Submitted by SwagKing1011 t3_127wkim in RhodeIsland
I got an offer from a job in Pawtucket and I want to make sure that I'm able to live off at least $50K/yr. salary. I don't have any big bills the only thing I'm going to have to pay is housing. I would want to live alone and not with a roommate. I don't have no kids so it just will be me.
I guess it depends on your lifestyle. According to https://www.adp.com/resources/tools/calculators/salary-paycheck-calculator.aspx that will be about 3300 after taxes per month, less if money is taken out for health insurance/retirement. From what I see on Zillow you'd spend about 1500 on a 1 bedroom apartment, another 200 on electricity, then car payments and insurance (400????), cell phone (50??), and you'd have about 1150 left for food/clothes/stuff/fun/savings per month.
Can it be done? Absolutely! Will it be easy and relaxed? Not so sure...
He said he had no other big bills so safe to assume no car payment, probably just insurance or maybe he uses public transit now?
My car is paid off so just a couple of hundreds for insurance and phone bill.
And car repairs
They always overlook this.
Considering the roads are more pot-hole than road, this can get pricey pretty quick.
Expect your car insurance to increase. Not sure about living in Pawtucket, but when I moved, my insurance went up over $100/month.
Phone bill can be half that with mint/metro/etc too
Metro FTW!
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The word HEALTH is fatphobic now? Jfc
Ok fatty
LOLWTFLMFAO this has to be some type of copypasta.
Edit: it's a bot.
I work and live in Pawtucket and make about 10k more, I own my house and pay about 2k on mortgage and bills every month, I live comfortably but in the winter my energy bills go way up. Depends on your lifestyle really
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Or he/she bought the house before prices went bonkers. My 3BR 2 Bath in East Bay was 1100 a month with taxes (with 20% down payment) when I purchased back in 2013.
Op is asking about current prices, you're talking about prices over a decade ago
I guess.. not sure why they commented when the prices they're paying are out of date
If it’s any consolation, in 07/08/09 when I first started looking house prices also sucked..but there is sometimes a silver lining to economic downturns. For folks who can keep their powder dry and ride it out, the prices will continue to move downward if borrowing costs continue to rise.
>show me a single instance of where you only need to pay 2k / month for a fucking reasonable house in Rhode island
I didn't downvote, but if I qualify: my mortgage including tax and insurance is $1,710.72 on a 2,700 SF 4 bed/3 bath.
It is so incredibly unfair to anyone who has to buy now over even just a few years ago like us. The house across the street from us that is comparable to ours (or if anything, worse) just sold for literally double what we bought ours for in 2018.
>2018
...yes?
OP is asking about current prices. We're in 2023. You aren't finding a house for that price.
50k / yr salary will get you a dumpster behind McDonald's. Maybe.
You responded to a person saying their mortgage was 2k and said they must live in a shack, and asked for examples of non-shacks for that price. OP buying a house now is irrelevant to that point. It seems like you just forgot that people could buy things in the past, and now you're moving the goalposts rather than just admitting you were mistaken and being a jerk.
It's not irrelevant. You don't respond in the first place claiming your house is 2k a month when you bought it years ago. The fuck? Am I going to go to threads asking about rent and say "it's affordable, I locked in 500 / month, 10 years ago"? What kind of logic is this lol
> You don't respond in the first place claiming your house is 2k a month when you bought it years ago
They were quantifying their housing spend so OP could take that into account. In no way were they saying that OP could buy a house with a $2k mortgage today. They didn't even make claims about affordability for OP, just laid out their situation for OP to judge.
I stand by what I just said. Not relevant to this time period.
What you said was:
> You must live in a shack wtf
Do you stand by that? Or do you now realize that it's possible to have bought something in the past?
You’d have to be pretty frugal. I make just over 60K and I am barely getting by. Rent is high right now.
Definitely. I’ve lived in a few different regions throughout the country. While housing is more expensive, other cost of living expenses aren’t too different IMO. Also, if you don’t mind a bit of a commute (1 HRish) there are a lot of job opportunities in the Boston area
I just looked at 1BRs for rent in Pawtucket and they’re around $1,000-1,5000/mo so if it’s just you and no big bills, you absolutely can. That’s about $18k a year in rent. If you don’t have a huge grocery bill (we do have aldi here which is great!) the only other big bill you may have would be heating/cooling costs depending on the method where you rent. Many NE homes still have oil tanks. Totally doable and RI (New England in general) is an amazing place to live.
It's rare to see below 1,500 in my experience. (Just got a new rental for April).
ALDI for the win. Shopping here (and making coffee at home if you are someone who goes out for coffee daily) is an easy way to save a lot of money.
