<p>NYCFlux…just as a point of reference…I live in rural Vermont. People do not typically earn anywhere near what people in Manhatten earn (very generally speaking) for professional jobs. When my oldest was a junior in HS, she wanted to have some private tutoring sessions for the SATs (like you, she was a top student/valedictorian and went to an Ivy). I got a recommendation from another family for an SAT tutor. I called the person up and was blown away when she said she charged…$225/hour!!! NO way could we do that. She said that her “junior SAT coach” who was a recent Georgetown grad, could do it for…$90/hour. We used her for some sessions. And that is in rural Vermont, not NYC.</p>
<p>Wow.</p>
<p>Do you think people would pay more for SAT over stuff like math/CS/etc? </p>
<p>Yikes, I’ve got to get on this.</p>
<p>Yup, if you have a reputation, in Manhattan you could make $1000/hour with a full classroom of students in SAT tutoring. Some of those who have gurantee classes even make more.</p>
<p>We have a full time math tutor nearby, that is his full time job just work in his house and the students are just from one or two hs in the area. He is making $75/hr, he does not make house calls.</p>
<p>here is how this math tutor works(btw, he was laid off from his engineering job)</p>
<p>from 3 to 9 each weekday he works 5 50 min totur session and has one hour off for dinner @75/session, that is about $1500 for 5 days, giving some time slot would not have a student.</p>
<p>Weekends its 9 to 9, about 10 hours billable sessions/day, that is about 1300/weekend counting slack time.</p>
<p>all told, $2800/week or roughly $10,000 per month without tax, everyone pays in cash.</p>
<p>he never advertises, all businesses are from word of mouth.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s amazing. O.O</p>
<p>Do they just teach people at their own home? Do they need separate space to host people? I’m not sure I could just host a bunch of kids in my apartment, heh. I’d probably have to make housecalls, I think.</p>
<p>Do you know how his word of mouth began? I think I’d have to start off CL and hope that the results speak for themselves.</p>
<p>PS: $10k/month in cash – do you have to report such earnings to the government?</p>
<p>If I were an anxiety prone person (well I guess I am one) I would not hide income on that scale from the IRS. I guess it all depends on what anxieties bother you more.</p>
<p>How lovely that that guy makes 120K per year and pays no taxes.
While those of us who get W2s pay tax on every penny we earn. And many of us are scrupulously honest about every deduction we take. </p>
<p>It really chaps my #!* that so many who are “self-employed” or run businesses are so friggin’ dishonest. They escape paying taxes to the tune of billions of dollars each year.</p>
<p>I always thought if you made more than $400 in a self-employed business, you have to report it. Although if you already have a job, you have to report everything (i.e. even if it’s less than $400).</p>
<p>Sorry to be the one to tell you, but not everyone reports everything they are legally supposed to report.</p>
<p>Word of caution - if you are working for any financial institution, especially IBs, you need your manager´s approval before you could work for anyone outside, it would include non-paying jobs. If you are not an hourly paid programmer, arguably any application you develope would become to the company (in today environment, people work from home and sometimes during non regular working hours). You need to be especially carefuly of any emails sent to your office email account. I have fired people for receiving/sending emails related to their part time work.</p>
<p>oldfort: Yes I would definitely speak with my manager even if the part-time gig was a self-employed SAT tutoring sort of operation.</p>
<p>As for office-email, I only use it for my firm and nothing else. I use gmail if I need to venture outside of that.</p>
<p>correction to my posting, I should have said no widthholding tax.</p>
<p>I don’t know how the word of mouth started, but I think you need to know a lot of parents in HS. Get involved in HS matters, volunteer in PTO, lecture on subject matters etc. Also, you can start with grade schools, middle schools, community colleges, churches the list is endless.</p>
<p>Have business cards made up and tell everyone you come across that you are a SAT and subject area tutor. Place a professional ad in the paper. Most tutors in the city are making $200 minumum per hour. Suburban tutors close to the city are making $8o to $120 per hour. It is harder to get started in the city but all it takes is two clients that you have good results with and your business will grow through word of mouth. The most sought after tutors are math, physics, chem, and SAT’s. The SAT tutors get paid the most.</p>
<p>I’m embarrassed to admit that we paid about $100/hr for SAT tutoring for both kids through Princeton Review. Ridiculous, especially considering it didn’t make a bit of difference, either in their SAT scores or their college experience. But I digress.</p>
<p>You might try contacting Princeton Review since you don’t have any contacts of your own to start your own tutoring side business. It is a very lucrative business. Our tutor was a filmmaker who graduated from a top school, and the schedule was very flexible and she made good money. It’s something you can always go back to – my kids are spaced 5 years apart and she was still working there part-time. Probably financed her films that way.</p>
<p>I know this is easy for others to say, but try not to worry so much. I realize that you feel you have no safety net and I understand how anxious you are about that, but you are not as alone as seem to think you are (you have friends, a girlfriend). It sounds like you are good at your job. I remember from your posts as Max that you ultimately had two very good job offers. Remind yourself of that when you start panicking about not having a nest egg.</p>
<p>The financial situation you are in now is temporary. Things will get better. But here’s something important to keep in mind: improving your lifestyle is not just about crunching numbers. Just keeping your head down and working hard will not get you what you need in NYC. (I have a feeling Soozievt’s D understands this.) Getting by and getting ahead in NY is all about connecting with others. I’m not sure you will “hear” what I’m saying – that the solutions to your situation are not just about budgeting and saving. Those things are very important, but the hard reality is that your money is finite, and there is just so much you can spend or save. You will be much happier if you make peace with that.</p>
