Tens of thousands of people do it. So of course not impossible.
But different. Different housing choices, different lifestyle.
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I think it depends on how much of your compensation is “bonus”. My husband gets a very solid base salary but his bonus payments for the year are typically at least double of his base and they are based on how much revenue he is generating for the bank. They are always tinkering with the formula so they can pay people less for the same, or more, work.
But those things are wants, not needs. So, of course someone (a single person with no dependents) can live in NYC on “just” $100/120k - but it will require roommates, not living in the “best” areas and seeking out cheaper places to eat/socialize (there are plenty) instead of hitting the most high end restaurants/clubs.
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I agree and I am simply showing how kids straight out of school into a high status job are likely to think and i didn’t even include the high tax structure in NYC.
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Agreed - I think many high status jobs come with high expectations. The costs of NYC can be a shock. I remember being blown away by the reality of city tax which was new to me (coming from MA I learned that anyone who talks about “taxachusetts” has never lived in NY).
The notion of a “Chic Area” is gone.
The young people I know moving for a job in NYC after graduation are living in “family neighborhoods” in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. If you need to be in your company’s office in NJ one day a week, then they’ll look at Staten Island. And Hoboken and other towns in NJ.
Unless you have family money (and some do) nobody can afford a “chic area”, even on a banker’s salary! Except for the hardy souls who are living in a 2 bedroom in Murray Hill with four roommates and rotating “whose turn is it to sleep in the living room this month”.
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Yup. D19 and friends are all living happily in NYC on well under $100k a year and (at least D19 is) managing to build up some savings, but they’re living in Brooklyn and not spending a fortune on lifestyle choices (but they do still regularly go out and have fun).
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It’s a great city. I loved working there. Hope your daughter is making wonderful memories.
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But as my nephew says - I have no car. No car insurance etc.
Honestly his 1 br rent was a lot $3600) but even where I live it’s $2k plus
Groceries are high and obviously the taxes.
But he saves a bundle on a car :).
And don’t forget the most underutilized company benefit in NYC- Transitchek. The program allows employees up to a certain income level to use pre-tax dollars to pay for their mass transit costs-- and some employers will match the employee contribution so that the employee essentially has free transportation 24/7. (You aren’t required to only use the swipes to get to work-- you can use the benefit for all your transportation needs).
Stuff like Transitchek, subsidized meals, free meals during overtime, etc. sometimes get cynical reactions. “You’re buying me dinner because I’m working until 8 pm”. Yes, that’s why you’re getting dinner from a choice of 80 different restaurants, delivered to the office. But if you are living on a tight 23 year old’s budget, it sure beats crockpot lentil soup 7 nights a week!!!
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If you get enough detail, you can also predict future economic reports by looking at things like the rate of change of people shopping at WalMart vs more expensive options like say Whole Foods.
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This has been going on for a while but now with greater computing power and leaps in inferencing capabilities a lot of the hedge funds are just pouring more and more into data acquisition and machine driven alpha generation.
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And how about the epidemiological applications? Predicting Covid from stool samples in municipal waste; mapping the flu severity by zip code broken out by age cohort?
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Yes, D19 gets this.
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serendipitously saw this today…
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An interesting article for the layperson, but out of date. Given that this article was supposedly written by a quant, I suspect that’s intentional.
You don’t need to analyze satellite photos of parking lots to figure out how many people are shopping at a particular store, if you have the cell phone GPS data giving you the same information in a format that’s much easier to process computationally. It’s the same underlying data that Google Maps uses to predict how busy a store or restaurant will be.
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i’ve heard of commodity futures traders using satellite imagery to figure out pricing but yeah for people cell phone data is probably rich enough.
And i suspect no hedge fund will go out and spell out all the things they do given their inherently secretive nature.
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Exactly. Any of us can look at Google data to see how many people looked up “is Taylor Swift engaged” last week. It’s the ability to figure out how to monetize that knowledge that’s the secret sauce!
Same here. S20 is an investment banking analyst. He lives close to his office in a modest three-story walkup with three college classmates. He works 80-100 hours a week and they’re respectful when he works from home. He isn’t really worried about living somewhere nice. He’s able to max his 401k on his salary and bank his bonus. He says he’ll move to the Village after two years when he has a little more time.
Everyone in NYC plays the same game, decides what is important and balances things out based on many factors. DS’s girlfriend’s parents are/were in IB and she is very understanding, so he has a good social life.
The lifestyle seems unattractive to many, but NYC is a great place to live when young. One third of DS’s business school class is working there now. He says he sees someone he knows every time he goes out.
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Hopefully no-one’s kid is like this! “I got a PhD from Berkeley in soil biology but I can’t find a job (other than baby/petsitting and tutoring) because I don’t want to move to the middle of nowhere (eg farm country!) and can’t work full time”
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