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Old 08-27-2009, 03:02 PM
 
Location: North Carolina
2 posts, read 3,763 times
Reputation: 10

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I have been offered a job making $18.50 an hour which equals out to $35,520 before taxes. I have a car payment of $301.90 and I know you have to add in all of the other things life hands you (car ins., utilities, ect.) and looking to pay $900 on rent. I am single with no kids. I am going to be working in Reston and open to areas further out such as Woodbridge and Manassas. Would this be possible in this area? Or should I ask for more $$? Any advice will help.
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Old 08-27-2009, 03:09 PM
 
Location: Censorshipville...
4,364 posts, read 8,044,798 times
Reputation: 4871
I'd get a roommate to offset your living expenses. It's doable though.
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Old 08-27-2009, 03:12 PM
 
53 posts, read 208,224 times
Reputation: 23
Live lean and save some money. Don't even try to get a nice apartment on that money. It will just make you broke. Get a basement apartment, (not Arlington), pay off your car. Maybe you could buy a TH in a year or two. High apartment rent will accomplish nothing for you.
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Old 08-27-2009, 03:16 PM
 
4 posts, read 10,105 times
Reputation: 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by oneasterisk View Post
I'd get a roommate to offset your living expenses. It's doable though.

Yep, check the housing boards at Mason and find a grad student to share with.
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Old 08-27-2009, 03:27 PM
 
12,022 posts, read 11,469,124 times
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You can get a monthly studio suite at Homestead Studios on Rt 606 in Sterling for 660/mo as a transitional arrangement while you look for a room share. It's somewhat isolated from downtown Herndon/Reston as it's located just north of the airport. The distance to Reston is about 6 miles each way. They have one in Reston for about 900/mo and Chantilly at 780/mo. I think you can lock in the rates for the length of your reservation.
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Old 08-27-2009, 04:10 PM
 
Location: Reston, VA
2,090 posts, read 4,223,139 times
Reputation: 1330
It is going to be slim going until you start making more money.

See the attached budget with the first columns being the inputs based on your income and the second set being the amounts recommended by AARP. I made a mistake on the income amount the first time I did a budget so I did a second one. As you can see there is no room for costly emergencies in this budget. Also note I fogot to take out the $200/month in extra income - so another $200 needs to come of each expenses or you need to find $200/ month extra.
Attached Files
File Type: pdf 37K Budget.pdf (100.7 KB, 357 views)
File Type: pdf 35K Budget.pdf (101.8 KB, 313 views)

Last edited by JfromReston; 08-27-2009 at 04:22 PM..
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Old 08-27-2009, 04:24 PM
 
1,384 posts, read 2,336,904 times
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It's not that bad. I started at 36k a few years back and did just fine. I was only paying $600 rent but with utilities came out to about $800 per month. I didn't have a car payment, but was paying $200 for student loans. I lived pretty comfortably with that salary and ended up leasing a new car within 9 months.

I see alot of posts on this forum that think you need to have $70,000 salaries to live in this area and I just can't understand where these people spend all their money.
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Old 08-27-2009, 05:05 PM
 
8,968 posts, read 21,048,353 times
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There are plenty of people making $35K or less around here. They also usually have roommates, partners and spouses. Beyond doing some research on comparable positions with other local companies, I'd predict that there wouldn't be much leeway in your salary negotiations... especially these days.
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Old 08-27-2009, 05:21 PM
 
2,688 posts, read 6,655,179 times
Reputation: 1291
You can do it, especially since you can live further out, as long as you get one or more roommates -- $900 would be too big of a chunk for rent. My daughter shares a single-family house with friends so they each have their own bedroom but share the rest of the entire house.
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Old 08-27-2009, 05:35 PM
 
Location: Falls Church, VA
722 posts, read 1,973,352 times
Reputation: 316
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbird82 View Post
I see alot of posts on this forum that think you need to have $70,000 salaries to live in this area and I just can't understand where these people spend all their money.
The vast majority of these posts refer to people who have kids, and more often than not a wife who stays home, too. That is much different than the OP's situation here.

As to the OP - yes, you can do it, but don't have terribly high expectations for your living arrangements to start
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