family of four trying to live in NYC on 400k

Precious Roy wrote:

Self inflicted wounds. There are a zillion upper middle class neighborhoods in NJ and Long Island with great public schools and affordable houses (compared to NYC) where $400k a year will allow you to live very comfortably. But you will have to take the train to work every day with the unwashed masses. And you will live closer to an Applebees or Friday's than you will the latest authentic French Brasserie on the upper west side. But that is because you cannot afford to live in NYC. And you do not have to. Just like you can chose between bringing a $4 frozen dinner to put in the microwave for lunch or go down to have a $26 prix fixe lunch, you have options in NYC. No one is required to live in Manhattan or Brooklyn.

Partially correct. Metro North is pretty fantastic and civilized: Harlem and Hudson Lines are excellent; New Haven Line a little less so. Applebee's puts themselves in high density areas; avoid those and you find lovely villages all over Westchester and CT.

Manhattan jobs are a simple trade off and once you start having kids the decisions require bigger sacrifices. I commuted Metro North 28 min to GCT, from an unbelievable village with best public schools, recreation, restaurants, where every kid walked to school. I could drive on the weekends to Lincoln Center in 25 minutes if I needed more city.

Even if it was 50% dearer you are wrong. Also move further out. Millions live in Greater London and commute to work in centre on less than 400k GBP equivalent.

You need to but as well as in 10 years you will definitely struggle with rent increases. If you can't stand the heat,.....

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+Kingdom&city1=London&country2=United+States&city2=New+York%2C+NY

Brooklyndan wrote:

I'm raising two sons on a teacher's salary. My wife stayed at home until my younger son was 5 and will work part time for another year. We are able to save and invest. Live within your means. There are cheap safe areas with decent schools 25 minutes out of mid Manhattan.

Exactly.

And people manage on less the op is just spoiled.

I was born in upstate NJ. My dad commuted from NJ to Manhattan, NY daily. Obviously, the home he was able to buy in NJ was larger than the home he would have been able to buy in fancy areas of Manhattan. Stop crying!

Average commute time in NYC, if you live in Manhattan, is brief on the subway, and you can work on the train. You have the best or 2nd best choice of restaurants, after SF, and more diversity in meals--you can eat Tibetan food or three types of Thai cuisine.

XCVCXVXCV wrote:

Average commute time in NYC, if you live in Manhattan, is brief on the subway, and you can work on the train. You have the best or 2nd best choice of restaurants, after SF, and more diversity in meals--you can eat Tibetan food or three types of Thai cuisine.

Commuting within Manhattan can be 45 minutes and too crowded to do work on the subway. It is true that you can great food anywhere and most of the ethnic restaurants are cheap. The tourists and wheeler dealers are the ones who spend $150 on a meal.

I can't afford the lifestyle I want = living is impossible

asians are awesome wrote:

Basically it's impossible. Before you scream TROLL remember that

-daycare in this city costs as much as your mortgage and probably more

-a 2 bedroom in a nice area is going to run $4000 minimum, probably more

-the effective tax rate on "high" income couples is near 50% (take home is $18,000 per month)

-student loans

-private school after day care (public schools are a nightmare unless your kids go to Stuyvesant, etc)

Add it all up and that 18k take home pay turns into 2k in a flash.

Yup sorry but I will absolutely scream TROLL!!

Sounds like you don't have any idea to live within your means. You obviously can easily live there making far far less than $400k, as I'm sure most people who live there make nowhere near that amount of money. You just chose a lifestyle that is above your means and are complaining that it can't be done.

Putting $400k into a tax calculator for new york city says you should make $20-$21k a month after taxes, but okay let's say for whatever reason your taxes are actually only $18k like you say. You chose to live in a nice area, not a bad thing but if your other choices make that unaffordable then that's your own dang fault. You chose to send two kids to private schools, this likely eats up most of your money and again, this is a lifestyle choice that you in no way need but you chose to make and coupled with your other lifestyle choices this was probably a bad decision since you are complaining about it. It's up to you to have a cheaper lifestyle while still paying off loans, and you chose to ignore this apparently so again that's your own dang fault.

Yes taxes are really high in NYC and the place is super expensive. But it sounds like you simply decided to live above your means, or well right close to it since you are saving some money. That is entirely your decision. Just judging from your post I'm sure like most people you buy a lot of stuff you don't need at all and could easily reduce your costs some with just some basic money management skills. I don't know how people grow up without understanding how to handle their own money, but your plight is unfortunately not uncommon where you just have no idea how to create a reasonable budget.

