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Thanks everyone. I do have a question about the commute (though I definitely do not want to commute in from Baltimore). The building I am in is right near Judiciary Square station. Everyone tells me I don't need a car, which I am sure is true. However, there is employee parking where I work and my car is already paid off. On the other hand, I think federal employees may get some kind of discounted metro during the weekday. Is it still a bad idea to keep my car if I have already paid it off and have parking at work? How bad is traffic within the downtown/mall area for morning commutes?
Also, I'm wondering if anyone can give me advice on rent. The salary is 63k, but after taxes I should be making roughly 44k and I have 400 a month in student loan payments. I am assuming this is going to realistically keep my budget around 1200, which seems tough to manage. Do you think I could bump this up to about 1500 and still live comfortably? I would be ok with not saving much for my first year there if it meant better housing. Alternatively, is it fairly normal for 30 year olds to have roommates in the city?
Do not drive into work. I am just going to leave it at that. Yes, your workplace probably has a garage. I am not saying get rid of the car, but do not use it to commute into work.
It is normal for everybody to have roommates in this city, no matter the age. My advice is get a roommate for the first year, maybe even the first couple of years, and get a two bedroom. If you can go this route I recommend it. I did it when I first moved here.
Technically you can afford $1500 a month. You are supposed to take 1/3 of your gross salary (pre-tax) every month. Your loan burden is not that bad either.
I would not worry about the first year so much though, if you know you will be making more, like most feds in your position, it is not a big deal to save less that first year. You are in an okay position, the city is fine on your salary at least for the first year. It gets tougher if that salary was a long term thing, but you are upwardly mobile.
Living alone in the district will be tough. I would suggest looking in Alexandria, VA or Silver Spring, MD. You can find pretty nice studios in the $1200-1300/month range. to live in the district, you will really need to find roommates on craigslist.
I would say try to stay on the lower end of your rent budget. You will want money leftover to spend on happy hours, eating out occasionally, ubers/taxis and other unexpected expenses.
Last edited by r_u_a_wizard; 06-18-2015 at 06:26 AM..
Thanks everyone. I do have a question about the commute (though I definitely do not want to commute in from Baltimore). The building I am in is right near Judiciary Square station. Everyone tells me I don't need a car, which I am sure is true. However, there is employee parking where I work and my car is already paid off. On the other hand, I think federal employees may get some kind of discounted metro during the weekday. Is it still a bad idea to keep my car if I have already paid it off and have parking at work? How bad is traffic within the downtown/mall area for morning commutes?
Also, I'm wondering if anyone can give me advice on rent. The salary is 63k, but after taxes I should be making roughly 44k and I have 400 a month in student loan payments. I am assuming this is going to realistically keep my budget around 1200, which seems tough to manage. Do you think I could bump this up to about 1500 and still live comfortably? I would be ok with not saving much for my first year there if it meant better housing. Alternatively, is it fairly normal for 30 year olds to have roommates in the city?
All federal employees get up to $120 a month in transit benefits for their commute to work. That should pretty much cover all your transit costs unless you moved way out in the suburbs at like the end of a Metro line.
Your job is basically in the best possible area for a transit commute. Union Station is within a 10 minute walk which has the commuter trains (VRE for Virginia and MARC for Maryland) although I wouldn't recommend that. And all six of the Metro lines are within a 10 minute walk from there. In addition to Archives (Yellow/Green), Judiciary Square (Red), there's the Federal Center SW station (Orange/Blue/Silver) about 1/2 a mile away which is walkable.
Tons of young people in your age range share townhouses and single family houses in Arlington if you're interested in Virginia FYI (Ballston, Virginia Square, Clarendon, and Court House).
District Sonice gave a pretty good rundown of MD and DC neighborhoods. I'm not a big fan of Brookland. It's pretty boring to me, but to each their own.
Ok... just wanted to provide some insight. I'm 28; I work for the govt & I live by myself - not in DC, but in Alexandria (where rent is cheaper.. about 1350 for a 1br apartment. Some tricks you might want to consider: It's best to move to an apartment during the winter; they have really good specials around that time, and the prices shoot up in the summer months. Also, if you can, rent a condo or townhouse - they aren't subjected to the rent spike as often.) They are buying up property left & right in SE and you could probably find something there for cheap as gentrification is high and in effect there and in the H Street Corridor (still waiting for that street car).
I drive to work - it takes me about 12 mins from my place in Alexandria (I drive fast lol, but also I place my schedule around traffic.. I'm in by 6:30 to 7 at the latest & then I leave at around 2:45 or 3). Even if I get caught up in traffic, the most it takes me is 20 mins (which is good for this city). Most government employees get somewhat of a stipend for public transit or can expense... However, to me, I find it's way more cost efficient to park at the employee lot. 2 bucks out of my check, not far from my home, and for me, if I took metro I would have to park my car in the metro lot which costs about 4.80 a day. The prices on metro spike during rush hour as well.. and I averaged about 12 bucks a day to park versus 2 out of my check a month... So it was a no brainer for me.
