Good salary

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Spending 60% of your salary on rent? Yikes. Why? Could she not find anything better (or does she just WANT to live above her means?)

She probably wasn't deliberately "living above her means." $1600 in DC isn't a luxury condo! Housing in cities is expensive, and like someone said, you might have to pay a lot more just to be within a reasonable commute to your office (especially if you don't have a car), to live in a safe neighborhood, and to have a clean apartment. Even if you have several roommates, your rent in a city like DC, Boston, NYC, or SF is going to be high.

I suspect, and Mel and KSigkid might be able to back me up here, that the entry-level salaries in big cities are a little depressed. Not saying that they're low--they're just not that high, especially if you have a degree of any sort. I know what I was making with a master's degree when I first started working, and it was embarassing. I actually managed to live comfortably--I paid for everything in cash, put money in savings, and was able to throw money into my 401(k). Now I make much more than that, after only 3.5 years of working. I think the low salaries are a way to weed people out who aren't that committed. One small comfort in the low salary/high rent conundrum is that, for the first few years out on your own, most of your friends are in the same position. It's funny to look back and see how we all "grew up."