Post: #51

(04-13-2018 01:10 AM)Cam Newton Wrote:  The problem with using those worldwide cost of living indices to scale the baller wages from city to city is that not all prices scale linearly. By that I mean, even if the average cost of living is 50% of what it is in NYC, that doesn’t mean what a baller wants is 50% off. Luxury goods, and peak experiences tend to have inelastic demand, and thus their prices don’t scale the same way fruit at the grocery store might scale down in price.

But what percentage of your budget do luxury goods and peak experiences encompass? The big ticket items of your budget will include items such as housing and food (restaurants). If the COL disparity is 50%, then those items will be about 50% less. In fact, I would suspect that the cost of top-tier housing or restaurants would be even lower than 50% compared to the top-tier housing or restaurants in NYC (if the overall COL disparity is 50%), simply because prices are almost unlimited in NYC (but not so in most other cities, aside from Moscow, Paris, London, Tokyo, etc.). Like I said, using those cost of living calculators will provide a rough estimate, not perfection.

Post: #52

(04-10-2018 11:12 PM)Graft Wrote:  NYC, LA, SF:

If you have to ask, you can't afford it.

I can play "high end professional" game in any of those cities: luxury apartment, nice car w garage, dinner 2x/week, cover+2 drinks at a bougie club, monthly clothes shopping.
.....

I've seen plenty of young guys in NYC making $200-400k. None of them live the "baller" lifestyle. Most of them have roommates, modest apartments, 401ks, etc.

True enough. A few of my observations:

NYC - the top law firms start around $170k (BTW, that hasn't increased much in ten years) and at that rate, sure, nice clothes, good restaurants and clubs once in a while (assuming you ever get out of the office), fuck hot chicks now and again, and have an 800 square foot apartment to yourself on the west side. Bonus if you're lucky enough to know somebody with rent control to hook you up - but FAT chance. Depending on the neighborhood, figure 3k a month; cheaper if you look around. That's not baller, that's just keeping up - and not saving a dime. Decent, but not exactly boats and private jets. You'll want more/different after a few years.

SF - There's plenty of Indian software engineers making $200k a year living in a basement apartment not too far from Nob Hill, no car, but a bus pass and a pernicious attitude and approach that fucks up the entire dating market creating 49ers: 4s who think they are 9s.

The testament to the pathetic pussy situation in SF was the Google executive making millions and actually living the "baller" life - they found him dead on his yacht at a harbor in the San Francisco Bay. His disgusting P4P slut from Seeking Arrangement gave him too much heroin, stopping his heart. She stepped over his body on the way out, caught by security cameras. If that's what "baller" gets you in SF, fuck that - you can have it. NYC is a better bargain and will get you laid way more even if you have to work around roommates and take the train in from Brooklyn.

LA - Little personal experience with it, but it seems to me even with the right amount of money to be baller, in that town your social click matters more. Plenty of Hollywood types with enough coin to join the club get shunned the minute they go off the script with their views. For a guy with a killer job making above average coin I'd still wager that LA or San Diego is way better bet than SF in terms of lifestyle and women - just law of averages.

Singapore - You can do better than most locals with $200k a year, but it ain't baller. Want a car? The permit allowing you to buy one fluctuates, but it's right around $20k last I looked. Throw in import duties and you're paying over $100k (USD) for a Toyota Camry. Condos aren't cheap no matter where you look thanks to mainland Chinese buyers snatching up the properties as fast as they get built (for a while, anyway). Clubbing is predictably expensive as are trendy restaurants in the hot areas. All of that is just living the expat lifestyle - if you can still find an expat package that supplies it.

But to be truly baller in Singapore means a serious pad and a yacht nearby, over on Sentosa Island - Eduardo Savarin is your neighbor, to give you an idea of the entry price. What got me though were the number of super expensive cars - Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, Ferraris, etc. often seen parked near areas known for prostitution. All that baller money and guys are still reduced to P4P - just sad. But it's a reality for them, living on a tiny island where spinning plates is eventually going to get you caught by someone in your social circle. They figure it's safer to stick with hos than risk their social and economic standing.

DC - for all the negatives this is probably the easiest city to be baller because the standards are so low. Hell, there isn't even a decent waterfront nearby so few people have big yachts (National Harbor barely counts). Get in with the right crowd and you can fake baller pretty well there, and it isn't hard to get a decent condo with garage parking not far from the metro on a salary around $135k