Post: #1

How much money is enough in your city to live a nice happy life as a single man?

I live in Los Angeles so I'll give my thoughts about my city as a non-owning resident:

Rent: I'd say around $2000/mo for a 1 BR apartment somewhere central.

Car: A used BMW 3 series sedan comes to about 25k, so based on a 36 month finance, that would be about $700/mo

Gas/Insurance: $400/mo?

Going out/eating/partying: $40/day ideally 5 nights a week = $800 monthly

Weekend trips (or vacation budget/savings): $400/month

Clothes: $100/mo

That comes out to about $4,400/month. So you'd need to make about $53,000/year after tax (and that's living without savings), so that would be about $88,000 year, or let's say $110,000/year (if you're saving) in order to live an active lifestyle without any long-term constraints.

Post: #2

(02-27-2014 09:29 PM)kerouac Wrote:  How much money is enough in your city to live a nice happy life as a single man?

I live in Los Angeles so I'll give my thoughts about my city as a non-owning resident:

Rent: I'd say around $2000/mo for a 1 BR apartment somewhere central.

Car: A used BMW 3 series sedan comes to about 25k, so based on a 36 month finance, that would be about $700/mo

Gas/Insurance: $400/mo?

Going out/eating/partying: $40/day ideally 5 nights a week = $800 monthly

Weekend trips (or vacation budget/savings): $400/month

Clothes: $100/mo

That comes out to about $4,400/month. So you'd need to make about $53,000/year after tax (and that's living without savings), so that would be about $88,000 year, or let's say $110,000/year (if you're saving) in order to live an active lifestyle without any long-term constraints.

Talk about crazy. $110,000 to live alright that is crazy. Thankfully in Houston you can live alright for much cheaper I would say. Around $70,000 a year for a nice pad, a good car(I think anything that looks decent is fine), and a nice lifestyle, but a bare minimum of $40,000-$50,000, but you'll be spending a shit ton on gas because there is no real public transport and you may get caught for DUI easy if you aren't sticking to the freeway and instead using normal roads.

Post: #3

Damn, I'm feeling so poor, I definitely can't move to LA.

Post: #4

The number in this thread so far are incredibly ridiculous.

Post: #5

$40-50,000 is slightly above teacher's salary. You guys should be able to make that much yearly. That is for a comfortable lifestyle, but then again you can survive on lower just not enough to head out.

Post: #6

You could do it for a lot less, but I'm talking comfortable (as in ideal).

You could find a studio apartment for under $1k, drive a civic, go out a couple times a week, and watch how you spend, and get by on $2500 a month. It's definitely possible, but it's not the ideal way to get by in LA in my view.

Post: #7

I live in Sydney.

Rent: Depends where. If you want it smack in the middle of the city you're looking at around $2600/mo for a 1 BR apartment. If you're further out you can get a decent 1 bedroom for $1500/mo (with gas, electricity, water)

Car: Get a small runaround for 5k paid outright. I can think of better ways to piss away my money than buying an expensive car on lease. While I'm poor anyway. Price would be about the same as the States I'd say.

Gas/Insurance: $300/mo

Going out/eating/partying: $150/weekend + $20 per weeknight = $1000/mo

Weekend trips (or vacation budget/savings): $400/month

Clothes/Mobile/Internet/Gym membership: $200/month


Before tax, you can get by reasonably well on 50-55k per year if you're happy being a 30 min journey from the city by train. 70k if you want to be in the city.

Anything on top of that is savings. So ideally you'd wanna be pulling in 75k before tax to get a decent savings fund going.

Post: #8

(02-28-2014 12:20 AM)big poppa Wrote:  I live in Sydney.

Rent: Depends where. If you want it smack in the middle of the city you're looking at around $2600/mo for a 1 BR apartment. If you're further out you can get a decent 1 bedroom for $1500/mo (with gas, electricity, water)

Car: Get a small runaround for 5k paid outright. I can think of better ways to piss away my money than buying an expensive car on lease. While I'm poor anyway. Price would be about the same as the States I'd say.

Gas/Insurance: $300/mo

Going out/eating/partying: $150/weekend + $20 per weeknight = $1000/mo

Weekend trips (or vacation budget/savings): $400/month

Clothes/Mobile/Internet/Gym membership: $200/month


Before tax, you can get by reasonably well on 50-55k per year if you're happy being a 30 min journey from the city by train. 70k if you want to be in the city.

