[ChefAllDay]

(01-31-2019 05:24 AM)Rang off the Pipe Wrote:  

However, it's a very good idea to have one if in a neighborhood farther away from the center of the city. This is especially true in places that are public transit deserts.

Thanks, I guess area knowledge and scouting would sort that out.

[Cattle Rustler]

(01-27-2019 08:53 PM)No More Mr. Soy Boy Wrote:  

Guess it's a matter of taste. But for me it's an obvious choice.

It is, and we know you prefer a shitty hostel. We get it brah, nothing will change your mind from "but I can do this and go to EE instead!"

(01-27-2019 10:11 PM)WalterBlack Wrote:  

I live close to the westside of Los Angeles, I pay nearly $1800 for a 1 bed, but I got lucky. The average place in my area costs around $400-$700 more. If you're willing to share, you can easily find a place $1200 or cheaper.

If you live in the valley, which is about 30 mins north of LA, then prices are substantially cheaper. I used to have a 2 bed in the valley and my rent was less than $1300. I know a guy who's renting in Reseda for $900/month.

Also, you make a lot more money in the US than Europe. If I moved to London and did the same job as I have in LA, my salary would halve. The only way my salary would match is if I did the same role in London investment bank.

Once you graduate fresh from an undergrad, you're looking at least around $50k/year. Grad school, at least $80K+/year. You can easily afford LA rent on these salaries if you're willing to share or willing to live a bit further out and commute in.

If you want to be next to the beach, then share in places like Hermosa Beach or Redondo Beach. There are places less than 20 yards from the beach which are affordable. You can rent in the houses which are right behind beach front properties.

I've never shared in all the time I've been in LA and hopefully, I never will. I'd rather pay the extra $500/month for piece of mind.

The well paid undergrad jobs pay 50K, normies that got rekt make 35-40K. I remember this recruiter called me once and she asked how much I wanted to make, I told her 40K and she chuckled, saying I was asking for too much. Fuck her, now I make 3x.

TigerMandingo: I'm pretty sure the 3rd ward looks dirty and disgusting too. Full of minorities as well.

Question for y'all: What's a good place to live by the CA coast (Highway 1 area)? How much is rent? I've been looking at Santa Barbara/Cruz, Carmel, Monterrey, Big Sur area for a short stay. Want nice scenery, kinda cheap, and warm climate so I can ride my bike.

[TigerMandingo]

(01-31-2019 06:54 AM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  

TigerMandingo: I'm pretty sure the 3rd ward looks dirty and disgusting too. Full of minorities as well.

Agreed. But we are talking about a major city in a 1st world country, after all. I'm not comparing NYC to Mogadishu. For being the largest metropolis in the most prosperous country on Earth, NYC is a damn pisshole. It's just nasty everywhere. I hear LA is atrocious too. To each his own, I guess, I'm just a guy who prefers to be in a serene, clean environment - even if it comes at a cost to gaming, logistics, and salary.

[GoingHAM20]

(01-28-2019 03:27 PM)Drazen Wrote:  

At least in LA, its either you or your family already has money, you do a lot of side hustles, or you get vastly overpaid for what you do or you have a solid job that pays well.

A lot are jobs that overpay for what you do. Something you'd get $35k for in a 2nd tier city, you can get six figures for in LA. I know guys who are "social media managers" who make six figures for bigger companies.

I find that hard to believe with how low the median income in the LA metro is, not to mention the middle class has basically disintegrated there and SF:

https://www.census.gov/library/visualiza...e-dot.html

My uncle is in his late-50s, lives in LA, yet only earns $60k. That seems to be the norm out there. For every Brentwood or Calabasas, there are 100 Van Nuyses or Comptons or Inglewoods.

[Nordwand]

(02-01-2019 10:39 PM)GoingHAM20 Wrote:  

(01-28-2019 03:27 PM)Drazen Wrote:  

At least in LA, its either you or your family already has money, you do a lot of side hustles, or you get vastly overpaid for what you do or you have a solid job that pays well.

