<p>
</p>
<p>Amen! One emergency appendectomy can gobble up any $10,000 nest egg that took years to build. (I know the kid who had the appendectomy personally. Bad stuff happens to otherwise healthy people).</p>
<p>You absolutely need to enroll in your healthcare plan. That should be the number one priority. You can’t afford to not have coverage. Eat beans and rice until you can move somewhere else. Unpaid medical bills will ruin your credit and derail your long term plans. Don’t think it can’t happen to you.</p>
<p>bbd,
</p>
<p>To some one who trade healthcare insurance for food in Manhattan, Imo he is on his knees. Maybe I used the wrong word, but his financial stats is probably beyond frugal. $1200/mo of discretionary income not counting transportation does not work very well in Manhattan.</p>
<p>Totally disagree with the above. He def needs to get health insurance (possibly a high deduct policy), but that should be enough discretionary income for a young adult in Manhattan. There is ample opportunity for cheap eats and entertainment, and no need for a car and its associated costs (insurance, gas, etc.).</p>
<p>If his job is entry level with opportunity for advancement, he should just try to enjoy himself and not worry too much about saving money at this time. I get the feeling NYCFlux is being very hard on himself.</p>
<p>I am not sure why people are assuming I am spending money on drinks/coffee/etc every day. I only buy food. I don’t buy new clothes, and I rarely try to spend on entertainment. I have a girlfriend (who is very understanding) and I might occasionally pay for us to go out to dinner or see a movie, but that’s about it. </p>
<p>It’s just that sometimes I need new shoes, and that usually winds up being like $100 (I haven’t actually bought new shoes yet but mine are currently 5 years old). If I need new clothes, that winds up costing even more. If I need to buy new furniture for a move, that’s a ton right there, as well. If I go out with friends to a restaurant, same thing. The problem is that trying to spend $1000/month in free income is just impossible – but this might be because I spent a lot buying suits for work/my phone/furniture for my room/new glasses to replace my 10-year-old ones/etc. I can’t afford the 401k in a similar way that I can’t afford insurance. I can’t just dump a few hundred into it each month because then I run out of funds to finance the present-day. If for any reason I lost my job, I’d be absolutely screwed.</p>
<p>I think rent is a large issue – but it feels like no matter where I go, I have to pay out the nose for something livable or get next-to-nothing (plus the free bonus of unjust landlords, cockroaches, mice, or other amenity issues). </p>
<p>The insurance thing has always been an uncertainty for me because even with a high deductible, I’m still paying quite a bit each month over time plus whatever amount up until that deductible. My firm’s plans cost more than $50/month and even with that plus, say, a $2000 deductible, I couldn’t pay that kind of money out of pocket very easily. I’d still be pretty damn screwed with or without insurance, and so, as a relatively safe person, I have to basically bet in the other direction and hope to use that money towards other things until I figure out a better way to manage the situation. Likewise with the 401k – I just can’t dump anything into it.</p>
<p>Maybe this high-initial-fixed-cost situation is just putting a strain and things will even out in the near future? I’m just stressed and I have a hard time swallowing advice that tells me to put money into insurance/401k when I feel like present-day expenses already eat up everything else.</p>
<p>Put the $50+/month into your firm’s health insurance plan and try to stay as healthy as possible. You won’t miss the $50 (much), but you’ll be bankrupted if you don’t have it, and wind up with a medical emergency. The 401K would be nice, but hopefully you’ll be able to contribute to catch up when you’re earning the big bucks.</p>
<p>NYCFlux - I have to agree that if your portion for health insurance is only $50 per month then you should definitely be getting it. If you have a hospitalization you will end up wiping out all of your savings.</p>
<p>The health insurance was more than $50/month. It was in the hundreds, when I checked, for dental/vision/general health/etc.</p>
<p>NYCFlux - I still would suggest the health insurance. At this time you do not need to do the dental, vision or any extras. Just get the cheapest health policy offered by your company.</p>
<p>I guess my main question is “How much per month in addition is probably fine”?</p>
<p>For instance, I clearly wouldn’t want to spend $1000/month out of my $1200 or so. But I am not sure how much is an acceptable threshold.</p>
