Hi all - I'm 28 and live in New York. Living with roommates is pretty much the norm here, but I'd love to finally be able to live alone. My current roommate is moving in with his GF, and I had been floating the idea of keeping the 2BR apartment to myself but would have been a bit overextended by doubling my rent from $1050 to $2100. Yesterday I got word that I got a long awaited $10K raise from $66K to $76K, and I want feedback to see if this would still be out of reach.
Financials/Spending:
- Salary: 76K (just raised from 66K). I have an odd benefits structure where my take-home is lower but I have reduced expenses due to $0 healthcare premiums/deductibles, and employer contributes equivalent of 10% of salary into 403b, so I only contribute 5%.
- Spending: According to Mint, over the past 6 months after all expenses I'm saving $1200-1500/mo, about 40% of my take-home monthly pay (at 66K) after pretax contributions to retirement. Housing includes heat/hot water, I have no car expenses.
- Assets/Debt:
- $86k in Savings (Emergency fund and inheritance that I'm keeping for a downpayment for a housing purchase within 2 years)
- $40K in 403b
- $0 Debt
Housing context: I live in a decent 2BR in a very convenient transit location, paying a $1050 share of the $2100 total rent (pretty cheap for the area) . If I were to move out, crappy 1 bedrooms in my area would be around 1700-2000, and a move would require one month's rent in brokers fees + moving expenses, which I would estimate at $2.5K. New York operates on a 40x rent approval basis, so my new salary would get me approved for $1900 apartments. I would get significantly more space by remaining in my 2BR, and I reason the $200 differential per month between 1900 and 2100 is nearly equivalent to broker fees/moving expenses.
From what I've calculated $2100 would be 33% of my new monthly gross salary. I know it's recommended to stay below 30%, am I overextending myself here? I'm just at a point where living alone would significantly improve my quality of life.
Submitted April 02, 2022 at 10:27PM by acnhthrowaway718 https://ift.tt/ZASmOM2