Anyway, as far as the personality types, it depends on what crowd you associate with and what interests you do. BRANCH. OUT. There are snooty types and people who will ask you what school you went to (esp at our age range), and what you do for work.. and prob write you off if they find your answer unsatisfactory. (I've observed, however, if you are attractive, it doesn't matter much what you say half the time though....) There are a lot of career driven power hungry people, yep.. And there are a lot of fake people as well. You learn quickly how to discern those types. Still, it's good to stay casually acquainted because you need it for networking. In this city - and probably any for that matter - it's more or less who you know. And in general, if you're personable and get along well with people, you do prosper at an exponentially faster rate than those who are more to themselves.
That being said... there are MANY different types of people in the District. If you are quiet and/or introverted and don't like to move past your social groups, you will suffer here if you don't know many people. The problem is that we are polite, but not the friendliest bunch. When at parties, everyone kind of quarantines themselves in their groups and never tries to reach out. You have to be the person that does.. I grew up around this area, I'm somewhat used to it. So when I'm out, I strike up conversations with other people & usually that results in numbers being exchanged. If you aren't keen on the uptight folks: don't go to Georgetown. Avoid at all costs.
That being said, here's what I love about DC:
- A bunch of free crap! Not just museums... free rooftop pool parties @ hotels [Embassy Row/W/Capitol Skyline], lots of free craft beer launches [I met my last friend at one of those events!]; cheap music
- The one person lied to you about not finding upcoming music.. Join a MeetUp, esp for Indie bands, follow music blogs. Some of the smaller less frequented live venues for smaller bands: The Hamilton [tix range from 12 to 20 bucks, I saw PHOX for 13]; the Birchmere [in Alexandria]; Howard Theatre [although I hate this venue with a passion]; Fillmore in Silver Spring; Bar 9; Echostage [also not too big of a fan of this place]; Black Cat for cool jazz as well as Indulj; and if you want to take a date to something a bit more classy, Kennedy Center does live music sporadically throughout the week and 'Jazz in the Garden' on Fridays @ the American Art Museum
- Free Outdoor Movies: All throughout the city and surrounding DMV
- LOTS OF THEATRE!: I love plays, I find cheap plays to attend with an app called Goldstar.
- CAPITOL FRINGE FEST: Seriously if you like eccentric artistic folks, get in on this. This is throughout hte month of July (not sure when you are coming), & they have awesome plays, shows, improv, comedy, spoken word, and weird crap that is def worth checking out.
- Cool & Interesting Classes: I did a 25 dollar Improv class with DC Improv which was awesome, a Graffiti class [in which I legit did some graffiti on a public wall lol]; A butt load of painting/wine classes
- Strange Fun Crap: They host weird ish on the mall sometimes... earlier this year it was National Pillow Fight day and people came equipped with pillows to sock each other; this summer, they are doing a Giant City Water Slide and blocking off 5 streets to build it!
- The Yards: Navy Yard is also one of those places they've really built up and there's really cool parties here too.
Here's what I recommend: go out by yourself and do the things that interest you, you will find that you will make a lot of friends with varied interests that way. Also, make friends with the bartenders and if you go to one of those small concerts, find the person with the DSLR camera and BEFRIEND THEM. They will keep you abreast of upcoming groups and maybe score you free tix too .
Hope this helps, take care! (And sorry I am long winded, I was an English Lit major).
All federal employees get up to $120 a month in transit benefits for their commute to work. That should pretty much cover all your transit costs unless you moved way out in the suburbs at like the end of a Metro line.
Your job is basically in the best possible area for a transit commute. Union Station is within a 10 minute walk which has the commuter trains (VRE for Virginia and MARC for Maryland) although I wouldn't recommend that. And all six of the Metro lines are within a 10 minute walk from there. In addition to Archives (Yellow/Green), Judiciary Square (Red), there's the Federal Center SW station (Orange/Blue/Silver) about 1/2 a mile away which is walkable.
Tons of young people in your age range share townhouses and single family houses in Arlington if you're interested in Virginia FYI (Ballston, Virginia Square, Clarendon, and Court House).
District Sonice gave a pretty good rundown of MD and DC neighborhoods. I'm not a big fan of Brookland. It's pretty boring to me, but to each their own.
I think Brookland is boring to most people in DC. Including myself.
I would recommend living in the District or Silver Spring/Takoma Park as supposed to Virginia. But that is personal preference. If you are going to do Virginia do Old Town Alexandria considering all that you have written. It has a good vibe to it, and thankfully you are in the age range where you can appreciate it. It's more 30+. As somebody stated your job is centrally located. So you really do have a good pick of options.
