<p>NYCFlux, there is no humiliation/embarrassment for your initial post. These questions are things we discuss with our own children all the time.</p>
<p>^help comes in many forms…sometimes it is just an ear.</p>
<p>meagain…you were likely joking but it is an insult to insinuate that actors and musicians sponge off others. My daughter is both an actor and musician and she sponges off NO ONE. The majority of her friends, roommates, and boyfriend are too. All support themselves, thank you very much.</p>
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<p>How is $10 a day too little? If you have a homemade breakfast, brown bag at lunch, and prepare your own dinners it’s no problem to spend considerably less than that. I tend to spend roughly $25 a week on food between my girlfriend and myself, with maybe one shop at Costco a month for $30 worth of food supplies. I mean, I made a peanut satay the other night that fed two people for two nights. One chicken breast, a pot of rice, half a cup of peanut butter, two onions, some bok choy, and various seasonings that work out to maybe a quarter. That alone is easily less than $5 and supplied four dinners worth of food.</p>
<p>Anyway, NYCFlux, I’m making about a little more than half of what you are, even after you pay rent and your loans. I’m still able to make ends meet perfectly fine, and on average I’m able to bank around $500 a month. I think a lot of what you need to do is change your outlook on money. If you’re really dedicated to trying to save it up, make a game out of it. Try to find the best deals you can, try to avoid spending as much money you can. Really understand what things you purchase are necessities and what are desires. Learn how to get deals and get excited when you find them.</p>
<p>Also, get health insurance. Let’s say you lose your job tomorrow. You’ll have unemployment to help you survive. Now let’s say instead you break your ankle when you slip on a patch of ice in two months. Who’s going to pay for that?</p>
<p>RacinReaver…if I do the math, and you gave me what you are spending on food for TWO people (your weekly grocery shopping and monthly trip to Costco)…that comes to less than $3/person/day. I’m sorry but very few people can eat on that little, and especially in NYC. Also, when most people grocery shop, there are a few items they buy that are not actually food (ie., trash bags, toilet paper, shampoo, cleaning supplies). If you can feed yourself on $3/day, that’s cool. I think the OP should figure on a min. of $15/day given where he lives as well. For someone of his income level, he doesn’t have to live on ramen and P and J sandwiches either (not saying you do but giving it as a cheap example).</p>
<p>PS, one chicken breast typically is not considered four servings.</p>
<p>NYCFlux-Son (09 grad) is in higher priced area as well(D.C. area) and has done 3 things that have been crucial-taken insurance from his company(as others have said you MUST have insurance even if you have to pay some money to have it) and started to contribute to his matching funds for 401 K or whatever the heck it is (also VERY important), paid off student undergrad debts of about 15000 ASAP(about 18000 with interest).We had him take loans so he felt some responsibility for his education. He pays alot for an apartment -2600 plus but shares with one other. Seems to have money for extras and has not asked us for any help financially. Still seems to have plenty of money to go out with friends, take cabs,etc. You seem to have a good income so you may need to look more closely at where all the money is going. All the best.</p>
<p>NYCFlux,I guess I should also clarify that son spent the first year out of college doing what most guys do-living with a bunch of other guys, minimal rent and sharing expenses, etc. Things do not happen overnight. Get medical insurance!</p>
<p>Hey, Racin, come to New York and see how far your $3/day takes you. I paid 4x that for a small glass of Merlot last night. </p>
<p>Bagging it for lunch at some firms is considered as ghetto as wearing hole-filled clothes.</p>
<p>I’d probably land somewhere between RacingReaver’s $3 day and Suzi’s $15. But figuring generously you can definitely eat this (in the NYC area) for less than $10.</p>
<p>Breakfast - 2 eggs, English muffin with jam or honey, coffee, milk, OJ
Lunch - two sandwiches one peanut butter, one tuna
Dinner - 1/4 lb. chicken, fresh vegetable, pasta or rice, salad with half a tomato, fruit
Snack - yogurt or fruit</p>
<p>I would suggest, NYCFlux ,that you stay away from any firms that consider bringing your own lunch inappropriate.</p>
<p>Jeez, is this legendofmax? We have to tell him how to interview and now we have to tell him how to make tuna sandwiches??</p>
<p>Mathmom, I agree that type of menu could work on $10 per day. But the kid lives in NYC and honestly is also in an income bracket where that is not completely necessary. While my kid cooks when she can, there are times she is on the go. For example, I don’t know what she did about food for dinner tonight but she was not home as she was in a big event during the day and went to another in the evening, both in Manhattan and so llkely picked up some food on the go. She just told me her mind boggling schedule tomorrow of five different jobs, rehearsals, and events from morning until late at night and so she likely won’t be cooking either. So, I figured the OP might occasionally not cook either and since he does live in Manhattan, figuring on $15/day seems kind of minimal if sometimes he cooks and sometimes he picks up food out.</p>
<p>NYCF–You need to prepare a budget. My D1 made a spread sheet that lists all her anticipated/allocated spending on items and then tracks her actual spending. She found she was overspending on some line items and not on others. This highlighted areas where she was spending more than she thought she should. Then she figured out how to cut back, or if she couldn’t, where there were other areas that she could cut to pay for the areas she was overspending… </p>
<p>The point is, YOU have to say how much you are going to spend on --food, clothes, entertainment–etc. Obviously, your budget cannot exceed your income. And when you compare allocated to actual, you might discover areas to cut.</p>
<p>Food? You can eat cheaply (pasta) to expensive (steaks) and anything in between. Eat in (or brown bag) or out.<br>
Clothes? Once you have a basic working wardrobe, you may not need to buy anything for months! You DO NOT need to add something new to your wardrobe every month.