Same for cell phone/internet…check out T Mobile 5G internet, I sliced my bill in half. Was paying Cox 100 dollars a month just for internet, now paying only 50.
Right on with Aldi, it's so good that every other grocery store is ruined for me. Hard to find anything, and when I do find what I want I'm appalled by the price.
As for internet, FIOS has been great for us if it's available in your/OP's area. $39.99/month all-in for 300/300 MBIT up/down. Has never changed since we signed up like 3 years ago. Turns out, competition is good and when Verizon has to fight Cox and others, we win.
I live in an area where Cox was the only option for quite some time..no FioS yet but very happy with T mobile
I make ~60 K per year as a resident doctor. After taxes it’s about 3.5 K per month and I pay about $1k /mo for rent. My car is paid off, not that I need it cause I can walk to the hospital from my apt. I get health and dental through my job. I have 200/mo going automatically into my retirement investment account with employer match. I spend probably $300-400 per month on food because I like to splurge on good ingredients to cook with.
Admittedly I don’t spend a lot of money on basically anything else as I don’t have time outside of work to spend the money so I’ve been able to put a few thousand in my savings account.
I definitely don’t live like a king but I don’t feel like I have problems affording the essentials and the occasional splurge purchase.
Definitely doable. But I couldn’t raise a family on this salary.
I make 46k and rent 998/mo. Utilities are $80-$260 depending on time of year. My car is paid off. I only feed myself. No plans of children. I spend a bit here & there on entertainment and outings. I don’t go without but it’s definitely been hard to save this winter.
You won’t have a ton of extras, but you should be okay! One quick note: Pawtucket can be a cool town, and it can also be a bit less cool depending on where you rent. Be sure to visit the neighborhood - do not rent without looking at the place first
I think u/derpbeluga gave you a great breakdown of practical costs. Just for a statistical view (which I always find helps me put my own financial circumstances in perspective) the median household income in RI is $74,489 (according the 5-year average of the US Census Bureau's Annual Community Survey between 2017-2021). Meanwhile, households on average contain 2.46 people. So, you'll almost certainly be doing better than the majority of households with two or more people in RI.
Yeah. I have a condo in north Smithfield on around 58k a year. Just me and the cat. It’s doable.
You’ll live. Not well, but you’ll survive.
You can do it but it's going to be a little tight. A rent increase could make it difficult.
This is certainly possible. Without any outstanding debt, the amount of money needed to live comfortably goes down significantly.
Kind of tough without knowing the alternative.
But yeah you can live in Rhode Island on 50-55k, that’s actually probably around the average income.
Yeah if you don’t insist on living in the highest COL areas of the state it’s very reasonable. I work in providence but the rents here in northern Ri are more reasonable and the competition for units less insane. If you insist on living in a 2 bedroom on the East Side then no, you will have a hard time affording to live here
Edit: fixed typo
I would say yes, specially if you do not want to fancy out your life. Your only have to keep an eye on your expenses if you eat out every day.
Yes of course. Pawtucket isn't exactly Manhattan. The median income here is lower than that.
I mean I just recently started making slightly more than that, so yeah
50k is livable while living frugally. If you can find a way to not have to have a vehicle then it’s very doable.
Get a roommate and then probably
I think it's doable without other bills. Considering that's probably what I made and paid for a mortgage but rent is even higher than my mortgage now lol. It'd be tight after utilities, gas, car insurance, and food but definitely doable.
Your moving to Pawtucket aka The Bucket, from where and how much is you current salary?. Also, RI is small, why do you limit your residence choices to Pawtucket? Municipal job?
Nope
Maybe if you live in a shitty part of RI, don't drive, perhaps a roommate, no kids... 50k ain't much here, ya gonna live frugal af
I suggest posting in the Providence subreddit as most people here are generally out of touch with housing and rent prices... Amongst many other things.
Short answer is no
Barely tbh
Down vote away poors. 50k if you are paying rent or a mortgage and have a car is barely getting by. It’s under $1000 a week pre-tax. So doing an average by month would be $4166 per-tax. Minus let’s say 18% or $750 for taxes effectively at the end of the year (obviously varies person to person based on deductions etc. leaves you with approximately $3416. $1500 for rent assuming you Got a good deal. $1916. Hopefully you didn’t overspend on a car but a below average payment would be $400 brings you to $1516. This is before any goodies like cellphone, streaming services, insurance, gas, food, Cable/internet, gym. Hopefully you are also saving at minimum 10% of your net but who knows.
I'm certain most people in this subreddit are well off. If he posted to the Providence subreddit asking about this state, the comments would have been opposite.
Upvoted you as you're correct. 50k is barely scraping by.
Business-Impress4792 t1_jeg8bwr wrote
That’s about what I make in RI and I feel like I live pretty comfortably