Chicago -> NYC How much of a raise to have comparable quality of life?
How much more does one need to make in NYC if they are moving from Chicago and want a similar quality of life? Considering you want a 1BR apartment, eat out a lot, gym membership, and go out on the weekends regularly spending money but nothing crazy. Hypothetically, how much would a 100k salary in Chicago need to increase to live comparably in NYC?
No cap 50% for me personally. I am also in Chicago. I am saving 2x my NYC friends. 150k in NYC probably still doesnt go as far as 100k in Chicago.
Edit: Please note I am not getting IB bonuses. If I were to assume a 50-75% bonus I would say probably 25%.
The math is really simple. $100k in Chicago = around $800k in NYC.
One bedroom in Chicago, ultra luxury building, high end appliances, parking spot included, etc = $2,200. That same apartment in nyc is at least $10k. So $7,800*12 and then gross up by your tax rate. If the only difference between nyc and Chicago was apartment pricing, you would still need a $156k raise to maintain your quality of life.
Now go through and do the math on all of the other things that are expensive in NYC. That’s how you get to $100k Chicago = $800k nyc.
Plus summers are amazing in chi town. Can’t be beat, truly. Deep dish pizza too baby
Chicago is sweet, i got a 1BR in a great location with all the amenities for under 2k a month. Looking on zillow I'm gonna have to really downgrade if I move lmao
Every time one of these threads comes up I write something completely outlandish like this. And every time people think im being genuine LMAO
i mean no shit you were exaggerating, point stands that it is more expensive
your post may be a bit facetious but NYC really is that much more expensive than Chi and alot of people dont consider that before making the move. Shit I regret not starting my banking career in Chicago. QOL is far better than a lot of big cities.
Currently live in Chicago. Rough math, I would need $30-$40k more annually after-tax for a comparable living.
Nice 1br in NYC right now: $5k+
Dining out often: Very heavy
Gym membership: ~$300 for equinox all access or you can find other decent gyms for $100 or so
It's not even a walk in the park for an IBD associate
If you're saying Chicago has 1br with amenities for $2k a month then expect your rent cost here to be at minimum 2x or 2.5x. You would need a $30k+ raise alone for the apartment. A lot of people are going to give this MS because I've noticed people on this website live extremely frugally. If they tell you that you can get a 1br for $2k or whatever they're talking about a walk up in a not great area. The things I wrote above were about living well, not eating ramen and living with 12 people.
Totally agree. Not to mention higher taxes + city tax which takes another chunk out. Also in this market, that $5k 1 bedroom is not going to be super luxury or large, and may not have a W/D.
At a $100k salary I think you'd need to make $200-250k in NYC to live even close to the same lifestyle - taxes and current rental market are the bulk of that, but dinners are ridiculously expensive, Ubers have tons of NYC surcharges, it's just more expensive everywhere
holy shit thats steep
I ran the numbers not long ago when considering a move, and I found the breakeven for my lifestyle was that $275k in NYC is roughly equivalent to $185k in Texas.
$275k in New York nets you ~$160k after-tax assuming full 401k contribution; $185k in Dallas is ~$120k after tax and 401k. A $2k apartment in a fun part of Dallas these days is roughly equivalent to a $4k place in Manhattan, which eats up $24k a year and leaves you $16k to spend. Not having a car is, say, conservatively $500 extra a month you keep in New York (payment + insurance + maintenance + gas, offset by monthly subway usage).
This takes your total take-home after tax / 401k / rent / transportation to $22k higher in NYC - a far cry from the $90k more you gross, but still an extra ~$420 a week - if you’re spending that much more on food, household goods, and entertainment in New York it’s because you’re choosing to (no judgment, it’s easy to do but still a personal choice).
So for me, the conservative break-even was $275k in NYC to $185k in Dallas - I’m not as familiar with Chicago these days, but I’d guess its COL is somewhere north of Dallas but comfortably south of NYC, so maybe in the ballpark of $275k in NYC equaling $210k in Chicago. Run the math at your income level and see where it shakes out.
It’s a different story if you make $50k and rent is your entire monthly budget or if you make $2M in ordinary income and the excess taxes could pay your mortgage, but for the upper middle class it’s not that far off. You can also choose to make different lifestyle decisions (living in a suburb 45 minutes outside of Dallas will change the real estate math vs living in the city), but to me that’s a question of preferences rather than economics
If we assume $100k income and same COL assumptions but for Chicago, $100k salary is $58k after tax / 401k, so to get the same $46k extra ($2k / month extra rent + $22k spending), you’d need $175k in NYC for a roughly equivalent life to $100k in Chicago. Since Chicago’s more expensive than Dallas, I’d guess real numbers are more in the neighborhood of $150k in NYC = $100k Chicago. It’s not a perfect science, but directionally a lot closer than people would have you believe
My beef with these analyses is that you pretty much never maintain the same quality of living when you move to NYC. If you have a luxury 1BR in Dallas in the best neighborhood, you’re going to get a studio or a 1BR walk up in a mediocre NYC neighborhood.
I just made a big move from a Chicago type city to NYC level city and this is exactly what I did. So despite the higher cost of living, I’m still pocketing more money after my raise.
I get that the goal of the analyses is to calculate the number to maintain your quality Of life, I’m just saying it’s a very theoretical analysis.
100k in Chicago is going to need probably 160k to get the equivalent in NYC
You get what you pay for. You think Chicago high rises wouldn't charge a higher rent if they could? Rent markets are efficient. There are reasons why it costs more in NYC than in Chicago
You’re basically saying expensive = better?
thank you for the groundbreaking insight that apartments charge the market price
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