Entertainment? There are many free things in Manhatten. Plan a movie and night out once a month, or more or none.
Tranportation? Walk when possible, take a subway, avoid cabs.
Health Insurance? If you are being paid $62K right out of school, I think your firm has benefits. Take the cheapest health plan. But definitely get health insurance.
401k? If you can, give 1%, especially if your employer will give some if you do. In other words, if your employer says, we will match your contribution or says we will we will give 3% of your salary if you give 2% (or anything), you should try to do it. If you find this impossible to do now, do it as soon as you can.
Savings? Maybe none at this point. Risky you asked? Yes. But what do you have to lose? You do not have a mortgage, family, etc. You do have loans. But they’re usually willing to work with you, especially student loans.</p>
<p>The point is, you can live on this income. But YOU have to plan, make some decisions about what is most important to you and act accordingly.</p>
<p>Soozievt, we may well agree. I don’t put eating out in my food budget, I put it in my entertainment budget. This is pretty much our diet - except dh eats vegetables with a little meat or vegetable protein and I eat leftovers for lunch. And we have oatmeal for about half the breakfasts. Oh and we have wine on the weekends. I’ve never eaten out on weekdays.</p>
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<p>NYCFLUX-This is precisely why most people on this thread are so insistant about health insurance.</p>
<p>In re-reading your posts on this thread it seems to me you are really asking 2 questions:</p>
<ol>
<li> How much is a reasonable amount to have as savings</li>
<li> How do all of my friends and colleagues seem to have so much more money than me</li>
</ol>
<p>For the first question, there is the old wisdom that says you should have 6 months of living expenses in the bank. I think that for most people, especially your age, that is not a realistic goal. Rather than start with "I need to save $XXX each month, why not look at what you do spend and say "Can I live with out XXX. So for example you may say, well I feel self conscious taking my lunch to work, so could I live with taking my lunch 2 days a week. If lunch costs $10/day thats $80/month you’d save right there. Start with small things. You are young and in NYC. Why live there if you don’t take the time to enjoy things. Yes there are plenty of free things or inexpensive things to do in the city but perhaps you need to not be so hard on yourself and enjoy things a little. But to all us parents, to be honest it seems very foolish to pay for a 3G phone and then opt out of Health Insurance. </p>
<ol>
<li> Your friends and colleagues who look like they are living the high life will fall into roughly several categories:<br></li>
</ol>
<p>a) They are on parental life support. This is probably the biggest group.
b) They make more money than you.
c) They are going into debt, slowly. This will catch up with them
d) They have lower fixed costs
e) They just appear to be having more fun than you</p>
<p>You haven’t specifically said if you are in banking, but if you are that is a tremendous bubble and you can easily get a warped sense of what is “normal spending”. I’d suggest you try to branch out and find friends/activities with people outside banking. You may find that they are living a very similar lifestyle to you.</p>
<p>With regard to shirts and suits, Macys is a good place for staples as is Century 21. Banana Republic and Gap also do a decent mens shirt. You can then mix nicer ones in on sales at Charles Tyrwhitt, Pink, etc. Go for classic styles in solid colours that can be mixed and matched. Don’t go for french cuffs, as that just adds to the overal expense. Get a selection of reasonable ties if you need to wear a tie everyday. Get yourself a shoe shine kit and shine your shoes at least once a week. Also have a nice, understated belt and replace this if it is worn. Watch for sales and stock up on staples during the off season (so buy a black wool blazer in April for next season).</p>
<p>Hope this helps</p>
<p>A few more ideas how to live cheap in NYC:</p>
<ul>
<li>take subway to Brooklyn or Queens for a cheaper supermarket. ShopRite has the cheapest prices in the metro area, Pathmark is also cheaper than Manhatten places. Take a backpack, rolling bag or cart. (shop circulars and stock up on basics/nonperishables)</li>
<li>I’m not sure how much freezer space you have, but forzen veggies are just as nutricious as fresh and sometimes cheaper with less waste. </li>
<li>A cheap lunch option in midtown are the choose your own salad bars. Skip the carbs at these and focus on proteins & fresh greens. If you want carbs, buy a roll for $0.50 on the side.<br></li>
<li>shop sales on clothes. Since we are heading into the holiday season, Macy’s will be having one-day sales and coupon events nearly every week (typically Wednesday is the big sale day). Grab an AM New York or Metro by the subway for the 15% off coupons. If you can be diligent to pay the card off monthly, get a Macy’s card and you will get additional discounts.</li>
<li>another place for decent clothes is JC Penney (near Penn Station).<br></li>
<li>Brooks Brothers has a huge sale starting on 12/26. My husband loves their shirts and they are half-price around $30-35 during the sale.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>I also agree you shouldn’t worry about savings today. Look to 2011 when you will be in cheaper apartment and that will result in instant savings.</p>
<p>“I feel like everyone around me is somehow able to pull thousands out of absolutely nowhere”</p>
<p>Well, DUH! (as the young people say) you are living in Manhattan (and not way up in Washington Heights either, IIUC) IE you are living in some place that really isnt affordable for a new grad earning 62k a year without parental support. The people around you are going to be folks with higher incomes or parental support or both. Can you say “biased sample”?</p>
<p>That would be the other benefit of moving to Brooklyn or some other cheaper place - not just that rent would be lower, but you would be surrounded by people who are in the same boat as you are, and your expectations would be more reasonable.</p>
<p>caymandriver07: Thank you for your post, and I wholeheartedly agree.</p>
<p>Regarding point #1, this is my primary question indeed.