A lot are jobs that overpay for what you do. Something you'd get $35k for in a 2nd tier city, you can get six figures for in LA. I know guys who are "social media managers" who make six figures for bigger companies.

I find that hard to believe with how low the median income in the LA metro is, not to mention the middle class has basically disintegrated there and SF:

https://www.census.gov/library/visualiza...e-dot.html

My uncle is in his late-50s, lives in LA, yet only earns $60k. That seems to be the norm out there. For every Brentwood or Calabasas, there are 100 Van Nuyses or Comptons or Inglewoods.

I don't know how it pans out with your uncle but, in London, you have a lot of older people on modest incomes in good housing, doing nicely, because they bought their home when they were young, before property prices skyrocketed. You can find the likes of middle aged taxi drivers living next door to young doctors and dentists, the difference being that one bought recently, and one bought 20 odd years back.

[felix_vagabondo]

(01-27-2019 08:31 PM)kosko Wrote:  

[...] living farther out, with 8 roommates, or living in some substandard slum that is barley up to the fire code.

Also, there is:

-Living in vehicles or aboard vessels.

-Living off student loans

Quote:

If your income is low enough, your payment could be as low as $0 per month. https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans...ome-driven

-Couchsurfing


I once slept for a few weeks in a hammock on the side of a forested mountain on public land in LA county, and laid out for a few nights on the ground outside of Barcelona. I would leave my backpack in the woods and go down to the beach for a dip in the ocean, rinse off at the shower, get something to eat, and run some successful daygame, feeling amazing and free in a place crawling with young babes.

The few times that I have tried to sleep on the street, sidewalks, city parks, etc., my sleep has been shit, and I don't use this tactic except in rare instances. There are a lot of homeless people, obviously, but one with good social calibration is a rare breed.

As a backpacker in Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, I found that many big city folks were welcoming to American travelers. The social stigma of "homeless" seems to be more severe in the US.

[AOC's Missing Boyfriend]

^^there's a guy who moved to NYC to meet more girls. He didn't have the money for an apartment. He bought a cheap van and sleeps in it. During the day he hangs out in parks or coffee shops to meet women.

I imagine it seems bohemian as hell to girls, and the guy had the guts to move across the country and live in his dream city in a van. I don't know how appealing such a lifestyle is overall, but it's an option if somebody really wants to end up somewhere.

[RDF]

Great idea if you can handle that lifestyle. I can't imagine that most men will enjoy living out of a car for long periods of time

(01-28-2019 01:05 AM)Cation Wrote:  

1k on food? That is insane.

I'm really surprised that so many members are surprised at this number. I think it's a very realistic estimate of somebody with an average lifestyle in the city, especially if you include drinks consumed along with dinner.

Let's take a given week and assume that you always eat breakfast at home, go out for lunch twice a week, go out for dinner twice a week, and one brunch out on the weekends. So ~14 homecooked meals, 2 lunches, 2 dinners, and 1 brunch per week. Grocery budget per week should be like $60, a lunch out is $10, and a brunch is $20. Dinner is where it can vary more, so say you go on one nice dinner ($50) and one basic dinner ($20). That totals to $160/week, or ~$700/month.

This assumes you:
-- Never do dinner dates even with steady girls ($50x2 + booze on you unless you're going dutch)
-- Never splurge (it is really easy to spend $100 when you get a few cocktails + appetizers with a group)
-- Don't have a coffee habit, and eat the vast majority of your meals at home

Loosen any of those assumptions and you're bumping right up to $1k.

Remember, this is NYC. Sure, if you want, you can cook baked chicken and vegetables for every meal and spend $200/mth. What's the point though? You have an incredible variety of cuisine within a stone's throw of your front door, and you aren't going to explore it? At that point might as well not live here. It's also an unrealistic lifestyle who doesn't have monk-like self control.