<p>Soozievt…I think the Brooklyn set up you describe sounds fine. A lot of cool people live in Brooklyn, no doubt. Still, it is a common NY opinion that (subway stops or not) living in BBQ or NJ is hugely less desirable.</p>
<p>I would not mind living in Jersey or Brooklyn as long as housing was affordable and of decent quality and ultimately resulted in some significant savings on the margin. I don’t mind slightly longer commutes, if need be. It’s nice to be able to leave work and be home in half an hour or less – but losing out on, say, an extra hour of leisure every day via a longer commute is worth it to me if I am saving quite a bit more.</p>
<p>NYC Flux – get the insurance! You have to take care of those little things like your teeth or they won’t stick around for you in later years! (“Ignore your teeth and they will go away” as my son’s dental hygienist friend used to say) </p>
<p>And, you do not know what will happen—all you need is an appendectomy as someone said.</p>
<p>I was like you, living not in NYC but in Boston, fresh out of school & newly married and also, we had just had a baby. And husb was a postdoc at MIT so if you think you are not paid much, try that out. It was not fun looking at others who seemed to have much more—</p>
<p>I also read something during that time that said if friends your same age semed to be able to do so much more than you, it was usually because they had parent$.</p>
<p>You can help yourself hugely if you buy at a supermarket instead of Whole Foods and other boutiques, and go to your nearest supermarket’s website, look at their weekly specials and make your meal plans for the week based on those. Don’t buy this or that meat unless it is on special. Make the carb the main part of the meal—a lot of rice, potato or noodles, and the meat is the “flavoring.” We still do that in this house, and the income has risen quite a bit since those early years.</p>
<p>I know young people in NY are not big on cooking but if you want to stretch your income, you have to do less eating out & more cooking. Other posters have given great recommendations with their cookbook titles, etc. Bring your own teabags to work & make that using the hot water. Bring your own coffee to work, too-- god, Starbuck$ is a ripoff.</p>
<p>If you spend a week writing down everything you spend on anything, and be brutally honest, write it all down—I bet you will be surprised at where it goes. Then you will be able to choose some things to say “No” to, as they just cost too much for your present situation. </p>
<p>For clothes — shop sales – get your relatives to give you gift cards for Christmas/Hanukkah/birthdays, for stores you use for clothes. Wait till right after Christmas and head for those sales—actually, right before Christmas is pretty good, too. The day after Christmas, go to the Lands End & LL Bean websites and pounce on dress shirt sales. </p>
<p>I do understand—I used to go to the secondhand store, and buy extra large womens clothes, and cut them down to make baby clothes for my daughter. I could not afford new fabric by the yard ( but she had some awfully nice 100% wool coveralls!). I washed most of our clothes by hand in a pail set in the bathtub (as my landlady did in her kitchen upstairs btw). </p>
<p>You could also look into Brooklyn, etc as others have said. There is a reason people started moving there years ago & it is still valid today — it costs less. My son in law was living in Jersey city, too, when he met my daughter—same reason. Hopped on the ferry every day to lower Manhattan. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>“I was like you, living not in NYC but in Boston, fresh out of school & newly married and also, we had just had a baby. And husb was a postdoc at MIT so if you think you are not paid much, try that out. It was not fun looking at others who seemed to have much more—”</p>
<p>Wow! That must have been tough. Major props to you guys. @__@</p>
<p>"If you spend a week writing down everything you spend on anything, and be brutally honest, write it all down—I bet you will be surprised at where it goes. Then you will be able to choose some things to say “No” to, as they just cost too much for your present situation. "</p>
<p>Been doing this for a while now (I used to eat a breakfast bagel but I’ve since cut that out of my diet) – most of it, at the moment, is towards food. How much per month do you think is doable in terms of purchasing food? I’d really like to avoid the $5-10/day metric, as I think that’s paying way too much here.</p>
<p>nycflex
I think you still did not get it. For you, to conclude all the suggestions and paint a better financial picture like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>living. Move to a place around $1,000/mo, work hard on it. Saving: $300+</li>
<li>If you ended up still in Manhattan, you should walk to work, saving: $180</li>
<li>You need to take on that health insurance, cost: $50</li>