I pretty much already understand why #2 is the case.</p>
<p>Re: First point’s paragraph: the “6 months of living expenses” is almost exactly what I seem to be aiming for at the moment. I figure that it took me 6 months to find work when I was unemployed (and out of state), so if something goes wrong, I’ll need at least $15k+ or so in my account to last me while paying all other expenses – worst-case scenario. My account is far below this at the moment, and so I am in a constant state of panic. Health insurance is the least of my worries. I’m worried about being out of work again. I’m doing very well at my current firm and don’t think I’ll be let go or anything, but I absolutely do not want to return to the kind of life I was living when I was unemployed. When most kids my age wind up out of work, they go back home (consider the recent article on CC explaining how many graduates did this) – I can’t do this, and so I feel that I really have to make sure the bottom line is supported before I start spending on insurance that I may not use in the meantime. That’s my logic, anyway.</p>
<p>"But to all us parents, to be honest it seems very foolish to pay for a 3G phone and then opt out of Health Insurance. "</p>
<p>I can understand this viewpoint. The only reason I got the 3G phone was because I use the Internet as my way to stay connected to everything in my life. I wrote my own app for my Android that lets me keep tabs on my account/balance/loan information at all times, and it’s really useful to have that info at hand. It’s also useful to be able to use GPS (to get my way around the city when I wind up in areas I’m unfamiliar with).</p>
<p>“You haven’t specifically said if you are in banking, but if you are that is a tremendous bubble and you can easily get a warped sense of what is “normal spending”. I’d suggest you try to branch out and find friends/activities with people outside banking. You may find that they are living a very similar lifestyle to you.”</p>
<p>I am not in banking but I am in finance/tech. I do a lot of financial reporting and Excel/database work. The problem is that almost every one of my friends are Ivy League grads who are supported in some way, and it’s just hard to keep up with appearances, is all. I try very hard to fit in, but it’s still impossible to blend perfectly.</p>
<p>“With regard to shirts and suits, Macys is a good place for staples as is Century 21. Banana Republic and Gap also do a decent mens shirt. You can then mix nicer ones in on sales at Charles Tyrwhitt, Pink, etc. Go for classic styles in solid colours that can be mixed and matched. Don’t go for french cuffs, as that just adds to the overal expense. Get a selection of reasonable ties if you need to wear a tie everyday. Get yourself a shoe shine kit and shine your shoes at least once a week. Also have a nice, understated belt and replace this if it is worn. Watch for sales and stock up on staples during the off season (so buy a black wool blazer in April for next season).”</p>
<p>Yeah, I just recently bought a belt. A while back I purchased three suits, four dress shirts, and three ties from Jos. A Bank for a grand total of about $1000 – during a weekend where it was basically a “buy one suit get two more free.” A few weeks ago I purchased winter gloves and a scarf, and some new glasses. I’ll check the places out that you mentioned and look into some more dress shirts.</p>
<p>far be it from me to challenge your goal of 15k in savings real soon.</p>
<p>But if you are really truely paniced about that, I think you need to move, not to a $750 a month housing situation in fashionable brooklyn, but to more like a $500 month situation in an unfashionable area. Temporarily ditch your Ivy league friends, and stop trying to keep up appearances. Hope your GF stays with you through that. </p>
<p>Because it seems to me like trying to save $900 a month on your salary, while trying to keep up with your friends, really is going to be a constant struggle, and may not be doable.</p>
<p>I’d also advise you to stop posting during the day and keep your eyes on work! IT/finsvc isn’t exactly secure and you need to not look like a new grad who is spending time on his phone or the internet.</p>