[AvidArtisan]

I live in LA and am in the older end of the18-35 age bracket mentioned here.

I myself question everyday how people make it in LA because contrary to belief most people here are not making 6 figures. (I happen to make in the 6 figures and I have a roommate and live on the west side ) I have 0 debt, 0 loans and even 6 figure savings (thanks to having a roommate for the last few years) i am at the tail end of where having a roommate is worth it though so I have been looking at buying a house and yea basically people that want to plant roots here have to move outside of the west la area (maybe a 8mile radius using Beverly Hills as the middle point) in order to get a house. A 2br condo is minimum 500k in westla for a shithole my condo for sale would be 750k (if I owned it). A 3/4 bedroom house in Westla would be minimum 800-1 mil hence most people move farther to the valleys north or Anaheim/long beach and have those 1-4(!!!!) hour commutes but maybe cut the house price in half . There is an old SNL skit called the Californians where they all talk about how they got to a party based on traffic routes and that is definitely true here.

The way I see it is only 3 ways people make it in this city as most are not making 6 or 7 figure salaries.

1st is older generation here bought houses /condos in the 60s-90s. After the early 2000s prices skyrocketed here to where it’s almost same price as NYC in most of the west side even though LA has a HUGE sprawl compared to tiny Manhattan. A lot of laws in California are very NIMBY/geared towards people who already have stuff before they passed newer laws which fucks over only new comers. (For example house property taxed at only 1% so if you bought a house in the 90s that’s worth 1-3 million today but you only paid 300k for it your taxes are almost non existent) so most older people if they have a job like another poster said his uncle was only
Making 60k do ok since they have less housing expenses.

2nd I think most 18-35 that move here are definitely either struggling hard core paycheck to paycheck or their parents subsidize their lifestyle in some way, or they have a bunch of side hussles combined with having a day job.
The roommate situation is definitely most common here or for the girl wanting to live alone and be “independent” she is living in some illegal sublet/studio apartment .

Most girls I date 20-25 try to pull the “we should move in together / hey my lease is expiring soon” talk when they come over to my place after a month of dating or when they realize I’m not a “fake it till you make it” person, which is common in west LA as you can imagine.

3rd is the actual people with high paying jobs and or finance/business/entertainment industries. You def can make more money here for the same job that would pay 30k anywhere else it’s just having the right connections to getting in the job. I work a Corp gig that pays well but I’m still “paying my dues” since I’m younger but all the late 30s/40 year old dudes In this industry are the ones killing it with the house in Malibu/Santa Monica/ Beverly Hills.



The truth for LA and the rest of the big cities I imagine is that a small percentage of people are very wealthy and a lot of other people got in at the right time housing wise and most people are living paycheck to paycheck . Americans don’t like to talk about their finances but if you read any sort of bank website stats or wall street articles and read between the lines most state Americans are overlevarged in car loans ,student loans, and credit card debt and health debt. Most can’t come up with 1k of cash in case of an emergency , so a lot of people are faking it.

I’m kinda over LA specifically

[felix_vagabondo]

[waughcraft]

(01-28-2019 04:25 AM)AntoniusofEfa Wrote:  

(01-28-2019 03:51 AM)ThrustMaster Wrote:  

Lmao, try $3200 for a liveable studio apartment in Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View areas of Silicon Valley. The epicenter of the madness...

There is a reason for this. Once I graduate in a couple of years, I could take on the job of an "Embedded firmware Engineer", or "Mixed Signal Engineer".

Here in Germany, the starting salary in the west of the country will be in the range of 38K EUR, up to 45K EUR in Munich. None of the cities where this salary is offered are very cheap. Regardless of how crappy is the city, if you want to live in a neighborhood with a low migrant population, you will need to pay a premium. Something like a 1100 Euro for a small apartment in Dusseldorf or 1500 EUR in Munich (without Internet and Electricity) is a normal rent for an unfurnished apartment.