Anything on top of that is savings. So ideally you'd wanna be pulling in 75k before tax to get a decent savings fund going.

People keep in mind this is a thread asking on how much you can live a good lifestyle, and in comes an Australian giving figures on how much it takes to live in some hovel in Auburn or Granville (shitty outskirt suburbs) in which you'll be forced to commute 30 minutes and more in your broke ass car every time you want to party.

Accommodation: $2000/month for something closer to the city or eastern suburbs.
Car repayment: $1000/month
Petrol/insurance: $300/month
General foods, meat, fruit/vegetables, household staples $400/month
Health insurance & medical: $150/month
Entertainment expenses: $1000/month
Holiday savings, weekend trips, hobbies etc: $1000/month
Clothes, phone, internet, gym: $300/month (unless you want to look like every other guy in Sydney wearing cheap t-shirts, 'chinos' and dirty canvas shoes)

So we're talking roughly $70,000 after tax. Which is equivalent to around $100,000 before tax or in other words the wage of a skilled tradesman here, or an office worker with 5+ years of experience and skills in a high demand area (engineering, medical, CPA, programming languages used in finance/banking systems), not a typical wage for a young guy at all. The ones getting by on $50k are either living in some undesirable shithole, or they're sharing an overcrowded accommodation with a bunch of fellow students/grads. Those who are getting by on $70k are not partying every weekend and eating out every weekday as his figures suggest, unless they are still living with family. Sydney is an overpriced city, not only in terms of high absolute expense, but also in terms of low return/value. It is almost as expensive as NYC & London, if not equally as expensive, with none of the international amenity, prestige or job prospects, nor is there proximity and cheap flights to multiple other great cities from Sydney as there is from NYC & London, Australians are blind to this fact and will do anything to defend our country even if it means talking absolute lies.

I think it's important that anyone who wishes to contribute to this thread will be a little realistic with their figures, because it would be good to find where the actual value lies. And not good to get bad information such as that which suggests $70k before tax in Sydney is a good lifestyle.

Post: #9

(02-28-2014 01:31 AM)ASOT Wrote:  

(02-28-2014 12:20 AM)big poppa Wrote:  I live in Sydney.

Rent: Depends where. If you want it smack in the middle of the city you're looking at around $2600/mo for a 1 BR apartment. If you're further out you can get a decent 1 bedroom for $1500/mo (with gas, electricity, water)

Car: Get a small runaround for 5k paid outright. I can think of better ways to piss away my money than buying an expensive car on lease. While I'm poor anyway. Price would be about the same as the States I'd say.

Gas/Insurance: $300/mo

Going out/eating/partying: $150/weekend + $20 per weeknight = $1000/mo

Weekend trips (or vacation budget/savings): $400/month

Clothes/Mobile/Internet/Gym membership: $200/month


Before tax, you can get by reasonably well on 50-55k per year if you're happy being a 30 min journey from the city by train. 70k if you want to be in the city.

Anything on top of that is savings. So ideally you'd wanna be pulling in 75k before tax to get a decent savings fund going.

People keep in mind this is a thread asking on how much you can live a good lifestyle, and in comes an Australian giving figures on how much it takes to live in some hovel in Auburn or Granville (shitty outskirt suburbs) in which you'll be forced to commute 30 minutes and more in your broke ass car every time you want to party.

Accommodation: $2000/month for something closer to the city or eastern suburbs.
Car repayment: $1000/month
Petrol/insurance: $300/month
General foods, meat, fruit/vegetables, household staples $400/month
Health insurance & medical: $150/month
Entertainment expenses: $1000/month
Holiday savings, weekend trips, hobbies etc: $1000/month
Clothes, phone, internet, gym: $300/month (unless you want to look like every other guy in Sydney wearing cheap t-shirts, 'chinos' and dirty canvas shoes)

So we're talking roughly $70,000 after tax. Which is equivalent to around $100,000 before tax or in other words the wage of a skilled tradesman here, or an office worker with 5+ years of experience and skills in a high demand area (engineering, medical, CPA, programming languages used in finance/banking systems), not a typical wage for a young guy at all. The ones getting by on $50k are either living in some undesirable shithole, or they're sharing an overcrowded accommodation with a bunch of fellow students/grads. Those who are getting by on $70k are not partying every weekend and eating out every weekday as his figures suggest, unless they are still living with family. Sydney is an overpriced city, not only in terms of high absolute expense, but also in terms of low return/value. It is almost as expensive as NYC & London, if not equally as expensive, with none of the international amenity, prestige or job prospects, nor is there proximity and cheap flights to multiple other great cities from Sydney as there is from NYC & London, Australians are blind to this fact and will do anything to defend our country even if it means talking absolute lies.

