Am I In Trouble??? - Making Enough To Live in N. SF?? (2015, apartment)

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Can I make a suggestion?

Bail from the apartment.

Put together a plan to get rid of your debt. You are a debt monger. Your singular focus must be to get rid of it, all of it - credit cards, mortgage remnant, school loans, etc.

Your life is upside down because you've been upside down on paper for years. You cannot even use the excuse of the market crash, debt for you is a way of life. It will eat you alive.

You may hate me for this harsh talk now. I hope you'll thank me for it later.

[Yeti]

so 40k - 30% in taxes is 28k a year (12k in taxes)

1690 a month * 12 months = 20,280

Thats 7,700 left over, or $643 a month

So, No, I dont think you can do it.

Cause you have to pay for utilities, dog food, human food, bus fare, and clothes. In one of the most expensive cities in the US

[scottzen]

I sense that you are very worried and stressed about making it on that salary. My philosophy is to live within your means and when that changes, you can upgrade. At this point can you get out of the lease and look for somewhere cheaper to live? Why put all that stress and worry on yourself day after day until you get a promotion...seems like a lot to put on yourself and your relationship. The fact that you posted this at all tells me you know the answer to your own question. Good luck to you...!

[mdwstrnkid]

Originally Posted by Yeti

so 40k - 30% in taxes is 28k a year (12k in taxes)

1690 a month * 12 months = 20,280

Thats 7,700 left over, or $643 a month

So, No, I dont think you can do it.

Cause you have to pay for utilities, dog food, human food, bus fare, and clothes. In one of the most expensive cities in the US

Here's a related data point:

Dollars and Sense : Grocery spending in the Bay Area: Lies, damn lies and no statistics

The author said that they spent $578/month for two people and one cat. Two MUNI passes and you would be in the red for the month, without even considering utilities, clothing, entertainment budget, etc.

Assuming that you can really stick to $2/meal for the two of you, you're still looking at spending $360 of the $643 on people food, leaving you $283. Take out a MUNI pass for both of you, that's another $110 gone, leaving you $173. This leaves you about $5/day for dog food, utilities, clothes, etc. I don't know about you, but that's just living too close to the edge for me.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by mdwstrnkid

Realistically speaking, if you are living close to Union Street, you will be tempted to go out for drinks, eat out, etc., so it will be a challenge for you to live within your budget. It doesn't take very much effort to drop a hundred bucks on drinks and dinner for two in San Francisco, especially not in an area like Cow Hollow.

Yeah, a term I've heard that's used for this phenomenon is "the sidewalk tax".

[WCmomMD]

rhinoUF:

Congratulations of getting an apartment in a location in a prime real estate area of San Francisco. However, I think you have unrealistic expectations and I think you are way over budget.

To answer your question, yes, you are in trouble. From your history with a short sale on your house and recent change in job situation due to down economy and this question that you post, you appear to have a history of bad judgement with your finances. I hope you don't take this the wrong way... You should have been asking this question before you set out to look at apartments so that you could look at apartments with rents that are within your budget. General rule is that you should not be spending more than a third of your salary on rent. I know that is hard to do in San Francisco, but there are less expensive, less yuppy neighborhoods in San Francisco.

My suggestion is to try to

1) get out of this lease before it is too late. The rent on this place will put you in more debt. You can always take the bus to Cow Hollow if you want to go there. I have a friend who lives in a nice apartment in Cow Hollow, similar to what you describe. She's a single gal and loves the boutiques, restaurants and night life. The difference is that she can actually afford it... her salary is 10 times your salary, and she saves and invests.

2) when you do get that big raise, you can always move to Cow Hollow then, if you still want to liver there

3) look at other neighborhoods with direct public transportation commute (bus, MUNI Metro, or BART) to your work-place. To get downtown, Richmond district (near the 38 Geary bus) and Sunset district (near the N Judah or L Taraval) are easy commute, and you will be able to find a 1 bedroom for much less. Sometimes, you can find a nice in-law apartment that may rent substantially less than the apt you have put a deposit down for. Even if you only save $500 per month on rent, over the course of a year, that is $6000 that you save, which is over 20% of your take-home salary

4) and you can use that to try to pay off your debt and save a little each month so that you can take you girlfriend out for a nice dinner sometime

5) create a budget and track you spending. I recently discoverd Mint.com and track our expenses from month to month. I never realized how much money I wasted buying coffee and muffins in the morning, buying lunch and snacks at work, buying random toys and stickers for my kids.

[Hobart]

Maybe get a second job to help out. Even a couple of hundred a week extra will help. But don't live larger bc you make more money. Use it as a buffer and emergency, be waiter or do odd jobs. Everything is expensive there and the rich would rather pay someone a REASONABLE fee to do all kinds of things, walk their dogs, wash their car, do their gardening, clean their pool and so on. Undercut your competition and do a good job be reliable and always kiss butt and pleasant with the customers. Smile as you work and fortune will follow.

[ssmaster]

get a roomate to sleep on your couch

[slacckk]

I make somewhere around 300% more than your 40k and I wouldn't want to afford that rent.

I lived in SF 10 years ago for a year. I made $45k a year back then. How did I do it? My company paid my SOMA apt. rent and all expense...and I got a $30 per diem to boot.

I had a great time that year.

You are going to be miserable.

[trunky]

Yeah, I don't know about all this...

All I can say is that I moved to SF in Oct 2008 and I was as freaked out about is as you are. I had 5 days to find a place here. I worked quickly and ended up getting an apartment about 10-15 mins from you in Lower Pacific Heights. I make a little over $3K a month and pay $1700 a month to rent my pretty sweet 1 bedroom, top floor (of three floors), corner space with a small view of downtown. My girfriend usually pays 1/3 of the rent. It's an expensive place to live. I occasionally mismanage my cash flow and get into a tight spot for while but, but you know what? Everything is just fine. You sound like a smart person, dedicated to making it happen. Don't stress. When you get here you will see ALOT of people living here who make less money than you. If I can do it, you can do it, for sure. Be excited! You're gonna love it.