Scrambling to get by on $400K/Yr in NYC

[Midpack]

But don't we feel sorry for them? Maybe they should be eligible for some sort of gubmint assistance, it's not their fault NYC is so expensive, those crooks on Wall St are probably to blame...

[tiuxiu]

I get the same vibe when I'm in San Francisco, can't resist looking at the 4rent and 4sale advertisements in awe thinking no way someone with a capped income like a cop or librarian could possibly live there.

I always assumed a lot of the Chinese families there do it right they go multi-generational with the housing so they're dug in at the house grandfather bought in 1951.

[tiuxiu]

Off topic = hah that web site from article is something else, when you click "print friendly" it stills show it with only one of the four pages at a time.

[tryan]

Spent alot of time in NYC while with mega corp ... over educated people are a dime a dozen. You quickly realize you're just running with the pack (like everyone everyplace else).

[W2R]

I thought the advantage of living in Manhattan was supposed to be that one could walk to great restaurants and entertainment. If this couple can only afford to eat out once a quarter, and not even once a month, that doesn't get them very far.

I think they are loonie-toons - - what a miserable life they have, despite their education and qualifications. But perhaps there is something else that they like about living there.

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Want2retire I thought the advantage of living in Manhattan was supposed to be that one could walk to great restaurants and entertainment. If this couple can only afford to eat out once a quarter, and not even once a month, that doesn't get them very far. I think they are loonie-toons - - what a miserable life they have, despite their education and qualifications. But perhaps there is something else that they like about living there.

NYC was such a place. The same malaise that has brought our banking system to it's knees has ruined Manhattan - too much money.

I don't think they're loonies, just misguided - searching for a dream that once was but is no longer. They need to reassess their objectives and priorities.

[F4mandolin]

They choose to live there....they must need the kick it gives them.
On a side note....haha.....I kind of consider myself a person who has got around a lot. Brought up in WA....13+ year in the UK....10 years Germany...5 years Okinawa.........but there are some of you out there who just aren't "normal"....how the hell would somebody living in Seattle know which line in NY goes where? Some of you are like "Jason Bourne"...just kind of like icebergs.....some of you have done so much that it is a bit scary. The only time I was in NY....I would have killed little old ladies (and possibly a few small children) to get the hell out of there......some people actually think it is heaven....

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by F4mandolin They choose to live there....they must need the kick it gives them. On a side note....haha.....I kind of consider myself a person who has got around a lot. Brought up in WA....13+ year in the UK....10 years Germany...5 years Okinawa.........but there are some of you out there who just aren't "normal"....how the hell would somebody living in Seattle know which line in NY goes where? Some of you are like "Jason Bourne"...just kind of like icebergs.....some of you have done so much that it is a bit scary. The only time I was in NY....I would have killed little old ladies (and possibly a few small children) to get the hell out of there......some people actually think it is heaven....

It was a joke. AS far as I know, there is no O-line.

[prubin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Want2retire I think they are loonie-toons - - what a miserable life they have, despite their education and qualifications. But perhaps there is something else that they like about living there.

It's the H&H bagels and Original Ray's pizza.

[Coach]

I wonder where the nanny lives. At least s/he lives on $40K and works on Fifth Avenue.

Coach

[dex]

My Dinner with Andre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a good movie that partially explains NYC.

fUSION Anomaly. My Dinner With Andre
i think that New York is a new model for the new concentration camp, where the camp has been built by the inmates themselves, and the inmates ARE the guards, and they have this pride in this thing they built, they built their own prison, so they exist in a state of schizophrenia where they are the both guards and prisoners, and as a result they no longer have, having been lobotomized, the capacity to leave the prison they made or to even see it as a prison.' then he went into his pocket and he took out a seed for a tree. he said 'this is a pine tree.' he put it in my hand, and said 'escape, before it's too late'. see actually for 2 to 3 years now, Chiquita and I have had this very unpleasant feeling that we really should get out.. that we really should feel like Jews in Germany in the late 30's... get out of here.. but the problem is, where to go, because it seems quite obvious that the whole world is going in the same direction. [...] now, of course Bjornstrand, feels that there is really almost no hope, and that we're probably going back to a very savage, lawless, terrifying period...


"Now I'm 36 and all I think about is money"

YouTube - My Dinner With Andre part 1

Here is some of it.
YouTube - jacksorengan's Channel

[CuppaJoe]

I had no ambition to retire at all (until I could), I just wanted to live within walking distance of work, in a big city. Blame it on the movies(?)

“Nadine, bring out the hounds, we’re going for a walk... on the Avenue, Fifth Avenue....”

