BIG city taxes

After taxes, in New York at least, you'll net around $65,000 to $70,000 depending on where you live....the former if you live in New York City limits and the latter if you live outside.

Rent in Manhattan is around $2,000 for a decent apartment and all the other expenses will come up to another $200-$400. In places like Fort Lee though (about 20 minutes from Wall St by car) rent can get as low as $900 for a decent apartment and utilities will be about the same. But you have to make car payments or buy a transit pass for NJTransit, but you have to buy a subway pass if you live in Manhattan anyway.

So 70000 from a 100000 annual salary so tax in new york is around 30% total? So probably Bank about 30000 a year in savings after rent and food and expenses? Thanks Holymonkey! Thats not too too bad. I thought it would be worse.

Salary levels: check out http://www.i-resign.com/uk/financialcentre/tax_calculator.asp as its pretty accurate give or take a couple of pounds. 100k = rougly 64k net.

Rent: tough....you can pay 850+ a month (based on sharing a two bed appartment fairly central in a newbuild) upwards. Living out in the 'burbs its going to be less, but who wants to live there?! Actually, there are places not too far away that aren't too bad, but then you obviously add in extra travel. I reckon you could add another 150 for bills and then food/ travel/ entertainment etc are what you make them. London normally sits quite high up on those "most expensive cities..." lists. Given the IB lifestyle its easy to fritter cash away and more or less live paycheck to paycheck as an anlayst!

OMG i used that calculator provided and it says for a $200,000 Salary you only take home 120,000 -- So heres my question: How do IBankers get rich???? We obviously all know that IBankers at associate level make good money, but with all those taxes and big city expenses, do they really make as much as we think? OR could somebody say an Engineer in some small town whos making 150K be raking in more then an IBanker. HOW differnt are the tax rates from a Big City like Newyork and London compared to say a small town like Edmonton Alberta, or alabama!

I doubt there are many engineers making $150k per year. Maybe there are some in Silicon Valley, but the cost of living out there is pretty high from what I've heard. Also, even engineers making 6+ figures certainly didn't make that kind of cash right away - they either have to get advanced degrees or manage a design team or something like that.

does anyone know the pros and cons of living in the 2 states while working in the city.

Are Bounuses and Base Salary taxed seperately at different rates?

Thanks. Does anyone have a site that shows the individual states federal and state tax rates and ranges?

New York City tax is 3.65% and if you really want to avoid paying big taxes, you should sock away 10% (or some random percentage) of your total compensation (PRETAX) every year into a 401k or IRA (works especially well if you're JUST over the threshold for a higher tax bracket...i.e. you get paid $135k and the lower tax bracket is $67k to $134k). Considering that would reduce your taxable income by 10%, that would a) put you in a lower bracket, b) give you a nice retirement fund later, and c) reduce your tax bill.

If you make payments on a car, you might be able to take a deduction on it if the car is necessary for commuting to and from work (write off as work-related expense). :)

Oh by the way, if you're going to buy a car, go hybrid. There's a tax deduction for that too. Better yet, they changed it to a tax credit.

god n00bs... u cant rite off ur car b/c u commute to work

and wont save ne $$$ as a 1st yr and make it to ur 2nd