I'm moving to Raleigh, NC, a medium cost of living city for a new job. Gross salary would be around $70k, after $10k into pre-tax 401k, and income tax it'd be net $47,000. So that's a net monthly take-home of ~$4000. Note that this doesn't take into account end of year bonuses, which I'm leaving out because it's nebulous.
I really want to live alone, the last several years I've lived with roommates to save money out of necessity (in a high COL area like Los Angeles). But now I'm in a situation where I could conceivably live alone. But 1-bed units in the city range from $900-1.2k. Include utilities to the mix and combined it's ~38% of my monthly take-home income.
But I'm wondering if it's a bad idea, and whether this can even be considered living frugally. This is the first time I'm having to manage a budget, when I lived in LA for University I only cared about having enough money for rent and food basically lol.
How would you manage this? Should I just suck it up and sublet? I have 0 debt, so I just need to be focused on building up my savings, getting a car (leasing, buying used, etc).
January 25, 2021 at 12:42AM
