you are suggesting a move to a lower cost rent, and ditch the car? if he does not get rid of the car , savings would only be $10 plus insurance. impossible to be without a car, young and in connecticut. then add metro north. what would the rent be in westport anyway? i own some two families on spruce street in southport(not wesport,but close.) i receive $1600 each. cheaper than westport and not the greatest homes either. i could work with this if the difference was $700; but again highly doubt it. the only fixed cost he can really go after is rent. my main point is to look at the big picture. instead of moving to save a few hundred dollars, do whatever it takes to increase his pay. his living expenses are not out of wack, as explained by verbotenlaandia. anyway, there are lots of way to live, good luck.
Here is some advice on how to live cheaply. At your income level, you should be living with roommates and driving a fairly used car. 1) Rent a room out of someone's house for $500-800 a month on craigslist. Dont sign a lease or throw down a deposit. Take a look, lots of nice houses to rent out of. Look for a young single homeowner who doesnt mind some noise or partying. http://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/roo/ 2) Get yourself a used car under $10 grand and only minimally insure it. No collision, just liability. If the car has alloy wheels, go to the junkyard and find some steel wheels and wheel covers to place on it. The reason is that steel wheels are much better in snow and there will be less of a reason why you will get in an accident. Look at these. Cant go wrong with a 4 cylinder honda. These will go for at least another 10 years and 200,000 miles and give you decent gas mileage in the 30s on the highway. http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/car/376943997.html http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/car/376145337.html http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/car/377405743.html 3) See what the fund can pay for in terms of expenses. Cable, phone, cellphone, internet, etc. Tell them that you often use the internet at home and see if they will pay for that. Dont be afraid to ask. 4) Food and other expenses- Live with the mentality that you dont need anything. You dont really need to drink alcohol or eat hardily everyday. Dont buy anything, put off all purchases as long as you can. All stuff you buy will turn to junk. All stuff you eat will turn to sh*t and p*ss. 5) Women- Always go half and whoever doesnt want to go half has to walk. For what your making, I can live in a million dollar house and drive around in a presentable car and still be able to save at least 20 grand a year....
No, I never said "ditch" the car. It would not be very realistic to not have your own transportation, especially during inclimate weather, and a winter that usually includes snow. To me, the train makes sense to use for a number of reasons, not just purely financial. The housing in Westport is in fact cheaper (especially if you get a cottage or a share in a house near the beach). The social life is also much better in Westport as well. And don't forget that Longshore Country Club is PUBLIC, not private. When you are working as many hours as he is, the "ease" of lifestyle is indeed an important factor, especially in his time off from work, whether you are talking about the weekends or in the late daylight savings hours of the weekdays when you can still enjoy the beach community, rollerblading, bike riding, etc. My guess is that he is doing a lot of "grunt" work at this hedge-fund position. $60,000 is a decent start, but it's probably more of a "proving" ground for him in that first year with the fund's senior managers. Get thru the first year, and then after "proving" yourself he can negotiate his skill set into higher compensation heading into that second year. As a result, I would place a fair amount of weight on one's comfort level and ability to maintain a positive mental outlook. Making some great friendships will be important to that end, especially in the Winter months when things get pretty dead and the beach scene is gone. With "younger" crowds in Westport and Norwalk, these two towns will be much more conducive towards being supportive. Greenwich, in my opinion will not. I vote Westport.
All good advice except #5. No above-average looking woman will pay even 1/4 of a meal or date, unfortunately. If you want the goods, you gotta pay the price.
A 5-7 year old car is just as reliable as a new car. My daily driver is in that age range and I spend almost nothing on it each year in maintenance/repairs. So far this year I've spent $25 (oil change). $1200 is way too much for his income level. Even when I was making more than double his salary, I never paid more than $450 for auto insurance (high liability but no collision) and I always drove old-but-reliable cars. There's no reason he can't do the same if he's truly interested in making his income go farther. There's a big carry cost in owning a new car.
Agreed. But then again, I believe that Connecticut is one of the most expensive states for car insurance.
dont even worry about it. live it up buy some nice clothes get in great shape and get into polo or something similar. meet some very pretty rich women. I grew up in greenwich. I decided to go to law school. right before I was leaving 3 guys came into the pro shop at Burning Tree where i taught tennis and asked me what the hell I was doing. i said what? They said why are you leaving here for law school - I said because I did not want to teach tennis my whole life. They said --- do what we did - marry rich. I said I don't see any rich women proposing to me. They said drop the girl friend and do some social things with us. I didn't but that was damn good advice.