I think it's important that anyone who wishes to contribute to this thread will be a little realistic with their figures, because it would be good to find where the actual value lies. And not good to get bad information such as that which suggests $70k before tax in Sydney is a good lifestyle.

Coming from the dude spending $1300 on a car each month whilie living in the city or Eastern Suburbs, I don't think I'd be taking spending advice from you. Stop pissing away 20% of your salary on something you're spending 3 hours a week in.

Actually, I guess you can go around telling people that you spend more on your car than they do on rent.. Except I'm not sure who'd be looking like the idiot

Post: #10

Houston? 60-70k puts you in Montrose or The Heights with a decent car and disposable income. Very comfortable. You could live decently for 35-40 but everything would have to be perfect and no.economic shocks.

300k puts you in River Oaks with a new Benz, but n you're going to end up at the same spots with everyone else.

Post: #11

I've heard Houston is ridiculously boring and full of obese people. Can anyone verify this?

One of the funny things about these threads is the premise that if you were earning $100-120k you'd pay out 80k on living. I'd start saving almost half my pay at that wage.

If you're lifestyle payout is $80-100k you'd want to be earning 250k at least

Post: #12

(02-28-2014 02:39 PM)Que enspastic Wrote:  I've heard Houston is ridiculously boring and full of obese people. Can anyone verify this?

One of the funny things about these threads is the premise that if you were earning $100-120k you'd pay out 80k on living. I'd start saving almost half my pay at that wage.

If you're lifestyle payout is $80-100k you'd want to be earning 250k at least

Whoever said Houston was boring was probably boring themselves, or at least not very good at finding something to do. There's something for everyone there. You're talking about a metro area of over six million people. There's plenty of shit to do. Anyone who told you otherwise didn't look very hard.

As for obese people, yeah, there are plenty of them. There's also PLENTY of dope talent there too. I prefer to ignore the fat people and pay attention to the talent. There are tons of feminine women of all races and colors, with long hair and high heels, walking around Houston if you know where to look.

Cost of living there isn't so bad either. You can spend a little coin on a well-located place, but you can do well there on a budget too.

Post: #13

I make $40k-ish a year where I live now (NE Kansas), however you have to take into consideration how cost of living affects your salary. I know my exact same job in LA or NY is easily worth $75k however the COL is higher so that balances it out a bit.

I'm able to easily save $400 a month with my current salary and still have a lot left over.

Where I am the avg. house is $50k, although I live in a $120k house because the "average" here is 50+ years old while mine is barely 10. So there are plenty of people here that can make $20k a year work just fine.

I've mentioned my plans to "bug out" after selling it, the spectrum right now ranges from moving to another bigger city and grabbing an apartment to buying an RV and going full-time. Was texting my sister and she showed me volunteer.gov where you get a free place to park the RV with full hookups in exchange for 20 hours a week of volunteering. That right there would shave up to $400 a month off your COL depending on the park rates. If you own the RV free and clear that's some cheap living! It is very tempting.

Post: #14

I always thought that most of the disparaging remarks came from Austin hipsters as the like who like to pretend that they come from some much more interesting place. And Houston is actually a fairly interesting and diverse place while Austin is mostly a bunch of SWPL yuppies.

I've never been to either though.

Post: #15

I may dislike the weather sometimes and the fact that I have to drive everywhere, but Houston is amazing for me. The diverse girls(whom by the way aren't complete bitches to random people), great restaurant scene, and great number of venues. Whoever said Houston is boring has never experienced it fully, and was most likely a yuppie who spent all their time in the suburbs(I'm currently live in the suburbs and I still find stuff to do).

Post: #16

Kerouac's numbers aren't crazy.

I spend on average $4k per month to live in L.A. and that's living comfortably by my standards. I don't struggle with paying that much and I have a surplus of about 2500-3500 that gets invested. I *could* afford a much nicer place and I *could* afford to drive a 3-series or E350, but that shit's a waste of money to me and I'd rather invest.