I agree, theater here is huge, that should have been mentioned. We have the second highest attendence rates in the country in the area, we have a theater scene better than many larger cities. I have been to other cities, and always end up disappointed in there theater scene compared to DC. It is the one Art's thing DC is actually good at. Woolly, Shakespeare, Studio, Atlas, Synetic, etc. Both the city and the suburbs have theaters. It is one of those things hard to appreciate unless you are removed from it. It's mostly smaller dramatic and fringe theater though, as supposed to large scale musicals. So it is a bit more off beat. There are 44 area theater companies. In fact as disappointing as DC can be for some forms of music, if you enjoy theater you will be rewarded.
Capital Fringe Festival is a very big deal, other cities have Fringe Festivals...but DC does have one of the better ones. Our Fringe Festival even opened it's own theater.
Last edited by DistrictSonic; 06-18-2015 at 08:53 AM..
Ok let's step back for a moment before we drive the OP away here. He specially asked about nightlife and music events in cool venues. He specially stated he is not interested in museums and cultural stuff. So we might want to reconnect to his interests and his perspective..
Listen, I am so not trying to be the voice of reason here. I get passionate so don't think I am frustrated.
If you can, try to stay away from the absolutists at your job. Notice how I say "try" in order to not seem absolute myself. As it is, you partially made the move based off of the "the alumni". The problem is that people often speak from their own perspectives and don't always try to relate to others- they will go on and on about things unrelated to your interests. These folks don't all know every little interest you have, how well you will adapt, what you have planned. Besides, you met a chicky and you are starting a new life. You may want to venture out to go see her or take her out.
Listen, I tell my employees as well as my clients in the gym that I train, don't overly task tax yourself. Don't don't do everything all at once. Take it in steps because if not, you will become overwhelmed and may give up and stress out. As it is, you will be on a budget, in a new area, you will need a roommate at 30, which is unfamiliar to you, you will be in an environment that you were having 2nd thoughts about, you will be taking the metro more often than ever. So now you want to limit yourself to uber and zip cars and stay confined to the city? A Hawkeye from Iowa? And next year you are going to save up to buy a new car with payments? Or you going to spend the rest of your life carless like some DC hermits do? See where I am going?
Again, not angry- just passionate Look, I understand the moving to a new city and budget thing but highly consider not overly taxing yourself because then you will be living another 9 year college life experience. You are 30 years old, not a college rat in his 20s.
I will give you my personal example. "The People" told me to get rid of my car when I first moved here. I told them to eff themselves. Little did they think of that I was moving in from south Florida where public transit is almost non-existent. I am used to open roads. I am the type of person that needs to be mobile in order to thrive. I need exposure to new texture and landscape. While here in California temporarily for work, I put nearly 150-200 miles on the weekend because there is so much to do and I live 60 miles outside of LA but I am there every weekend along with the bordering cities within 20-30 min. There are plenty of attractions and entertainment to keep me sane like the beach, mountains, universal studios, Disney land. Six flags, Hollywood- all within an 30 min- 1 hr and plus sand diego within another 2 hours drive. That's just scratching the surface. So for me to give up a car would be insane.
Now you understand when I say: different city texture, different ways of life. If you are a city dweller that came to DC to pursue your "everlasting career" with no car, there is no way you are going to enjoy the above. So go ahead and put up your ad and conform to 5 roommates and tuna meals- ok just kidding ( or maybe not)
But, this is just advice...
So in ending, think about keeping your sanity and freedom. The car is paid off and you are coming from Iowa. Get acclimated to the environment and ride the subway for a month or so. See if you can rent a car to venture out and see how convenient and or economic that is for you. Then decide if you are willing to give up your baby or truck
Thanks everyone. Thanks Amerykhan for the good advice on shows and fringefest. And thanks halfamazing for the car run down. I do think some people from urban centers don't understand how necessary cars and weekend trips are to people from areas like Iowa City, where we're driving to Des Moines or Chicago basically every weekend.
Thanks everyone. Thanks Amerykhan for the good advice on shows and fringefest. And thanks halfamazing for the car run down. I do think some people from urban centers don't understand how necessary cars and weekend trips are to people from areas like Iowa City, where we're driving to Des Moines or Chicago basically every weekend.
Des Moines to Chicago...that's crazy. Yipes.
Yeah, there will be an adjustment and culture shock period. I should have noted that. DC is different than much of the US. Including other big cities.
Both are cities my boyfriend and I are considering.
DC in our case is ahead though because it's the Capitol and he wants to go into politics and I want to be a lawyer.
DC is a great city. After all it is the Capitol! And had great colleges such as Georgetown. Government job to me would scream DC. But I would compare cost of living vs pay and see where you would make the most.
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