These are all private sector jobs, there is unpaid overtime, and you will need to hustle. A major difference is the number of available jobs and the competition for skilled employees: It is non existing in Germany, due to a very large number of Engineering graduates. I am having to take on (multiple year long) part time jobs as student doing (hardware) verification work just to be considered for an entry job.

In the US tech clusters, you can easily hop companies and get that nice 200K USD p.a. (including bonuses) within less than 10 years of starting your career. Here you top out at typically 70K (West - Frankfurt) or 80K (South - Munich) and that is about it.

If I could I would have moved to the US, and paid the higher rent, but these visas are getting more impossible with each year. The only alternative for me would be Switzerland, Canada or Australia if I ever want to have a decent purchasing power as a normal employee. The German middle class without inheritance is even more priced out of the Housing market than their US counterparts.

I can feel your pain as I live in London, and London is more expensive than Munich but with same salaries. My same job in NYC would make me more than $100k per year

However, one main disadvantage of being American is you need to pay U.S. taxes wherever you go.

One relative of mine started his investment banking career in NYC, but for the past 15 years, he has worked outside of the U.S., but has paid few mill USD of taxes to Uncle Sam when he's abroad

I'm not an expert on the impact of Trump tax cuts in 2017, but I would imagine even if you have a location independent income (self-employed) and bank your profits in a low tax country like Hong Kong, Singapore, Estonia or UAE, you can hardly escape paying US taxes because when you're opening foreign bank accounts, they would ask you if you're a U.S. citizen or a green card holder, and the banking statements are then shared with uncle sam

Then every year Americans living abroad need to fill out an annoying tax declaration form. But the good thing is you only need to pay US taxes if you're earning above the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion threshold

European tax system is better - you just get taxed on foreign income if you are a long term resident in your country, but once you're abroad, you don't need to declare foreign income to your government

Also, even Western European salaries are lower than the U.S. , you still get better public health care and much cheaper higher education (except the U.K.)

[Shaykh Moosa]

One bedrroms in Washington Heights are going for just under 2 thousand. That is ridiculous. i really do wonder how those illegal Pakis/Bengalis afford to stay there on minimum wage jobs. A massive correction is due given how unsustainable the model appears to be.

As for me, if I ever want to explore NYC I'll be cruising in my 70's van...

[Hell_Is_Like_Newark]

Landlord here:

3 bedrooms outside of the downtown area in Jersey City can be had for under $2k. Get a couple of roommates and use the PATH train, NY Waterway ferries, or the bus to get into Manhattan. Commute is actually easier than living in parts of Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx.

This is what my younger tenants do.

[MrRoundtree]

I make around 100k (CAD) in Montreal but here rents are ridiculously cheap compared to Toronto, Vancouver and NYC. Electricity is also dirt cheap due to hydro-electricity. Bars are cheaper than elsewhere in Canada. You can easily buy a condo on the island for 300 K. Rents are about 400-600 per month with a roommate or 1200 for a decent size apartment (with two bedroom) close to the city center or next to a metro, by yourself. Most people are looking to buy though.

However the taxes are pretty high, I pay about 40% of my salary in taxes right now, to a maximum of 50% if you make 150 K I think. I save about 20 000 CAD every year.

[GyopoPlayboy]

(05-03-2019 09:24 PM)AvidArtisan Wrote:  

I myself question everyday how people make it in LA because contrary to belief most people here are not making 6 figures.

The way I see it is only 3 ways people make it in this city as most are not making 6 or 7 figure salaries.

...

The truth for LA and the rest of the big cities I imagine is that a small percentage of people are very wealthy and a lot of other people got in at the right time housing wise and most people are living paycheck to paycheck . Americans don’t like to talk about their finances but if you read any sort of bank website stats or wall street articles and read between the lines most state Americans are overlevarged in car loans ,student loans, and credit card debt and health debt. Most can’t come up with 1k of cash in case of an emergency , so a lot of people are faking it.