Last month I spent about 4600 but that includes a new blazer, upgraded iPhone, boxing membership, and a couple other unnecessary purchases. If I really had to scrape by I could do so on $2-$2.5k

Post: #17

To live in the Bay Area, you need minimum $100K a year in order to live in a good location, and live ok (without being able to save much). Otherwise, you will be stick in the shitty suburbs like i am right now.

Post: #18

Houston goes hard but you will have to drive and discover the secrets of the city. It takes networking and research to find out things. Austin is a safe, white city that's pushed the brown and blacks to one side of town. Houston is a million times more diverse and "weird". Go check out that gay rollerblader at Montrose and Allen parkway who dances everyday half naked while people are screaming shit at him or the old Mexican, violin player on Telephone and 45 who doesn't accept tips. Or the ghetto Red Light District with Asian FOB's. Austin yuppies get scared when they come here because its a concrete jungle with crazy drivers and scary looking minorities. I heard Houston players slap the shit out of Austin hipsters and snatch their girls when theyre in town

I would say 40k should have you living decent. Get a paid off car, apartment in Montrose or a cheap, small house somewhere inside the loop in a working class hood.

Post: #19

Quote: I heard Houston players slap the shit out of Austin hipsters and snatch their girls when theyre in town.

We wouldn't do that, would we?

Post: #20

[quote='kerouac' pid='665299' dateline='1393554545']
How much money is enough in your city to live a nice happy life as a single man?

I live in Los Angeles so I'll give my thoughts about my city as a non-owning resident:

Rent: I'd say around $2000/mo for a 1 BR apartment somewhere central.

Car: A used BMW 3 series sedan comes to about 25k, so based on a 36 month finance, that would be about $700/mo

^^^WTF. Bro you can easily cut this one down. My homegirl just bought a sport 3 series w/paddle-shifters, etc etc for 40k 15,000 miles. Why are you changing cars every 3 years? Thats insane.

Shes probably gonna drive it 5 years then resell it. Def. put some more coin in your pocket.

Post: #21

Haha you probably drop $80k a year just on eating out, drinks and clubs, DVY. I've seen some of your bar bills, guy.

OP's numbers aren't totally off to me: rent, entertainment, transportation and dining can easily take up $4000/month in LA if you want to portray that lifestyle - nice bachelor pad, entry level German sports car, vaguely European wardrobe, hitting up hot restaurants and bars a few times a month, etc...

The shit thing about LA is that you can't skimp on anything if you want that image. My buddies that are professionals in ATL make probably 15% less than they would here but rent is 30-50% cheaper so they all drive cars they couldn't afford in LA. Even NYC, you can allocate your resources by spending your money on dope clothes and going out and balance that by not having a car and/or getting a roommate in a nicer 2 bedroom. If you're 30+ and have a roommate in LA, chicks will laugh you out the door while singing "Scrubs" by TLC.

Personally, I live way below my means, but I got a reminder of this a few months ago when I was seriously contemplating buying a new Porsche Panamera. I could buy the car cash but then it'd be totally incongruous with the rent controlled $1300 apartment I live in. Moving to midwilshire or Santa Monica I'd probably have to double my rent outlay, drop a couple grand for new furniture and with that new location, added commute, gas, insurance, etc...

In the end, just decided it wasn't worth spending that much more money for no guarantee of a higher quality of pussy.

Post: #22

kerouac, is that your actual budget or just something you are making up? A used BMW 3 series would be certified pre-owned and financed over 48 months at .9% (or 1.9%). 36 months is generally a lease, not a car payment.

I lived in L.A. with a good friend in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath. Rent was $1,200 each. Drove a old junky car. Insurance was $80.

Spent around $3,500 a month (gym, nice meals, going out, gas, clothing, student loans) all in and lived nicely.

I could have lived off of $2,500 a month and been comfortable.

If I were only making 80K a year, I wouldn't even consider leveraging myself into a $700 a month car payment. 80K is a Nissan or Honda income. Even 110K isn't enough for a 3 series.

That sort short-term thinking is why L.A. is full of people who have to end up leaving. (And they always say, "I hated L.A.!" and act like they left by choice.)

I drive WAY less car than I can afford to. That's why I won't be broke anytime soon.

