldn't save a penny (funny story, I actually tried to save, by having the money automatically deducted, and discovered six months later that the massive thousand dollars I saved was offset by the thousand dollars I found I had "borrowed" from my credit line).
For a brief period I actually took a second job tending bar on Tuesday nights to supplement my fancy girl book publishing sad mini- salary.
Would go out to lunch maybe once or twice a month. Would go out for dinner once or twice a month. Didn't go to clubs. Didn't buy books (got them for free). Went to a concert, movie, play once every two months. Museums a few times a year.
Bought most of my clothes at Century 21 and had a fifty dollar per piece limit. Could find fabulous clothes and shoes well within my range with some digging. One of the fantastic things about NY--SALES!!!!
Furniture?? Forget about it.
I'm sure there are plenty of frugal people who would have done a better job than I did of stretching a dollar. I'm still not that good at it.
To the OP: I visited Minnesota once in high school--stayed at a friend's house on Bad Medicine Lake near Detroit Lakes. A lot of her relatives lived in Duluth and adored it and were so proud of it. I've always been interested in visiting one of these days....
I'll bet this will be the most detailed post because this income level is well in my past and I don't feel like I'm revealing any financial secrets 14 years later.
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)....even in the periodic, inevitable cycles of the financial industry of past 20+ yrs
