<p>So I ran across this thread in Parent Cafe about salary necessary to support oneself in NYC with a shared 1br apt. The consensus seems to be that a new grad needs to start with a salary of around 70k to swing this and any less will require that parents kick in for rent (2-3k per month for shared 1br). How do musicians, actors, artists etc. live? Or do they? Is it a matter of standards and lowering the bar on space, convenience and safety or is it a total fantasy?</p>
<p>Back in the dark ages, I lived in a small 1 bedrom apt in Brooklyn with 3 other girls to be able to afford NYC. Several recent grads who don’t make 70K/yr just crammed together with 3 or 4 to a bedroom. Son has a friend who was playing for the last year with well known Jazz artists in NYC just moved back out of the City. Even though he received good money, it still was too hard to make ends meet on his own. </p>
<p>I just read the OP’s initial post. She wants a doorman building, which is much more expensive than a non-doorman building. She doesn’t say so, but she’d probably also expect an elevator. There’s also the “eating out” and “buying outfits”.</p>
<p>I have two kids living in New York as students. D3 lives in a great location on the UWS. It’s a 5th floor walkup with no doorman, but there is a heavy exterior door. The place is safe and 4 blocks from the subway. Great neighborhood with restaurants, etc. 3 bedrooms, LR, high ceilings, lots of light. $2500/month shared by 3. </p>
<p>D4 and friends are signing a lease for a 4 BR for $2400/month. It’s uptown (Harlem) but safe and walkable, 1 block from the subway. </p>
<p>Friends live even more cheaply in Washington Heights. They key is a multi-bedroom apartment, no doorman, walk up the stairs. </p>
<p>You don’t need $70/year to support yourself in such an apartment. By the way, a friend’s daughter did luck into a paralegal job right out of college. She works for a major NY law firm and earns $70K/year. But she lives similarly to my kids and is paying off all her student loans.</p>
<p>Part of it has to do with your expectations for luxury and comfort.</p>
<p>I guess it’s a matter of lifestyle - D2 has been living in NY with a roommate in modest but safe housing for a much, much lower cost - but I suspect the OP would be appalled at her neighborhood (which is safe but not upperclass), her apartment (which is roomy but not luxurious) and her fashion sense (which is well-suited to her personality).</p>
<p>“Part of it has to do with your expectations for luxury and comfort”</p>
<p>One must embrace the charms of “la vie boheme”. And prepare in advance…do not incur untoward debt. It can be done. </p>
<p>Yeah, that kind of sums it up. Kids who work in finance or other high-play industries live in a whole different New York. A lot of it is who your peers are. D4’s bf is totally self-sufficient and is an actor who is doing pretty well his first year out of college. He’s also a waiter and he works for one of those apps that involves standing in line to get tickets for SNL for a $300 fee. His influence (not leaning on his parents for help) is so strong that D4, still an undergrad, told me she plans to pay for her apartment herself next year. It’s a great impulse, although probably not possible. </p>
<p>I also think that some parents project their own life style preferences onto their kids. At this point in my life, I would not want to give up having a dishwasher (for example) but my kids don’t need one. </p>
<p>PERFECT TYPO “high play industries” aka someone who has a gig with the NY Phil?</p>
<p>Thanks! You guys are great! I as sitting here wondering how all the less well off but not homeless people and artsy people do it. So if you have a kid who’s male, 6’2", not afraid of stairs or rain or sleeping on the coach or floor (which he does now on a futon now to be down with the dog) and who is social enough to be likely to have friends who don’t mind living with him (and he doesn’t mind) there is still hope? I like it. :o3 </p>
<p>We quote Chris Farley all the time to our D. “You will be living in a van down by the river” She just smiles and says “yup, the East River” Gotta love the artsy willingness to try. I could never do it. 
</p>
<p>My son is studying at a conservatory. He knows many young musicians who live in NYC, including two boys who graduated from his HS who he has known since he was a toddler. One of those boys went to Columbia and the other went to NYU. They both graduated last year. I asked my son this weekend if they were supporting themselves financially in NY. My son said yes. He told me they are doing a combination of gigs, recording work and also teaching at schools. He also said he was talking to one musician just a few years older than these guys who told our son that anyone who tells you, you can not make it as a musician (assuming you are well trained) in NYC is just lazy. The work is there. But you do have to be willing to seek it out and then to do some jobs -such as weddings that maybe are not so glitzy and fun.</p>
<p>@ stacjp-
I have heard the same thing from the network of professional musicians we have gotten to know. Musicians do a variety of things, they do recording work (could be working with an indie rock band, commercial music whatever), to gigs like subbing on Broadway, at the NYC Ballet or other orchestras, put together chamber music groups for an event, and even things like yep, wedding, bar mitzvahs, funerals and the like. Among other things, you have to be able to network and deal with people.</p>
<p>A friend of ours, who taught our S in the past, talked about that, and what they said was kids often still come out of places like Juilliard et al with stars in their eyes, that they are going to be the hotshot soloists, or if that doesn’t work, that some big orchestra is going to hire them because they are just so brilliant technically, or some chamber group is going to want them, and they hit reality pretty fast because besides the fact that they never learned how to network, they also tend to turn people off with their attitude (our friend said there is nothing like having someone recommended to you for a gig, and they have this attitude like “well, okay, I’ll slum and do this”). It isn’t playing for the NY Phil and making well into 6 figures, but it can be a living. </p>
<p>@saintfan - I know a number of musicians who are self-supporting in NYC, but they don’t solely do it through their work as musicians. One of them is a trust fund kid, so she pulls from that when she’s between gigs. Another one supplements her opera work with background acting work (she’s been on Royal Pains and Girls - in the background!) and with office temp work, both of which provide her flexibility for when she is gigging. She shares an apartment and sublets her room when she has to travel for work. </p>