I’m kinda over LA specifically

Dude, you're doing fantastic there, keep on trucking on man.

You're absolutely right about those 3 categories of residents. I mean, that's capitalism for ya. It creates winners and losers. But you know very well what life is like for the winners, I mean just look to your older peers in the industry.

Contrary to what a lot of the world thinks about LA, the wealthy there are not all actors or even in the entertainment industry at all. I went to grad school there and my classmates had parents who were almost exclusively in Finance/Law/Medicine/Tech/Real Estate. They (the parents) were smart, highly-educated professionals with strong go-getter personalities. The OC is another place that gets shit on by the media for being full of vapid slackers, but I promise you it's mostly working professionals who would wipe the floor with most of us in terms of intelligence and ambition.

Move out of LA if you can get a better offer relative to the COL. But also understand that there are not going to be too many cities out there that can offer better earning potential. If it's just the city of LA that's bothering you, maybe even consider Long Beach. Way cheaper and QoL is really good.

[eradicator]

(05-04-2019 10:21 AM)Hell_Is_Like_Newark Wrote:  

Landlord here:

3 bedrooms outside of the downtown area in Jersey City can be had for under $2k. Get a couple of roommates and use the PATH train, NY Waterway ferries, or the bus to get into Manhattan. Commute is actually easier than living in parts of Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx.

This is what my younger tenants do.

The only problem with this is that your 2k 3 bedroom place is no where near the Path trains. A $3000 studio or $4k 1 bedroom in Jersey City next to the Path trains is more realistic.

If you want to add to your commute, you can live further away and take buses to get to path trains but it is not quick or convenient. It will make for lower rent though.

[Laserspewpew]

I can't believe how low the salaries being quoted for Munich and London are.... I spent a lot of time in Ireland the wages are pretty good. The average salary of Facebook in Dublin is €150k+ https://www.irishtimes.com/business/tech...-1.3714642 Facebook employ 6,000 in Dublin, Google who pay better employ 8,000 and then you have literally dozens of tech companies one tier below in terms of payment; LinkedIn, Salesforce, Microsoft, Intel, SAP, Airbnb, Amazon, Twitter and on and on. All these companies are paying €80-100k average and all are employing 1000-5000 people, in a city with a population of just over 1 million. I would have always though that the London and German salaries would destroy Dublin but maybe not?

[Buddydowrongright2]

(01-31-2019 06:54 AM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  

(01-27-2019 08:53 PM)No More Mr. Soy Boy Wrote:  

Guess it's a matter of taste. But for me it's an obvious choice.

It is, and we know you prefer a shitty hostel. We get it brah, nothing will change your mind from "but I can do this and go to EE instead!"

(01-27-2019 10:11 PM)WalterBlack Wrote:  

I live close to the westside of Los Angeles, I pay nearly $1800 for a 1 bed, but I got lucky. The average place in my area costs around $400-$700 more. If you're willing to share, you can easily find a place $1200 or cheaper.

If you live in the valley, which is about 30 mins north of LA, then prices are substantially cheaper. I used to have a 2 bed in the valley and my rent was less than $1300. I know a guy who's renting in Reseda for $900/month.

Also, you make a lot more money in the US than Europe. If I moved to London and did the same job as I have in LA, my salary would halve. The only way my salary would match is if I did the same role in London investment bank.

Once you graduate fresh from an undergrad, you're looking at least around $50k/year. Grad school, at least $80K+/year. You can easily afford LA rent on these salaries if you're willing to share or willing to live a bit further out and commute in.

If you want to be next to the beach, then share in places like Hermosa Beach or Redondo Beach. There are places less than 20 yards from the beach which are affordable. You can rent in the houses which are right behind beach front properties.

I've never shared in all the time I've been in LA and hopefully, I never will. I'd rather pay the extra $500/month for piece of mind.

