Hacker News Reader

Comment by YeahSureWhyNot | Hacker News Reader

Here in suburbs of New York, if you have no college degree, most of jobs will pay you $12/hr, some decent employers will pay $15/hr but if you get lucky and have some useful experience you can find something for $18/hr which result in around $2400 paycheck every 4 weeks of work. Most 1br apartments are around $1500/mo. Car (Lease+Insurance+Gas) is $500/mo roughly. After groceries there is literally no money left to go out. How the fuck are we supposed to build up net worth?

View on HN

Why would someone making $2400/monthly after taxes rent a $1500/mo apartment on their own? I'm not sure they'd even qualify because most landlords require at least 2-2.5x gross income. Renting a room with other housemates, or splitting rent on a 1-bedroom with a partner/SO is probably a better idea in that situation.

Because card board boxes are very cold in the winter.

* Move to a city that isn't so expensive * cut the car in favor of a transit pass and save the difference * get a roommate or partner to split costs with * Night/online schooling * self-driven training * get into a trade/craft job

Trade jobs deserve more respect than they get. Skilled labor is in short supply, nearly guaranteeing vocational school graduates steady work and good income (especially in construction/machinery fields). Not to mention about $100k less spent on tuition vs college bachelor's degree.

https://www.thesimpledollar.com/why-you-should-consider-trad...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19324670

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15691817

Absolutely agreed... also, they're largely automation proof (at least in the near term). Trade jobs are probably a better option than University for a lot of people, and I'm surprised it isn't a recommended path more often.

I assume you mean suburbs of New York City, as the suburbs in the rest of the state are not nearly expensive. Rent for a 1 bedroom apartment will be much closer to $800 (and I'm not so sure the job prospects in a NYC suburb is substantially better than a Rochester/Buffalo/Syracuse/Albany suburb given how expansive, and thus difficult to commute into, the city is?).

yeah, I was referring to Long Island in particular but I have been to Albany a lot and I have friends living there. Not sure about other areas but Albany doesn't have as many good paying jobs as suburbs of NYC has to offer, in my observations.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com