How do New Yorkers do it?

A big 3 letter word helps . Rent Stabilized Apartment. Job no problem but you need to be retired. Shows cash in on every discount or offering you can. You have to give up seeing faces and sitting in cheap seats. If you go a lot and want to sit in the orchestra, you need to be Donald Trump.

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BBC.

All you have to do is budget and live within your means and you'll be fine. I find it's pretty easy to make a budget- it's the sticking to it that takes a bit of willpower, but you quickly learn it's better to go without something than overspend during a month.

It's when you try to do it all that you run into trouble. Decide what your priorities are and stick to them.

It's cheaper to go 20 blocks and shop at Trader Joe's rather than going to the Food Emporium down the block? Make the trip to TJ's. Buy your toothpaste at Target rather Duane Reade. Save in little ways like that and it will add up.

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You find ways to cut costs. For example, this week CVS has Progresso soup on sale for 99 cents. So you stock up on soup. Buying like this allows for more money to be put elsewhere.

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We're tough. That's how.

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Bloomberg certainly is an easy target, but the fact is that he was mayor at a time of increasing globalization and international financial instability AND at a time when other metropolitan areas grew stratospherically expensive.

If you are from Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, Moscow or Shanghai--or any other city whose real estate is more expensive than NYC--and you have the wherewithal to buy some good, stable, NYC real estate, it is STILL a bargain.

Simple supply-and-demand theory tells us that as long as those buyers continue to snap up $1,000,000 1-bedroom/1-bath apartments like gum-drops, NYC is only going to get more expensive.

I realize that this does not answer the question posed by the OP, but I am aggravated by the easy and oft-repeated canard that Mayor Bloomberg somehow unilaterally *decided* to make Manhattan into a luxury real-estate haven.


ETA: I can't vouch for the numbers on the linked map, and I notice that it has San Francisco at HALF the cost of NYC, which I suspect is untrue. The London, Paris and Singapore numbers seem more accurate. On the other hand, I found it on the Internet, so it MUST be true...





Here's a graphic of the cost of real estate around the world

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Updated On: 3/17/14 at 08:05 PM

Make your dreams malleable.

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Don't spend money on a gym membership AND then use subways/taxis to get everywhere!

WALK

This was a thread on BBW a few months ago, if you're lucky to have parents with money this is encouraging.

Actually, Manhattan as Isle of the rich was in fact Rockefeller's vision. With those considered support services inhabiting the boroughs.

You downsize, you live paycheck to paycheck, you do without sometimes. You end up rolling coins a lot. You find a sweet Sugar Daddy.

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Updated On: 3/19/14 at 04:34 PM

There's always strippin'!

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How's the job market in NY these days? There are no near or medium-term advancement options for me at my present employer, so I've been actively looking for new work. When I was laid off in 2009, the job market was atrocious. Now, literally every day I'm finding 20-30 new opportunities for which I am exceptionally well qualified. It's becoming a second job just to keep up with the application process. It's wonderful -- not a complaint -- just wondering if other job seekers are experiencing this as well. In 2009, I'd be lucky to find 5-6 opportunities, which aligned with my background and skill set, each week. I'm looking in major metropolitan areas across the country -- NY, DC, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, San Diego -- but I'd say 60-70% of the jobs I find are based in NY. Of course, this will vary by industry. I work in marketing/branding. Anyone else seeing this?