<li>phone: cut that email, 3g access, get the emails from home or work, it will not kill you if you reply those 2 hours late, saving: $35</li>
<li>Forget about 401K, add some thing to the principal payment of the student loan, only when you are able, cost: varies</li>
<li>food: don’t buy from whole food, take time to collect coupons at night: Savings: $150</li>
<li>Cooking: choose a vegi diet supplement with low cost meat dishes, cut out soda and sweet desert. Savings: $100+</li>
</ol>
<p>Just implement those 7 measures above will increase your discretionay income, it will not all happen overnight, but you’ve got your goals.</p>
<p>"To some one who trade healthcare insurance for food in Manhattan, Imo he is on his knees. "</p>
<p>His not doing health insurance is a choice he has made, a mistaken choice that lots of young people make. It seems clear he could afford it"</p>
<p>“Maybe I used the wrong word, but his financial stats is probably beyond frugal. $1200/mo of discretionary income not counting transportation does not work very well in Manhattan”</p>
<p>I am cannot speak to that (though others here disagree). But note the last word - Manhattan. This is 2010, not 1980. There is NO guarantee anymore that a recent college grad can afford any decent part of Manhattan, even with roommates. That college debt forces someone to live in Williamsburg or Park Slope or Hoboken, or even, heaven help us, Carroll Gardens or Astoria, hardly means its bringing people to their knees. </p>
<p>Is it better to be an ivy grad and part of the bridges and tunnels crowd, or a State U grad living in Manhattan? thats a choice. Either one of which may be valid, depending on what folks value.</p>
<p>I still think he pays too much for rent. Also, living where my D lives (Williamsburg) doesn’t add to the “commute” more than going several stops on the subway if you commute within Manhattan anyway. My D is in Manhattan daily (many different locations as her work and activities are not all in one place) and in 15 min. is where she needs to be except for a few exceptions (she even goes to Westchester one day per week). She also is a private coach and her clients come to her apartment in Williamsburg and so it obviously is not considered far to them.</p>
<p>The $1255 for mostly food, incidentals, entertainment is way more than one person needs in NYC. My D spends way less than that on those things. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about accruing savings at this point in time. </p>
<p>I would add the lowest cost health insurance because while you say it would not be a help if there is a deductible, it would be a help if you have anything happen beyond that $2000 deductible. Also, even with a deductible, many plans still copay some toward doctor visits and meds. </p>
<p>At this point in time you must own some furniture as you live in an apartment and so I don’t know how much more you would have to purchase by moving. But there are cheap ways to get used furniture or some things at IKEA and just get the min. you need to live. Your parents may even have “hand me downs.”</p>
<p>I don’t know your family situation but I would ask for money or gift certificates for holidays and birthdays for things like clothing or furnishings.</p>
<p>How much does it cost to move, anyway? Unless you’ve got a ton of furniture you can probably toss everything into a small U-Haul and get it done in a day if you’ve got a friend or two to help.</p>
<p>"The $1255 for mostly food, incidentals, entertainment is way more than one person needs in NYC. My D spends way less than that on those things. "</p>
<p>What about things like clothes? How much do you think is reasonable to spend on men’s clothing? What about food? I am having trouble pinpointing a numeric goal to use for a budget threshold. I feel $300 is too much, but what about $200? $100? Even less?</p>
<p>"I don’t know your family situation but I would ask for money or gift certificates for holidays and birthdays for things like clothing or furnishings. "</p>
<p>Cannot do this unfortunately!</p>
<p>"I wouldn’t worry about accruing savings at this point in time. "</p>
<p>Is this not somewhat risky?</p>
<p>"How much does it cost to move, anyway? Unless you’ve got a ton of furniture you can probably toss everything into a small U-Haul and get it done in a day if you’ve got a friend or two to help. "</p>
<p>A few hundred dollars, I am guessing – last time I moved, I did it myself with the exception of the bed, which I purchased from IKEA (it was like $100 to ship).</p>
<p>there ARE one time start up costs. Like business clothes. Yes, its good to save. But you dont have to save cash the same month you add signficantly to your wardrobe. </p>
<p>Do people still read “dress for success”? I seem to recall good advice there on how to economically build up a business wardrobe (for men) economically - suits that go well with multiple shirts and ties, etc.</p>