Does anyone here spend half their income on rent?

otnemem · #1 09-10-2007, 04:46 PM

Long story short: Broke up with live-in girlfriend. We split a 1-bed, but she doesn't want to stay there. For Hoboken, it's a steal, so I want to keep it. Only problem is I'd be spending exactly half of my take-home income on rent with heat/hw. I have to pay electric, cable etc myself.

I'm pretty sure this is more common in the NY-Metro area than elsewhere. So does anyone fork over this much of their income on rent? Bad idea?

Claunchy · #2 09-10-2007, 04:50 PM

If you don't have a car payment, and you don't spend much money on stuff like restaurants/drugs/alcohol, you can probably pull it off. I lived like this through much of college.

But if you have any other viable options, I would definitely try to pursue those because being super-broke all the time sucks ass.

Badger · #3 09-10-2007, 04:53 PM

Sounds crazy to me, but I am only paying about 5% of my income towards rent. Austin is a lot different than NYC, and I'm pretty sure that ratio is low for Austin as well. I'm interested in hearing what percentage of income OOT is spending on rent.

GovmentCheese · #4 09-10-2007, 04:53 PM

I believe the standard metric is to not spend more than 1/3 of your take home income.

solids · #5 09-10-2007, 04:53 PM

Yeah, half of my paycheck goes to rent every month. It's horrible. Not exactly a bad idea, but you likely won't save much money.

Also, sorry about the gf. One of my friends (a girl) is in an unhealthy relationship with a guy mostly due to the fact that she only has to pay half rent.

otnemem · #6 09-10-2007, 04:53 PM

[ QUOTE ]
If you don't have a car payment, and you don't spend much money on stuff like restaurants/drugs/alcohol, you can probably pull it off. I lived like this through much of college.

But if you have any other viable options, I would definitely try to pursue those because being super-broke all the time sucks ass.

[/ QUOTE ]
No car payments, very little outstanding credit. I don't do drugs, but I do like going out to eat/drink. That would be my biggest problem I think. The thing is, there are only really two places I could live where the commute to my office is tolerable (and I know people). So I'm thinking for that reason it might be worth it to eat it.

Sykes · #7 09-10-2007, 04:54 PM

new york is such a [censored] joke. same with Tokyo

mason55 · #8 09-10-2007, 04:54 PM

when i was living in the DC suburbs i was spending 1/2 my take home on rent. it wasn't awful, i never felt like a broke ass, but i didn't really save anything either. but i spent way too much.

also, it depends on your take home, if you're bringing home $6k/mo and spend 1/2 on rent you still ahve a lot of money to live with. Not so if you're spending half of your $1500 monthly take home on rent.

DonkeyKongSr · #9 09-10-2007, 04:59 PM

I'm at 36% of take home pay right now. After car payment and utilities, I'm around 50%. I have no idea how I'm ever going to be able to buy a place around here when I'm already at half my income from shelter and transportation as a renter. It's this math that keeps making me think I need to figure something else out for income if I want to own anything in the next 5 years. It's not like I'm not making much money, it's just that it's so expensive in SoCal.

Kneel B4 Zod · #10 09-10-2007, 05:00 PM

spending lots of money on rent sucks. I would try to find a new place in the same hood, assuming you can find reasonable people to live with, and dont mind living with people.

edit: what does your place cost, like $1,500? and a comparable 2 bedroom would be like $1800 or $2000? if it's a choice between paying $1500 ish for 1 bedroom and living along or $1000 and moving in with someone, I guess it depends on how ok you are with that person.

also, if as a single dude you want to live with other people or not, which has pluses and minuses.