YouTube - Easter Parade song

YouTube - Gene Kelly Frank Sinatra - "New York, New York"

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dex I think that New York is a new model for the new concentration camp, where the camp has been built by the inmates themselves, and the inmates ARE the guards, and they have this pride in this thing they built, they built their own ... "Now I'm 36 and all I think about is money"

We have been to NY twice, and stayed in the Crowne Plaza in Times Square to be in the middle of it. That experience is enough; we do not see ourselves wanting to live there, even if we were rich and could afford a condo overlooking the Central Park.

I am 52, and all I think about is FIRE!

Well, not all the time as I do take time off to think of and plan some travel.

[rkser]

I was born & raised in India, and have lived in Pittsburgh, Buffalo NY, Miami & presently am an established suburbanite near Orlando, Fl. I have & continue to visit NY city every 3 months for a complicated knee reconstruction for Dr follow ups.On these visits, after my medical stuff is taken care of, I usually keep a day or so for going around & essentially loafing around the city, visiting with some long term friends. I enjoy every bit of it !!!!!, I do find & understand the city is pretty expensive even for anyone with some means.

I think the opportunities NY city provides to a educated professional for further education & training are limit less. It is a place where you can rub shoulders with the best & worst of / in people. It turned out the best for my complicated knee replacements at least after being operated at many hospitals in the central Florida area.This is the place where you find many Maddoffs, the bankers who lost our billions, charlatons & also the place where a lot of philantrophy to the tunes of millions & billions is seen

There are many places in the city who will take a chance on an immigrant, because the culture of taking risks, banking on something new, to a different way of doing things, looking for a different idea is very much ingrained in the psyche of New Yorkers much more than in many other cities.The competition is intense, the survival of the fittest is very much the rule, your hunger for achievement (whatever the goal maybe) & the work you put into it, will decide the final result more than any pedigree, color of the skin or an uncle X. These are much more pronounced than in other places.

Many successful people in other places have at some stage in their lives been at the doorstep of, got what they came for & left the City for the comfortable less costly places around the country. When People all over the world think about & take the risk of putting their comfortable lives on line for a chance at success in USA, many times they do not think of other cities but NY in the country.

Then after they get(achieve) what they once came for, they miss the place of most collective brains & the competition(More is learned from one another) in other cities & suburbs & some return to the City(as some of my friends did). They do not want to loose their professional skills which made them what they are today & try to gravitate to places where they can find more of the same of & more often than not the road leads back to the city(for the self imposed rejects from the suburbs)

When I saw the Video, of a MIT (A very competitive school) schooled Oriental Man & a dentist wife with 2 kids, I think some of the above reasons may apply to their lives.

I do not think they are ignorant of the fact, that they CAN AFFORD on 400K a very comfortable lifestyle, with less crime, a house with much more room, afford the best of area schools, a couple of nannies, a garage full of cars in hundreds of places around the country. I think their brains are wired differently, they will miss the above aspects of the NYC. They must be thinking about the insipid life of cutting the lawn(Gee what is this green stuff ), going to the homeowner's meetings, not finding any aspirations left in their neighbor who is scared about loosing his comfortable present, no museums, not enough of diversity or their Ethnic stuff they are used to in city, no scientific/technical library close by or more so nobody to discuss their stuff with at their level ... etc....They are scared about the suburban decay setting in.

This is by no means stating that NY city life is better than a life in suburbia, it is JUST AN OPINION of what people like these may look for in a place. I am a confirmed suburbanite like many of us on the forum, but do have long term friends in these situations whom we visit with on occasions like when I visit NY city, & like in many situations we think they are/and they think we ARE CRAZZZZZYYYYYYYYY .

To each their own, I guess

Warm regards

[tiuxiu]

Ironic, given the trend of people in the US traveling to India for knee/hip surgeries.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkser To each their own, I guess Warm regards

Very nice post. I think on a retirement board we tend to find what by other standards is extreme risk aversion. (Except in one area that is a puzzle to me- riding motorcycles!)

Ha

[LOL!]

rkser, I don't believe what you wrote applies to the Fou's. They come from Houston and Dallas which are essentially large tracts of suburbia right up to the front steps of the skyscrapers in those cities. They are totally different cities than NYC in this respect.

And about that Wal-Mart bus: There is a bus to Wal-Mart in Beijing. It goes from near the Olympic site out to the 'burbs where the Wal-Mart is located.

[Cattusbabe]

rkser, such a nice tribute to NYC. I feel you on the vibe of the place, not my cup of tea but I get what your saying. I am a confirmed city person and would never consider the burbs. Like you said to each his own. However the choice is not just city/burb. There are less expensive neighborhoods and addresses in NYC.

When you get down to it QOL trumps everything IMO. I'll be dammed if I would live the way that family is living on that kind of pay. I have been in ghetto apartment that looked better than that one.
I cracked up when he spoke of a cleaning lady. Where? When? What could she possible clean? The place is a mess. This must be some sort of April Fools prank.

[Cattusbabe]

I looked at the video. What a smacked A$$.

[soupcxan]

As Mr. T would say, "I pity the Fou!"