How much did you pay for rent in NYC year 1

Self explanatory title. Incoming FT analyst trying to evaluate my options here. What is the "norm" to pay? I know the expression "live on your base, bank your bonus", but wanted to get an approximation of what people paid for their first year of rent. 

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I maxed out at 40x (NYC landlords generally require your annual base salary to be 40x your monthly rent, eg 120k/40 = $3k monthly rent). Not ideal, but I value having my own space and being close to the office. Base savings were minimal as an An1, and I used half my bonus to payoff all of my long-term debt and used the rest to max out IRA then whatever was left went to an HYSA. 

This is also just going to be dependent on your personal situation. If you're someone who can rely on parents helping out if you lost your income or don't have much debt, then I think 40x is fine, but if you're someone without a great safety net, then I would recommend maybe 50x, which would require roommates in any decent part of NYC

If you're in a lower cost city like Chicago or Charlotte, I would personally recommend not going below 50x (even at that rate, you'd still have a better place than you'd get with 40x in NYC). 

In terms of other people, there is a lot of diversity. I know some wealthy people who are living with their parents and saving all their income, as well as some not wealthy people doing the same thing. I know other analysts who are like me and are paying a premium for their own space, and I know analysts who are having roommates. Among those with roommates, some decided to still try to max out what they could be approved for while others took a more conservative approach. 

 

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