The well paid undergrad jobs pay 50K, normies that got rekt make 35-40K. I remember this recruiter called me once and she asked how much I wanted to make, I told her 40K and she chuckled, saying I was asking for too much. Fuck her, now I make 3x.

TigerMandingo: I'm pretty sure the 3rd ward looks dirty and disgusting too. Full of minorities as well.

Question for y'all: What's a good place to live by the CA coast (Highway 1 area)? How much is rent? I've been looking at Santa Barbara/Cruz, Carmel, Monterrey, Big Sur area for a short stay. Want nice scenery, kinda cheap, and warm climate so I can ride my bike.

I lived in Santa Cruz for five years and would be happy to answer any question you may have about it. In short: good surf, nice beaches, COLD water, beautiful redwoods and mountain paths to hike on five minutes outside of town, the most liberal dumb fuck anarcho-communist feminazi college students on the planet - 20,000 of them. The locals, though often more reasonable politically, are not much nicer. Some are cool and could be people in a Portlandia sketch.

But many are simply rich assholes who don't want you there or wannabe surf gangsters who REALLY don't want you there. This probably wouldn't affect you much if you don't go to the beach a lot, surf, or try to hit on "their" chicks but there will be plenty of times you show up at a bar and it's 50 people who all went to junior high together and still hang out and decide they somehow don't like you because of that fact. It's a small town (60-70k) that feels incredibly smaller than it should because of how cliquey it is. That is not to mention the aggressive drug addicts, massive amount of East Side tweakers who love a good old home invasion, and bums who will shit in front of police officers down on Pacific Avenue and not think twice about it.

All that said, it is a true beach town and some real old California funk which is not easy to find anymore. It's a time bubble that isn't about to burst any time soon and that's the best thing about it. Also if you study MMA or BJJ it is one of the best places in California outside of LA or SD and where a lot of the OGs who popularized the sport live.

As for women, I got laid plenty when I lived in SC but I was in college and had a big social circle + party house + youth on my side. If you have game and don't look old you will be fine hitting up bars like Rosie McCann's and the Red Room (I prefer upstairs). There is no shortage of college chicks there.

[Que enspastic]

Dublin 2 bed
€2120

I’d bite your arm off for $1800 in NYC

[FullThrottleTX]

Most normal people in Manhattan have roommates. Even with a roommate I lived above 95th street. My monthly rent was $1800/m with a roommate. More accurate to say the rent was $3,800 combining our rent (the other room was a little more expensive).

So it was shitty. I could have gone a little shittier and moved father out or live in a roach motel, but why would I do that to myself? Bridge and tunnel crowd (Brooklyn, Queens, and NJ), I'd rather live in Baltimore to be honest - at least it's easy to have good logistics there. I almost got an apartment in the East Village, which would have been logistically awesome, but had literal posterboard for walls and the bedrooms partitioned 4 ways. Are we living in the third world? Soon enough NYC will turn garbage dumpsters into affordable housing.

This was 4 years ago. If I tried to find the same apartment in 2019 it would likely be $2,500 per month with a roommate. Note that these are prices with roommates. I consider roommates to be a serious downgrade in lifestyle...

In Dallas, you have about the same quality women and more feminine/traditional. You have some disadvantages, of course, they aren't as slutty, but my rent is only $1,200 for a luxury apartment that is wholly my own, with a pool, fitness center, washer/dryer in unit/ stainless steel appliances, prime area, with a garage spot and a ton of space (800 sq feet is a huge 1br for a guy coming from Manhattan). No state or local income taxes. This isn't even on the low end, I can go much cheaper... Despite the highway culture here in Dallas my commute is shorter and less stressful than it was on the 2/3 train in Manhattan from UWS to Downtown.

Do you realize how much you're getting ripped off in NYC? For what... better access to sluts and crowded bars with overpriced drinks??