I did this, on a 40k salary, in 2003. I had a $1k/month studio apartment in Hoboken NJ and commuted on the Path subway to lower Manhattan. I kept spending very low: never went to restaurants, never traveled, no relationship, no cell phone, cheapest available DSL internet at $30/month. For food I'd sometimes actually get ramen, but more often other cheap groceries like store brand cereals, pancake mix, PB&J. I had about $400/month disposable income and saved about $300 of it.

Adjusting from 2003 to today, the apartment might cost $1500 now, but a 65k salary is still better off than I was then.

By the way, one of the best places to live in New York is actually New Jersey. If your office is in Manhattan anywhere close to the Path stations, you've got a 30 minute commute from Hoboken or the downtown areas of Jersey City out to Journal Square. Housing is decently affordable there, and as a bonus you dodge the NYC commuter income tax.

I've previously earned as much as $110,000, and spent it without effort. Cabs. Big nights out. Clothes. Fancy restaurants. A nicer apartment than I needed.

Now I've been living on less than $2000/month for a six months. I had a nice apartment in South Slope (roommates, $700/month, 40 minutes to Soho), and have recently moved to Queens (with my girlfriend, $600/month, 30 minutes to Time's Square). My girlfriend had previously been paying $1200/month by herself, on a salary of $65,000, maxing out her retirement, and socking away a couple grand a month.

We never take cabs. We drink at home. We go out to great restaurants ($50 or less for two people), but not up-scale ones. We cook a lot at home. She takes lunches. We work really hard not to buy more crap we don't need.

I've lived here for 12 years. I started out in Harlem and loved it. Over time, the more I paid for my life here, the less I liked it. The old, gritty New York is getting harder to find, and it's getting easier to never see it. Once I started living cheaper, suddenly I found myself in the New York I'd been missing for years. It's full of surprises, real people, history, and depth. In my opinion, the best way to really live in New York, appreciate it for what it is, and get the most out of it, is to try to spend as little money as possible. The best things in life are free?

If you don't mind living in the outerboroughs, taking the subway every day, and having roommates, this should be easy.

When I was 18 - 22 (2007 - 2010), I saved over 10k making about 30k-40k a year in 4 years in NYC. I was also paying off about 6k in student loans at the time, going out drinking about once a week, splurging on clothing every once in a while, and eating out a lot.

I lived in Queens (Astoria and Sunnyside, in my case, though I could have found cheaper if I was okay with a sketchier area) for about $900 a month with roommates and commuted by train. I had an expensive (NYSC) gym membership, a cell phone, and a social life. I enjoyed what NYC had to offer.

To be honest, every time I hear someone say that NYC is too expensive for them and they can barely make ends meet, I look at their lifestyle and see immediate room for improvement: They refuse to live outside of Manhattan, they go out 3-4X a week compared to my 1, they insist on going to the most expensive, trendy places that were recently featured in XYZ magazine, whereas I enjoy eating out at the neighborhood Thai place and grabbing drinks from my neighborhood bar. They insist that they "need" to buy new clothes every few weeks for some reason, whereas I would splurge once every few months.

I could have saved a lot more during those 4 years if I were eating ramen every night, sure, but I put life enjoyment above my monetary nest egg. Even now, as a working student, I will not stoop to eating PB&J and Ramen as my only sources of nutrition. I live outside of NYC now, live on 15k, and still don't feel that I lack for anything. I think a lot of people don't keep track of their spending as well as they purport.

I think you should clarify that you mean New York City and maybe even indicate what borough you would live to live in. New York is a big state and $65k is a nice salary in Utica, NY.

This seems like a strange question to a foreigner like me.

Presumably there are fast food restaurants and menial jobs in New York City. Ergo there are people living on minimum wage in the city, or near enough to commute. Therefore, provided $65k is equal to or greater than minimum wage, you can presumably survive on that level of income. Your savings would be dictated by how much $65k exceeds the minimum wage.

I did that to pay for my tuition. I only had the salary from my employer in my home country, immigration services didn't let me get a part time work.

This is how I did it:

Place to sleep: Queens village. Take the F train all the way to the last station than a bus (Q43) for another 5-10 minutes (hillside av). That area (queens village/jamaica) has the cheapest rents I could find at the time (2006). The commute to Manhattan would take around 1:20. The bus transfer is free. A lot of reading.

Plan before you leave home so you don't waste money on transportation

Eat: pizza, standing. Some 99c stores do have some fake microwave meals (taste like rubber) . Do never pay for drinks. Drink water. Try not to spend more than 6 dollars on a meal.

Internet: Asked for a neighbor to share with me (paying a bit)

Take care of you teeth and health in general!!! Dentists are evil greedy bastards. Just kidding... (no I'm not)

PS: Those living conditions made me quit my studies.

some people will tell you no, but if you live in brooklyn, possibly with roommates, you definitely can.

i make around that, live by myself in brooklyn, go out and do stuff (maybe not super extravagant stuff) once or twice on the weekends, put 10% of my salary to my 401k, and put roughly $1k into my savings account every month. it works for me.

(also you will need to make your own food every day or buy the cheapest fast food like i do. i am not a picky eater and i do go out to restaurants time to time, but realistically most of your income will be spent on rent and food, so don't get take out every night)

If you rent cheaply (sufficiently far uptown or certain parts of the outer boroughs) and live cheaply (this excludes a lot of dining/entertainment options but leaves plenty more), you will be fine on that salary.

I'm from Queens, and as much as certain people from Manhattan will make fun of it, many parts of Queens are decently priced and decently accessible.

If you really want to live in midtown/downtown Manhattan, then it will be quite tricky. Just rent would eat up a lot of your take-home income. You would probably need to find roommates or something.

Sure you can do it. I did it with 40K salary even though a decade ago. If you are single, one possible scenario

- Housing cost: $800-$1200 for shared housing/apartment in queens etc.

- Subway: $110/mo

- Grocery: $400/mo (100/wk average)

- No car (this is huge)

- cell phone/internet: $200/mo

- Entertainment: $200/mo ($50/week)

Total: $1700-$2100 /mo

On a 65K salary, you are looking at income of: $5416/mo gross. $3791/mo net.(30% tax roughly.)

cashflow in = $3791

cashflow out = $2100

You are in good shape.

Bureau of Labor Statistics: median salaray for NYC are is $50,820. Median more so reliable for that sampling size of people. Put it in perspective. What's in it other than money? A cooler experience? A new opportunity. Shoot for so much more than money.

For your reference:

http://gawker.com/5952575/extreme-cheapskates-woman-serves-f...

She lives in NYC.