Jericho79

If you were moving to new York with a young family what minimum salary would you suggest?

I know this is entirely subjective, but would appreciate your comments nonetheless. I'm in Canada at the moment, and common feddback is that $100k is the minimum to live a comfortable lifestyle. I didn't agree at first, but I do now.

I know rents are expensive,. I've been looking at some average salary comparisons, and the salary being discussed is in the region of $135k. This would appear to be quite high based on the salary comparisons I've found, but I'm never sure how accurate those things are.

Thanks for your input...

md95065

When you say "New York" do you mean the city or the state?

If "the state", then where in the state?

If "the city", then where in the city (and, in particular, Manhattan or not Manhattan)?

Suz16

If you mean Manhattan then you would find life quite difficult on that salary with a family to support as well.

Pulaski

Thirteen years ago I worked in NYC, and was paid a little less than $100k, and that was IMO woefully inadequate. It was just me and my wife, no children, and we were struggling to find anywhere in the burbs that we could afford to buy that wasn't a "from the ground-up restoration money pit". The financing of a house was going to be challenging, the property taxes of $800ish/mth were just a kick in the teeth. 401k contributions? Dream on!

I realised that I was going to be working/ commuting 14hrs+/day, and that my weekends were going to be taken resting and recovering from the week, unless/ until there was a dramatic change in my salary. My outlook was "work myself to death until retirement, when all I would have accumulated was the freehold value of my home". Mrs P and I talked over my alternatives and we said "**** that!", I quit my job and we left New York.

I have not entirely ruled out returning to NYC, but it would have to be for substantially more money, like $400k total remuneration to persuade me to think about it (a junior manger in my dept was offered that sort of money to relocate to NYC). Given the passage of time I suspect that $130,000 would be broadly equivalent to what I was being paid back in 2001-2002, and there is NO WAY I would go there for that money given what I am able to do with my salary where I live today.

I hope that helps.

Jericho79

I was referring to NYC.

Thanks for the feedback. Certainly food for thought.

Although I have a question. I would imagine most NYC residents are earning significantly less than $135k. How do they live?

Pulaski

In small apartments, and/or with housing subsidies, a second income (Mrs P wasn't able to secure work in the short term and we envisaged her being a stay at home mom within a year or two), living with relatives/ shared housing, or inherited housing (no mortgage), with family assistance, insanely long commutes (a colleague of mine commuted from Pennsylvania! ) ......The permutations are numerous, but none applied to us, or were most unattractive (small apartment, insane commute).

notonuksoil

They don't live in NYC!

Our second relocation to NY in 2007 (OH working in NYC) with 2 kids and renting a 3 bedroom house in the burbs we managed fine on a similar salary however rents in the burbs have risen significantly since then.

petitefrancaise

Have you seen this?
Price tag for the American dream: $130K a year

All of it is "median" price/expenses. We have 3 kids, live in Austin Tx and life wouldn't be quite so pleasant on $135k. I don't know where they got the medical expenses from because ours must be double that what with insurance payments then the co-pays etc. OUr utility bills are higher than that, and you try going back to visit the folks in Blighty and see how much change you get out of $10k for a family of 5.

roberth1970

I'd say a good way to work it out is to check the ratio of housing + commute costs to net salary:

25% - you're laughing
30% - you'll be fine
40% - you're in trouble

That's pretty much my rule of thumb as high property costs usually equate to high everything else too. So check out what the net on $135k is (c. $7.3k a month?) and do the math based on the rent / mortgage you will pay.

excpomea

I think the word 'Dream' is a big clue.
We're somewhere over that figure but with one child.
I think there figures are fascicle

Pulaski

The medical cost figures are way over what we're paying, with one child. Even though she does have a "medical need", our annual medical costs are much less that. ..... I you're paying so much you seriously need to explore high deductible insurance.

rpjs

I dunno, our combined net income is around $160K and our housing/commuting costs come to around 40% of that and we feel pretty comfortable in the Westchester 'burbs.

We did luck out with a seriously under-priced house but we had to get a 203K renovation mortgage to make it livable and we're now at about 20% equity on a refinance valuation that came in at about 140% of what we paid for it a couple of years earlier.

We're just a couple with no kids, but we're not at all frugal and I've had to do quite a lot of shuttling back and forth to the UK on my own dime recently for family reasons.

So IMHO you don't need to be earning c. $400K to be comfortable in or around NYC, but I would say that for a family with kids $100K is definitely going to be a struggle.

Pulaski

I didn't say you would, that was just my "pie in the sky" figure that I would need to entice me back. But I would consider $130k with childen to be a bit marginal - not much room for unexpected expenses, or trips to the UK.

Untitled 3

Also depends on how many children and if they are of school age. If you need to put them into school then you'll find it difficult to afford to live in a good school district, wether in the city or the burbs.

But if you just have the one child then you may be able to squeeze into a smaller space.

If you really want to be in NY or if it's a good career move in the long term, then you can make it work. Otherwise, I'm not sure that salary in NY is worth relocating for.

tht

I live 2 stops from Manhattan on the L train in Williamsburg, assuming you just have 1 kid, and want a small 2 bed apt, you probably need about $50k a year for rent / mortgage. which would be closer to $67k before tax. But that wont put you in an area with good / free schools. We will be moving out of city to CT for that reason within a year or 2 and I will have a 1.5+ hour commute each way. I would say you need to aim at min $150k, and closer to $200k to have a reasonable lifestyle in NYC.

A lot of people do earn a lot less, but live further out, or have much lower costs, e.g. from being in rent controlled housing.