The freedom and peace of mind of knowing you can lose a job and not sweat is = true comfort.

Post: #23

(02-28-2014 07:15 PM)booshala Wrote:  If you're 30+ and have a roommate in LA, chicks will laugh you out the door while singing "Scrubs" by TLC.

This is simply not true.

I had a roommate at 34. My friend got divorced so we lived together while he got his head on right.

We had parties there all the time. There was never a shortage of quality talent, as forum members who hung out there can attest to.

Your post evidences a lot of blue pill economic thinking. You won't buy a cool car because it's "incongruent." Sounds like you're a slave to an image that someone else created.

If you like the car, buy it. If you don't, then don't. (That you said you wouldn't buy the car because it wouldn't guarantee you more lays = major red flag to me. You don't need a cool car in L.A. to get women. I drove a 2001 for 13 years and did just fine.)

In L.A. you don't need the "image" to get laid. In fact the "image" gets you nowhere, since every dork is leveraged up to his eyeballs.

Game gets you way farther in L.A. than the "image."

Speaking of cars, I googled Porsche Panamera. (I don't know cars that well.)

That's a 100K car after taxes, etc., right?

If you're buying a car to get girls, why not just be honest and go the escort route.

You can get a solid 8 (as in a real 8 not the "I only bang 8s" 8s that guys online talk about) for $500. A car will not guarantee you an 8 even once, especially in L.A.

That's 200 different women ($100,000 / $500) - or a new woman a week for nearly 4 years. A hot one, too.

For 2K a month you could get a nice sugar baby who'd see you 1-3x a week. So that's 4 years of sugar babies.

I spend my money on stuff I like. If women like it too, good for them. But it's my money and thus for my benefit.

If I thought like that (car = women), I would just hire escorts or get a sugar baby.

There are a lot better ways of spending money to get girls. Buying a car is one of the least efficient ways to deploy capital for purposes of getting laid.

Post: #24

You can get a pre-owned 335i for 30k. After tax, 10k down payment, on a 48 month finance you could pay low 500s per month.

But all that, for what? I sure as shit wouldn't lock myself into paying 500 per month for 4 years, and I'd rather take that 10k down payment and live overseas for 3 or 4 months.

Post: #25

(02-28-2014 07:27 PM)MikeCF Wrote:  kerouac, is that your actual budget or just something you are making up? A used BMW 3 series would be certified pre-owned and financed over 48 months at .9% (or 1.9%). 36 months is generally a lease, not a car payment.

I lived in L.A. with a good friend in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath. Rent was $1,200 each. Drove a old junky car. Insurance was $80.

Spent around $3,500 a month (gym, nice meals, going out, gas, clothing, student loans) all in and lived nicely.

I could have lived off of $2,500 a month and been comfortable.

If I were only making 80K a year, I wouldn't even consider leveraging myself into a $700 a month car payment. 80K is a Nissan or Honda income. Even 110K isn't enough for a 3 series.

That sort short-term thinking is why L.A. is full of people who have to end up leaving. (And they always say, "I hated L.A.!" and act like they left by choice.)

I drive WAY less car than I can afford to. That's why I won't be broke anytime soon.

The freedom and peace of mind of knowing you can lose a job and not sweat is = true comfort.

I just made the 36 month financing idea up, but aside from that it was just a breakdown of costs of how much I need to make in order to live the way I would like to in this city. Even if it were a 48 month finance at around 1% it would be around $550 a month, just $200 less.

My rent isn't 2k, but it's closer to 1k and that's living in a studio in Hollywood, but I'd rather live in between WeHo and Beverly Hills, mainly to be more central. I've tried living with roommates, but I don't like it. Since this post was about "comfortable living" I brought up the "safe" cost of $2k for rent for a 1br apartment in my ideal neighborhood.

As for the car, it doesn't have a direct connection to success in terms of getting laid, but I like driving sportier cars. It's more of a personal pleasure thing. I could spend that extra cash elsewhere, but for me it's worth the cost. Since this is a forum where most everything has to be connected to what gets us laid, I guess you could say that tingle girls get when I drive real fast on Mulholland Drive, or elsewhere, might make up for the cost? It gives me a tingle too.

I've lived on way less in LA, and I've enjoyed it then too, but I'm just calculating how much I ought to make to do everything I want to do.