<p>Probably the best thing you can do right now is to find a cheaper place to live. That will free up the biggest chunk of money. Don’t scrimp on your groceries! Also, why would you need dental on your health insurance? Unless you have chronic teeth problems, it would probably be cheaper to pay for your annual check-up out of pocket. NYU has a dental clinic, as do most medical schools.</p>
<p>Anyway, do what you can about your expenses, but then stop fretting about it. There is nothing wrong with your life right now, is there? Go outside, take a walk along the river (East or Hudson), look at the water, the sky.</p>
<p>Haha, no I don’t have chronic teeth problems – I try to take decent care of my teeth but I haven’t been to a dentist since I was very little, so I have no idea what’s going on in there. I’ll probably just go once a year and pay out of pocket.</p>
<p>In general though you are right that I just feel very anxious. It helps to talk this stuff out, admittedly. Sometimes I run into these panic modes and I feel as if everything could be gone tomorrow. So, this time around, I just want to know that I am on the right track, is all.</p>
<p>NYCFlux…not sure how to say this…
First, I fully understand being worried about this or that. I worry about stuff too. But in the scheme of things, as a recent college grad, you are doing very well and much better than most. I think you need to also look at the bright side too. Also, I don’t know what your point of reference is and maybe you have a lot of rich friends, not sure. But really, I don’t see you has having any big problem right now. I understand that there are still things to worry about but overall, you are in a very good place right now and would be the envy of many. i can assure you. </p>
<p>I don’t wish to divulge personal details here but frankly, I’m in a very precarious financial situation at present, and am much older than you and have many more financial obligations (not to mention both my kids’ college loans), and you are making more than us right now. That’s all I will say about that. </p>
<p>My 24 year old daughter has very unexpectedly had a turn of events, to NO fault of her own that is actually very unfair, and has totally changed her current status of what she is doing this year and she is overseas no less! She has been scrambling to regroup and has to leave where she is now in a week with much uncertainty of what she’ll even be doing a week from now (or even living in terms of city or country), though has had to put contingency plans in place and has a few things in the works that we hope may end up coming through for the short term. She has to hold her chin up and it is stressful (talk about NO money coming in now) and her life is in flux and she is very far from home and it was all very sudden. That’s all I want to say about that here. </p>
<p>My 22 year old in NYC doesn’t have a single job like you. She is in a very challenging field (performing arts) and has several paying jobs to try to support her expenses, while pursuing her career (though actually all her paying jobs are also in her career field). Her schedule is full 24/7 (just what she has on tap today which balances paid jobs and non-paid jobs in her career boggles my mind). Yet, even though she has to constantly network and create work for herself, she keeps after it and never wallows in woe. In fact, in the past 24 hours, some very exciting things have happened to her with major players in her field and may land some opportunities for her (a major inquiry came to her in the past couple of hours that alone is very cool) and she keeps pushing to make things happen and right now, she is on the verge. I don’t wish to reveal any more than that, but just saying she is not sitting in a high paying job like you but constantly has to network, put herself out there, create opportunities and it is not all for pay (she has side jobs for pay all the while doing this other stuff to forward her career). Now, some major people are contacting her and I don’t know what it is next but it’s exciting. She is not sitting around wallowing and she has much less money than you and not one single longer term job like you and has to constantly create new work opportunities due to the nature of her field. </p>
<p>Please count your blessings, even though your life is not perfect. It is pretty good for your age right now. </p>
<p>Also, and I don’t mean this to be harsh, but I am simply curious how you have been able to be online on a message board as much as you have during your work day. I know my kids cannot do anything of this sort. I am glad you come here for advice, truly I am. I just wonder how you do it during work hours. In any case, if you have free time, look into a side job, health insurance, moving to a lower rent place, etc. Be pro-active. You are a very smart guy and I think right now, you have a lot going well.</p>
<p>My D used to be a Princeton Review SAT tutor many years ago and she was only paid $18 per hour to teach a class. While you may be paying Princeton Review $100/hr, the tutor may only be getting $25. In addition, Princeton Review made all tutors sign an agreement that they would not be allowed to tutor privately.
Having access to the teaching materials may be difficult for the average person.</p>
<p>I am able to post here during work hours because I work extremely quickly. I’m good with both finance/technology and so when I, say, need to create an excel model, I can get it done in a tenth of the time it takes most people my age (who may spend, say, all night/day on it). Usually I’ll get asked to work on things, and I’ll get them done by noon at the latest. I ask my managers for more work but eventually they simply run out of things for me to do, and so I’ll go back through other existing reports/models and optimize them (with permission), but I’ve already optimized most of them as of today. I’m only online when I have absolutely nothing to work on.</p>
<p>Tried sending a PM but the box was full.</p>
<p>I’ll just say, instead, that you’re absolutely right and need to count blessings – but at the same time I want to make sure those blessings won’t disappear tomorrow.</p>