XY wrote:

Personal Problem wrote:

I love how these liberals, who are so offended about EVERYTHING, have no problem slinging racist terms towards white people. When did leftists decide it was fine to trash white people, yet they bring out the pitchforks if someone said "black trash n*****s?" How is this acceptable?

This post will certainly be deleted (and I'll get another 3 day ban), but who cares?

^This is true

Actually I am not liberal at all. The liberals are the Trump supporters who are looking for a bailout from their government. Trump has done a great job turning poor whites into the next victim class looking for government handouts. Like the steelworkers who just convinced president jizz-trumpet to impose tariffs. Tariffs are a not exactly a conservative approach.

rojo wrote:

Dave F In Ramsey wrote:

My wife and I make $365K. We live in NH. No sales tax, no income tax. We save nearly 100K per year, send our kids to eye wateringly expensive but really good private schools and we live in a 2500 Sq foot $500K house with a 150 K mortgage that we pay $1045 a month on. Our property taxes are 6K per year.

Why the f would anyone want to live in NYC?

Most people can't find jobs that pay $365k in NH and most people don't want to have to send their kids to boarding schools.

Actually NH has the 6th highest median income in the US. There is a high probability that any corporate type educated person with decent skills and background could move to NH and with two 150Kish incomes would have no problem doing what I do. The unemployment rate is very low here.

As far as the boarding schools, your kids learn to work really hard because they have to go to class 6 days a week, do 3 sports, and are programmed to be engaged from 8AM -11 PM every day. Most boarding schools have selective admissions which means that there is more demand than supply. Every kid at my kinds school wants to be there. The upside is that they develop a strong social network and they work their butts off.

I get it.... I used to be a 'family of one' living in NYC on a salary + bonus of about $150k. That was tight.

I now am a 'family of four' living in London on a salary + bonus of about $800k (£500k). London is more expensive than NYC.

It's give or take.

On the one hand, yes - I can buy an iPad without thinking about it. I can shop at Whole Foods without worrying about the cost. Buying plane tickets back to the US or to some exotic location in Asia or Africa is no big deal.

But I don't own a car. I make $800k/£500k per year, I have about $1.5 million in the bank, and I take public transport (though I spend about £150 per month on Uber - and I only go Uber Lux). I live in a 1,300 square foot house with a small roof terrace - modest by most peoples standards. On the other hand, my two girls go to one of the best private schools London has to offer... and British schools are way better than US schools.

I guess I could go live in some back-a$$ town in the middle of the USA and buy a house for $200k in cash, but then I'd have to live in a town with a bunch of rednecks with no teeth, and NRA bumper stickers on their 4x4s. Plus, instead of my 5 year old daughter reading and doing pretty complicated math and playing piano and speaking French, she'd be sitting in a class with 40 kids reciting the pledge of allegiance and doing 'shooter rampage' duck and cover drills.

Nah, I'll live in London.

Run007xx wrote:

Nah, I'll live in London.

What neighborhood in London?

Dave F In Ramsey wrote:

My wife and I make $365K. We live in NH. No sales tax, no income tax. We save nearly 100K per year, send our kids to eye wateringly expensive but really good private schools and we live in a 2500 Sq foot $500K house with a 150 K mortgage that we pay $1045 a month on. Our property taxes are 6K per year.

Why the f would anyone want to live in NYC?

What do you do in New Hampshire to make that kind of money? Totally left out of the story

Ramsey is a CPA & Financial Advisor.

Run007xx wrote:

But I don't own a car. I make $800k/£500k per year, I have about $1.5 million in the bank, and I take public transport (though I spend about £150 per month on Uber - and I only go Uber Lux). I live in a 1,300 square foot house with a small roof terrace - modest by most peoples standards.

Nah, I'll live in London.

With a million in the bank it sounds like you could live in a bigger house.

1300 sq feet? I make $150k and have a 2000 sq foot house with a yard. In a US city.

Nice story, Daniel Craig.

And I'll stack any of our private schools against your outdated, stuffy independent schools. I am certain our schools are shoving not your gross "back-a$$" stereotypes about American culture down their throats. Good to see that you have such worldly views on top of your pretentiousness.

There's a place called Staten Island that even most new yorkers don't know about. Check it out.